OP might get lucky by letting the GA know. I was auto-magically reassigned to a new seat during boarding last year. Family was sitting together in the row I was previously in. Guessing GA would rather just move people around before hand rather than a family of four spread across the plane getting on and trying to figure out a seat swap delaying boarding and causing potential drama.

You might try calling Delta and asking to speak to a supervisor who has the authority to release blocked seats. Its hard to get them to do this, but on some routes they reserve seats for disabled passengers for gate assignment. They might be willing to put you there (might be a bulkhead) with the caveat that you will be moved if a disabled pax needs the seat. I have been offered this before.

But you have status on DL as a GM. We suspect that the OP and family have no status. That can make a big difference.

I've had the DM line offer to put me on hold and try to unblock a seat for me when all of the asiles and windows on the flights were occupied. It was made very clear that if a handicapped person needed that seat, I would be moved. Fortunately my upgrade cleared so there was no problem. I'm sure that people without status on DL would have been treated very differently.

Thats a good point, though traveling with children might make the case.

I had to book a ticket on UA recently and I was reminded how valuable my status is, despite how rare upgrades are as a GM these days....

So the wife and our 8 yr old daughter decided to fly to PHX-- very last minute, of which the injury to the pocketbook is evidence. :) Neither has status and only "blue" seats are available as of now for assignment. Everything else is X'd.

So, since nothing is available in the back rows, not even middles, will making a call to DL help assign seats in the Preferred rows? They wont be together, but at least they will have seat assignments. Or is it waste of time, and we should just hold off till online check-in kicks in? Do those seats open up for everyone at the OLCI 24 hour mark, or are they only assigned at the airport?

Thanks much to the collective wisdom of FT! :)

Without status you can't get preferred seats in advance. If you can't get seats assigned online now an agent won't be able to help. Checking in online might help as some seats will have opened, but you might be waiting until the airport.

Thank you HKGer, for your response. Since no one had given an opinion, I called in any case, and found out that "M" fares on domestic are allowed to select preferred seats. Now since one of the travelers is 8, they can't sit in the exit row, but they have a window and an aisle, since all seats together (other than the exit rows) were taken. Hopefully the flyer in the middle will be happy enough to take the aisle (or the window) unless he really really wants the middle seat, which is ok with both the 8 yr old and her mommy.
:)

Didn't realize you're on an M fare. So it will work out. Enjoy the trip.