I have (to me) an interesting situation. My return flight is scheduled ANC>SEA>JFK in comfort plus for 2 adults and 2 children (5 and 10 y.o.). Today, 6 days prior to my outbound flight flight, I received an email that Delta had changed my return to a ANC>MSP>JFK routing that leaves and arrives approx 5.5 hours later. This is an involuntary change and NOT due to an equipment or schedule change, as the original flights are still scheduled to operate with the original equipment. Unfortunately, C+ is now full or overbooked on those original flights according to DL.

The new flights are non-ideal from both a seating (with the children) perspective or from a timing perspective. Only options from DL are 1) take the new flights with subpar configuration/seat selection and flight times 2) downgrade the ANC>SEA leg, or 3) a full refund.

As mentioned, this is absolutely not due to either a schedule or equipment change. DL simply changed my itinerary. Seems to me to be insufficient consideration for an issue completely caused by DL.

Any words of wisdom or thoughts?