medelste

Hi! I redeemed SkyMiles for two roundtrip seats on upcoming ORD/LGA flights, one for me and one for my wife. Alas, now my wife's schedule won't allow her to travel but I still must.


Question 1: My understanding is that there is no change/refund option worth using because of high Delta change fees, right?


Question 2: Since I'm stuck with "paying" for her seats on each flight, is it reasonable for me to take action that would allow me to enjoy her empty seat next to me, or should I inform Delta to release the seat to someone else?


Question 3: If you agree that it's reasonable that I can enjoy the space that comes with an empty seat next to me, how does one properly do that?

a. Just check yourself in, but not your wife. Don't worry, even though your wife doesn't check-in, Delta won't release her seat to someone else (e.g. a standby passenger)

b. Check-in the both of you, but only show one boarding pass at the gate.

c. Check-in the both you, and show both boarding passes at the gate.

d. Do something else not listed.


Thank you!

ATOBTTR

No, you won't be able to "enjoy" her empty seat (Google the story about DL removing a family on a Maui-LAX flight recently after the family argued this point with the GA and FAs - there was a lengthy thread out it here on FT too).

How many miles did you use? The redeposit fee is $150. If you used about 15,000 miles or more per ticket, you're still coming out ahead by paying $150 to get those miles back.

ty97

Checking her in won't necessarily save the seat for you. When she fails to board, if there are standbys, one of them could be assigned the seat.

If there are less standbys than available seats, then checking her in may result in all standbys clearing prior to DL realizing that your wife is a no-show.

ncwillett

a. Delta WILL release her seat when she no-shows for the flight, so don't count on it remaining empty.

b. You can check both of you in, but again- when she doesn't board her seat will be released. Being checked in doesn't hold the seat forever.

c. You can't show a boarding pass for someone who isn't actually boarding. YOU are not allowed to just claim your wife's seat for yourself so you can't just show her boarding pass and play the "I paid for it, I'm keeping it myself" game. That's just not how it works. One passenger, one seat. There's an option to book a 2nd seat for yourself, but it needs to be in your own name, and you can't change your wife's ticket to your name so forget about that option. You'd have to cancel her ticket, pay the redeposit fee to get the miles back, and then book another seat for yourself. You'd have to call to do this since you already have a ticket, and they do something to code it so that it shows that it's an extra seat for a designated passenger.

d. I would talk to the gate agent, and tell them your wife was delayed but you're still hoping she makes it, and ask them to wait as long as possible before releasing her seat. If you're lucky, there won't be many standbys, and the GA won't need your wife's seat....He/she will be able to accommodate the standbys in other vacant seats, leaving your wife's empty so you can enjoy more room.

Or as someone above said, just give up on having the empty seat next to you. If you used a lot of miles for the seat, it might be worth paying the redeposit fee to get the miles back to use at another time.

ashill

Yeah. I would think that if your wife fails to check in, they'll offload her from the flight at the check in cutoff (30 minutes? 45? 60?). If she checks in, they won't offload her until the door closure cutoff (15 minutes for domestic flights, I think). If, for example, you're in 10A and your wife in 10B (and do make sure she's in the middle and you're in the aisle/window, whichever you prefer), 10C may have a travel companion who wasn't seated with him and could ask the gate agent for 10B. If your wife hasn't checked in, that request would almost certainly be accommodated; if she has checked in, they probably wouldn't.

Upshot: if the flight is completely full, this strategy is unlikely to work. Once the door closure deadline hits, your wife will be a no show and they'll give her seat away to a standby or confirmed passenger without a seat assignment. But until then, they'll put standbys in other seats, so if the flight is not full, I would think this significantly increases your odds of an empty seat next to you.

Jon_R

Could he check her in for the flight and hope it is oversold. About 80% of my flights they ask for volunteers to give up seats. If they ask for volunteers give up the seat for a voucher and free redeposit of miles. It is a gamble and a bit of a bluff but could it work? If you are going to eat the seat anyway and not worth the redposit then maybe it works out.

flyerCO

The wife would need tp be there to volunteer.

ijgordon

He could volunteer himself and fly on his wife's boarding pass. Not sure how closely the agents look at the names when you scan the BPs. If they look, then it probably won't work.

pgh234

#1 . A vast majority of vouchers are given after the flight boards.

#2 . For domestic flights, most of the time the GA who leads the volunteer efforts is also collecting boarding passes.

Overall, this is very poor advice with a high likelihood of the OP looking like an ....

WisMan

Interesting question. Here is a related one: I thought that fat people could buy 2 seats (in fact, some folks say they always should) if they are so wide, they take up 2 seats anyway. I doubt that a person could buy 2 seats in their name? So couldn't the OP say "I bought 2 seats because I am large and I was being respectful of everyone else"?

I know that in the past, some airlines have required certain size passengers to purchase 2 seats. But I have no idea of how that is done, to ensure wide people get 2 seats and don't have the 2nd seat assigned to someone else?

flyerCO

If ypu read the posts earlier there's a certain method to do this. Also someone doesnt buy a seat in another's name to book a second seat.

ty97

This was what I was saying, though perhaps I was too succinct. If there are more standby passengers than empty seats, his wife seat will get given to someone. If there are less standbys than empty seats, he might get lucky.

irish_goat

Is there any way to check if that flight tends to be busy/overbooked?

Colin

split the PNR, check-in for her, hope for a flight delay, get a free redeposit

medelste

OP here.

Thanks everyone, I learned a lot about how the airlines work!

While most of your advice is universal, here are few more things about my specific situation that were brought up:
1. We only spent 10,000 miles each for the r/t between ORD and LGA. Good deal! So that takes the $150 redeposit fee option off the table.
2. We each bought our own tickets using our own miles. So we already have separate confirmation numbers.

I'm thinking I'll check the available seats on the plane at the airport kiosk and if there are a decent amount of empty seats, I'll check my wife in and increase the odds for a standby passenger to be seated elsewhere. If the plane is nearly/completely full, I'll leave it alone.