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Originally Posted by niceguytalks
Thanks for your reply. You say somehow perhaps I lost 3 seat assignments but that is within Delta's power. If that is what happened, that is exactly why I could have gotten into this mess to begin with. Somehow it's ok for me to pay for things months in advance and the airline is not responsible. If they were responsible there wouldn't be a "somehow I lost my seats". There would be more accountability. And not to be given a reason says more about airlines and travel agencies having too much power than it does about me wanting something I paid for. And Delta is specifically telling me the compensation is not for being involuntarily bumped, but because they are doing an act of goodwill.
Before you submit your complaints, it is important for you to understand the difference between a confirmed reservation on a particular flight, and a seat assignment on that flight.
If the four of you had a confirmed and ticketed reservation on the flight, then you were entitled to be transported on that flight
or to be paid denied-boarding compensation in the event you were involuntarily denied boarding. Seat assignments are not guaranteed, and are subject to change by the airline; but your complaint is not that you did not get the four
particular seats that you thought you had, but that you were not given any seats at all. (The complicating factor here is that it sounds like Delta offered seats to three of you, and you declined them. Whether you are still entitled to denied-boarding compensation under those circumstances is something I do not know.)
Airlines regularly overbook their flights (at least in Coach), and are entitled to do so. Sometimes they get the calculation wrong, and overbook by too many. If airlines were not entitled to overbook at all, airfares would likely have to be higher. That's the trade-off.
If Delta is not claiming that you were "standby" passengers, then it's hard to understand their claim that not even one of you is entitled to denied-boarding compensation. Let the Ombudsman and the DOT get to the bottom of it.