The practice is not new, the number and location of these seats was changed in just the last week or so.

No one is saying this is anything new, but not everyone is aware of this practice.

I'm DL DM and issue occurs for me as well. Something changed recently in past few weeks on the web site. I select flights based first on exit row availability. Previously you could see the availability for exit row when clicking on view seats on lower left when your first search returned flight options. It now blacks out exit rows. Very annoying to have to go as deep into the process, which will work as LBJ described. Not very bright programming to make a user do *more* work than necessary to find out what they used to do easier. Don't get the logic on the change. Hope someone at DL is listening.

Dang it DL, please stop playing these stupid tricks with the seating chart. I don't fly unless I can get exit row seats.

Yep, I'm really that crazy. (I would take making all other seats non-reclining as a trade off)

I feel the same way about not flying DL if I can't view available seats during flight search. Making dummy bookings for every possible combination just to view seat availability isn't an acceptable workaround.

Please take the time to send your feedback directly to DL via the comment/complaint page on DL.com. It's unlikely that the responsible DL team is reading this thread and/or escalating to appropriate DL department for resolution.

Good idea. It's hard to imagine why DL thinks this is positive.

Thank you for this information. FYI, they are still blacking out exit row seats on DL flights as of my writing this. I was about to commit to getting a much more expensive ticket on another airline until noticing *all the exit rows* were blocked out on *all* the flights. The workaround mentioned above still works to see actual availability; just make sure not to click "purchase" at the end!

Even if you did in error select "Purchase" you have 24 hours to cancel the
reservation without penalty.

In defense of Delta (Lord knows it is not needed) but seating in the exit rows
is restricted to able body folks who can understand and take instructions on
how and when to open the EE doors.
If the EE row seating was not restricted anyone could book and select the
seating in area that perhaps they don't belong causing boarding and reseating
problems.
Remember hearing the announcement something to effect that if seated in
an exit row and you do not want to comply with rules of the air Delta will
reassign your seating somewhere out on a wing and prayer causing a delay
since the aircraft can not move until all passengers are seated with seat
belts fastened.
For you frequent flyers that know the drill albeit a work-around round-about
method you still can get the leg room seat that you need for your comfort.
An idea for Delta to allow access for those FFs with a sort of TSA PreCheck
seat selection in restricted zones without the hassle of dummy bookings etc. ?!?
Delta Official reading this take note (Perhaps) !
Stop the leap through flaming hoops to make a simple reservation seat
selection process !

Nothing guaranteed - If a basketball team of 7 foot amazons or Watusi dancing
warriors boards the aircraft all seats with legroom are off limits to anyone ! LOL !

Still ridiculous to ave to go through this process....I can't think of any reason why they would do this....Please put the exit row availability back Delta!

Thread bump

Booked RT MSP-CUN for Spring Break; exit row seats were available for purchase/fee (we don't have status) during the booking process, but I held off so that I could get reimbursed by Amex under my Plat $200/yr credit.

After ticketing, though, no exit row seats were available, even though some were showing available on EF.

I rechecked periodically and seats became available on the return, so we bought them ($18/ea). Outbound still showing open on EF but nothing on DL app or web.

Dummy booking today, M fare allows selecting any open (EF-correlates) exit row for free (we're booked in K).

-Any experiences with when exit will open up? T-36/48/24? When gate begins working the flight?

Thanks!

update for anyone who finds this dusty thread in the future:

I contacted DL via social media, they looked into it and found it was an IT issue, worked with reservations to move us into the seats, then arranged a call with a res agent to get our credit card number for the upcharge.

Thus if someone runs into a similar issue, try reaching out on SM as they appear empowered on issues such as this.

YBM fares get exit row/preferred seating for free. Otherwise, non-status pax are supposed to be able to purchase starting at the 45-day mark according to policy library. Are your flights within 45 days? It looks like they will sell you Preferred seating at booking more than 45 days out (just tried a dummy booking), but perhaps they enforce 45-day policy after booking.

https://pro.delta.com/content/agency...d-seating.html

I've seen similar experiences where the Preferred seats for sale are hit or miss on the website (even past check in), but Reservations is able to assign and charge.