My wife had a flight from ATL-SJU the other day. She had an assigned window seat. She sent me a text right after boarding telling me that the passenger next to her absolutely could not fit in her seat with the armrest down; that she had put it down but the woman could not fit and so lifted it.

I responded with a text telling her that the armrest had to be down and that she should stand up immediately. I then called her and told her to insist on having a seat. She didn't do it for several reasons. She was afraid they would deboard her and make her take a later flight, which she absolutely could not afford to do. Also, it requires an very intense level of confrontation, which most women don't like. So she spent more than four hellish hours being pressed up against the airplane wall.

Delta had to have known from taking one look at this woman that she was way too big to fit into one seat; she was huge, and was obviously taking up 1.5 seats. But instead of enforcing the rules Delta essentially adopted a policy that the only way customers could get the seat they paid for is to throw a giant fit. This just seems not only wrong, but also qualifies as breach of contract in my book.

Is there any recourse at this point? I think my wife is entitled to a full refund, and really ought to get quite a bit more. She did not receive what she paid for and was forced to endure almost five hours of torture. Anyone have any luck with after-the-fact compensation? Anyone have any luck with filing a claim in small claims court? Anyone ever file a DOT complaint over this?

Again, I am aware that this best would have been handled on the spot, but Delta is refusing to provide people with their seats by hoping some -- like my wife -- will be too timid to make a ruckus. I do have copies of our text messages, so I do not feel there is any problem with proving in court by a preponderance of the evidence that Delta failed to provide my wife with a full seat.

And is there anything we as customers can do other than go to court to pressure the airlines to give their customers who buy a full seat the right to sit in a full seat?