Don't know if this has changed but late last year, this message was many time false. You volunteer at the kiosk then at the gate find out that the flight wasn't oversold and VDBs weren't needed.

Re blocked seats
 

In past threads I've read that DL blocks advance selection of bulkhead seats, even from elites.

- Does the three-hour release time apply to bulkhead seats ?

- Can elites select these day of departure but earlier than 3 hrs ?

- Within that 3 hr window, will the kiosk or OLCI grant these bulkhead seats or must you speak to a DL agent ?

Thanks. :-:

I have found the same thing to be true.

Birthday Love?
 

I'm on DL232 SEA-AMS tomorrow.

During the check-in process they asked for volunteers (which I can't do - catching the US vs. Holland soccer match on Wednesday in AMS).

Seatcounter only shows availability in D,J, and S.

Any chance of a BE upgrade for this Plat on a T fare?

It is my birthday after all!!!

I've never seen an option where you can actually volunteer through the kiosk. It will pop up the message that the flight is oversold and to see a gate agent. The message will pop up when the aircraft is at 100% cap instead of 101% as it was orginally rolled out.

>>>>>Don't know if this has changed but late last year, this message was many time false. You volunteer at the kiosk then at the gate find out that the flight wasn't oversold and VDBs weren't needed.


What can happen is that the flight IS oversold at the time you are at the kiosk (everybody booked on the flight might even be checked in, and either in the airport or in the air connecting), but if incoming flights are delayed or if a passenger stands by for an earlier flight, or if someone checked in changes their mind - - the numbers suddenly change (today my MEM-MSN was oversold, but LGA-MEM and PHL-MEM feeder flights were an hour late, and a number of incoming pax misconnected).

Also, a creative gate agent can magically disperse people - - yesterday I watched as a gate agent working both a 2:05pm to CLT and the 2:40pm flight to DTW (leaving from the SAME gate), helped a couple who WERE going to connect to ROA through DTW on an oversold flight instead take the nonstop 2:05pm flight to CLT (prompted to shift in part, because they had no seat assignments on the DTW flight, and thought they may get involuntarily bumped!). The GA called down and made sure that their bag got yanked from the DTW cart and put onto the CLT flight, and they went on the earlier nonstop (to a different destination) from the same gate!

That cleared two oversells on the DTW flight, - - and then the gate agent tried to clear a third, by getting a passenger to fly nonstop to JFK instead of connecting through DTW (on the oversold flight) to HPN, but since there was no compensation for the switch she chose to keep her DTW connection to HPN instead of taking the nonstop to JFK.

I've had this happen in DTW. I was asked if I waned to volunteer, and what level of compensation i was looking for. Granted, this was when NWA was still on PARS (last August) though.

Yes I believe the NWA kiosk allowed this option back in the day. I've never seen DL kiosks have this functionality.

TATL upgrade
 

As a follow up to my previous post, I'm sitting in the SEA Skyclub with a BE boarding pass in hand. Went to drop my bag for my SEA-AMS flight and got a new boarding pass. I had moved from row 10 to row 4.

Happy birthday to me!