Wanted First. Booked First. Not in First.
 

In April, I booked a pair of saver awards in First Class from JFK-HNL (nonstop) roundtrip for the upcoming Christmas/NYE holidays. Positioning flights to/from JFK weren’t available at saver level at the time and, ultimately, I ended up booking cheap revenue flights for those legs. I found a non-refundable hotel rate that was too good to pass up and booked that as well. And I was done.

Or so I thought.

I recently logged into DL.com to discover that my seats on the HNL-JFK return were in Economy and I couldn’t select First Class anymore. I called Delta and was told that there was an equipment swap and that is why my seats were moved to Economy. The CSR was apologetic but reminded me that “it is not always possible to re-accommodate all passengers in their booked cabins”. I was told that I could return to JFK a day earlier, or a day later (all on flights with at least one connection) if I wanted to remain in First Class.

Because I had pre-paid on the hotel rooms, and because of other plans, I didn’t want to leave a day early. Nor did I want to have to re-book my positioning flight from JFK. I asked why my seats were moved, considering that I had booked so long ago. I’m sure the CSR was wrong, but their answer was “because you booked an award ticket, you were moved first”.

I guess the point of this post is to advise others out there to remember to monitor their seats when they book early. I'll certainly be more careful in the future.

End rant.

Escalate.

Are there any flights to HNL that are selling FC for your travel dates? From NYC or from ATL or from any other convenient connection for you? What about moving your flights one day in the opposite direction?

If you booked the positioning flights through DL, they should move these for free if you must change the HNL flights, or reroute you. They might also throw enough miles or ecerts at you to make up for the hotel charges, although depending on schedules, it could make sense to spend the first or last night in an airport hotel.

Agreed - I know it is a pain but could you do JFK-SLC-HNL all in F?

the issue is the return flight, not the outbound

since OP's profile says "ATL", perhaps a workable option would be to see about returning directly to ATL (HNL-JFK arrives ~8am, so presumably the JFK-ATL return was later that day)

It's shameful if DL really just sold the OP's FC seats and didn't even bother sending an email notification. The agent's response about saver award tickets was disgraceful. If someone didn't pay attention, this problem could have been discovered at the airport.

was the jet originally a 36J 763? seat map for 1 Jan shows it's 26J

Indeed. You paid for your ticket with miles, which is a form of currency. If I were you, I would not settle for alternative flights (in F, of course) unless you truly don't mind. If you settle, then I would ask for downgrade compensation - the difference in miles plus a substantial deposit of miles for your cooperation.

^ This!

That seems the most likely explanation.

quite frankly...who cares. If I booked a First seat, I should be accomodated there. And if they cannot they definitely should reach out to you, not just change your seat.

OP: If there are any FC seats on that flight, obviously demand that. If not, put up a stink, but have an alternative that you want. A supervisor should grant you just about anything reasonable in this case

OP said DL CSR's rationale was "equipment swap"

OP is a PM, and is justifiably PO'd that DL (1) downgraded an award ticket with no notification and (2) didn't proactively accommodate

36J --> 26J means nine other folks who booked up front aren't going to ride up front on the flight they booked either

1. Before taking any further action, OP needs to sit down and do the legwork to figure out exactly what he wants. Equiptment swaps happen all the time and that means fewer F seats. Somebody got DG and that is OP. If he just lumps it, he is entitled to have the fare recalculated and a refund of whatever miles are due.

2. DL can force award space elsewhere ATL-XXX-HNL. Focus on that.

3. Once you have your goal achieved, e.g., getting yourself to HNL, then turn back to the positioning flights. DL has no obligation to OP because they are separate tickets and that is the risk of separate tickets. But, as a courtesy, it is worth asking DL to refund those or at least to credit without penalty.

Is the flight actually full in first, or did they just boot you even though there are open seats?

I wouldn't be taking the 'too bad' answer well. You use miles, so they need to get you there in first. If they can't, then they some serious compensation is needed as well as refund of those positioning flights.

Unfortunately, this is another situation where EF would be extremely helpful in looking at inventory and alternate routing options. As mentioned, since DL caused a major change to your flight, you don't need low award level for the replacement flights.

That's assuming first is fully booked already. Since the flights are still several months out, they might not be.

To the OP, is dl.com still selling FC on the flight you were downgraded on?

I have a difficult time believing that DL swapped equipment over 3 months out on a flight that was already so heavily booked in a premium cabin that they had to downgrade customers ...

I don't doubt that an equipment swap occurred, I do doubt that they had to downgrade customers due to it.