Neville Sarkari

Has anyone had this happen before? Yesterday (Monday 5/14) I was traveling PNS-ATL-SRQ. This issue happened on Flight 1600 from ATL-SRQ. The ticket was booked on April 28 in Economy and I chose 14A which is near the front. At some point in the days before my flight I was "upgraded" to First (RU) but I was not given a seat assigned. In fact, I was put on the standby list, my seat changed to "Assigned at Gate". I thought this was strange so I called the Diamond LIne around 5:09pm in Atlanta about 2 hours before the flight. I was told by the agent that this was normal and I would get a first class seat. Upon arriving at the gate, I still did not have a seat. Then, just seconds before boarding, I was assigned to seat 25E. At that point there was chaos at the gate which was very crowded (Gate B1) and I did not want to bother the gate agent with this seemingly trivial problem, she was dealing with computer issues and was a bit frazzled. The flight was fine. However, I am a bit confused as to what went wrong and how I ended up going from 14A to 25E and if I should have done something different. Diamond and fly about 200 segments a year commuting weekly. Thanks.

MSPeconomist

It sounds like the GA didn't realize that you were upgraded and awaiting a FC seat assignment, not just a coach passenger without a seat (perhaps with a basic economy fare if they're offered in this market). You should have asked the GA instead of just boarding and taking 25E, especially as a DM.

Check the DL app and delta.dumb to see where DL thinks you were seated on the flight and what your class flown was, then call and complain.

btonkid12345

I really don't get why people don't stand up for their rights.

Gate agent looked frazzled and was dealing with computer problems? No issue, ask them to call a Red Coat for assistance (that's why they are wandering the terminals anyways usually if not behind a gate)

OR better yet, walk to the next gate which is not busy and ask the agent there to call a Red Coat etc. Or call the DM Desk - they can call the gate directly if they need to

Sitting in a middle seat (an E seat) as a DM with 200 segments is simply unacceptable. This GA needs immediate retraining, but the best way to do it is to hold them accountable in the moment. I never would have taken 25E without at least a $200 downgrade voucher.

OP - if you call the DM Desk and the agent sees you were in RU but flew in 25E they'll be able to issue you a $200 downgrade voucher over the phone.

MSPeconomist

I think this occurred at an outstation. I suspect that there weren't redcoats and the GA might have been an airport contract agent who doesn't handle DL flights often. It might have been necessary to call the DM line from the gate. This is why Isaid that I suspect that the GA didn't realize that the OP was awaiting a FC seat assignment, not in need of a coach seat.

I wonder whether the flight left with empty FC seats or whether nonrevs were put into the FC seats available at the gate. Maybe someone here can look that up since the flight was yesterday.

I was also tempted to say something about why the OP didn't challenge the seat assignment, but the thread title is making me wonder whether it's an extremely young OP (minor means under 21?), but if someone does 200 segments per year (and is a DM, which implies either not cheap tickets or an AmEx card, so it's unlikely to be a student who travels a lot) commuting, this would seem unlikely (but possible).

ethernal

As a DM that is not an infrequent visitor to Y- middle seats, I wish Delta felt that way too

indufan

You must be dreaming.

pvn

1) E seats aren't necesarily middle seats

2) lol, it happens. If you book your flights in advance and never make changes you will not have to deal with middle seats, but for people who book last minute and often do SDS, it's not uncommon.

DiverDave

Actually it happened in ATL, which pretty much explains everything.

MSPeconomist

btonkid12345

No. A few months ago companion and I were 1 and 2 of 52 for 2 seats for ATL-DTW. We cleared at T-40 into F.

15 minutes later, our seats are unassigned and two individuals from the standby list cleared into our F seats. During those 15 minutes someone from the gate area called either the DM or 360 line, and they called the gate.

They yelled at the GA for not clearing those two in F without seat assignments first before processing upgrades. My companion and I ended up without seats and two others flew F.

DL compensated us and rebooked us in F (we had already cleared into F on the connection anyways) on a faster routing after I requested a Red Coat for the hiccups.

Very true. I have been on a string on no SDC/SDS for a bit and have enjoyed advance upgrades and lack of seat roulette at a crowded gate

Exactly. Just lots of agents of every sort that could easily help either a frazzled gate agent, or help a passenger in F with a seat issue.

Neville Sarkari

Hi, OP here. LOL. no I'm not a minor. I'm a 47 yo physician. I said minor because, in the grand scheme of things (from Delta's perspective, at least, and to some degree my own) it is probably not such a big deal that I didn't get a free upgrade on a 65 minute flight. I think of it as a perk, not a right. That being said, I asked the question here to see what the thoughts were about what I should have done. Next time I will ask about it at the gate. By the time it happened so fast, right before boarding, I figured it would just delay things more and force someone else to get moved, etc etc. I get that others here would be (much) more assertive about an upgrade, and that's fine.

The app shows that me as flying "First (RU) 25E" which is kind of funny. You'd think the system would note the discrepancy!

To clarify, yes, it happened in ATL. And yes, 25E was not a middle seat, it was a window exit row with a ton of legroom (no seat in front of it on an MD88). So I was not particularly uncomfortable. But I guess it irritated me enough to ask the question here. Thanks to everyone who responded so far.

davetravels

SHENA-nigans!!!

MSPeconomist

Heavens to Betsy!

mot29

Its been years since I lived in SRQ in NW days, but at least then, there were some very, very experienced agents working there -- especially in winter time, when there were some retired agents who came back to work the winter schedule. Of course they had to be refreshed to current systems each year, but I remember folks who were very good.

Neville Sarkari

Yes, the Delta agents at SRQ do a great job for me, always recognize me by name (correctly) and take good care of things.