Halloweverybody

I had a confirmed seat in paid F. My inbound flight was delayed 3 hours, it arrived at approximately 10:30pm in ATL D concourse. My connecting flight was supposed to depart at 10:35pm from B concourse. Delta App was showing a delay with an 10:55pm estimated Departure. I literally ran to my B concourse gate, and was there by 10:40pm, only to find out that the crew wasn't even there yet, and flight had not yet started to board. Boarding probably started at 10:50pm, but when I attempted to board with F, my boarding pass gets rejected, and GA says: "Oh, I have been calling your name, I already gave away your seat to an Upgrade". I am DM and MM, and was pretty shocked, but didn't really say anything. They found me a seat in main cabin, and told me to reach out to delta for recourse after I arrive. Does GA have the power to give away your seat before they even start to board?

DiverDave

Well that's the point where they should have rescinded the upgrade and returned you to your purchased seat. I have been on the other end of that several times (lost an upgrade to a late arriving passenger booked in F.)

daloosh

Sure, and the gate agent also has the power to ask the upgrade to vacate his/her seat, even after boarding has begun. Like Diver Dave, I have been un-upgraded for an F passenger. It's no fun, but it happens and an upgraded passenger should understand that.

kpbadger

Halloweverybody

I get that they want to be efficient and save time, etc .. but is it actually common practice to give away a seat before boarding even starts even if they assume I will be late? I was actually around the gate area more than 10 minutes before boarding, and heard other names being called, but never heard my own. To me, giving away a seat should be a LAST RESORT, only when a no show is confirmed, and certainly not before boarding commences.

btonkid12345

If you call the Diamond Desk, they can issue you the $200 voucher over the phone instantly.

They also will submit the refund for you for the downgraded segment.

Next time, ask them to fix it; if they refuse, ask for a Red Coat, who should be able to fix it.

JTE458

This is something that frustrates me about "we called your name". Most of us have lounge access. I'm not going to be hanging around at the gate for 20 min before boarding. They need to be able to ping your Delta app with an alert if a GA is needing to speak to you.

FlyBitcoin

Exactly, if they are going to do that "we called your name" garbage, then their system should tell the GA that we scanned into the SkyClub and they can contact the particular club that we are in.

And for redundancy, use a messaging function in the app. And if we are making a connection, their AI should pretty much tell them where in the journey we might be from the arrival plane to the departing gate. They know our seat number and approximate gate to gate travel times.

rickg523

Though I've never had it happen to me, I have seen upgrades to premium cabins rescinded for exactly this reason - a late arriving connecting flight and the ticketed passenger who has shown up before the doors closed.

Billy Mumphrey

Seems like the GAs could have waited longer to give up your seat since they knew about the delay.

On a recent flight the GA called a passenger to the podium and told him that a connecting passenger in F was likely to miss the flight, so he asked the passenger to hang out by the gate area until boarding was complete, and if the F passenger was no show, he'd get him seat since he was next on the upgrade list. Seemed like the right way to handle it.

Oakshadow

Is it truly possible for GAs to know a passenger is in the SC and know which one? Even if they do, is it common for GAs to actually pay it any heed and make decisions based on that SC location info?

flyerCO

At T-15 from scheduled, not delayed departure, the agent can offload you if not at the gate, ready to board. This is true even if they're not boarding yet.

I agree it was bad CS on GA part. However OP isn't entitled to downgrade compensation. His seat was rightly (though unjustly) forfeited at T-15.

Lux Flyer

Great! If that's the policy, lets start forfeiting F seats at scheduled T-15 on every flight that's delayed 30+ mins while paid F passengers spend the delay in the SC. They aren't at the gate area at scheduled T-15 so shouldn't keep their seats. Means more upgrades for us, or less crowded Sky-Clubs. Win-win-win all around!

flyerCO

To be fair to GA, OP inbound arrived over 3 hours late. It's likely GA saw OP was very late arriving, and wouldn't make it in time for departure. The flight then got delayed and by chance OP made it. However at point GA offloaded, OP likely had zero chance of making it.

DavidDTW

It may not have been the GA's fault. On long delayed flights, I have seen where the DL system will automatically rebook a traveler on the next flight and off of the original connection.