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Trying to get two seats together on DL flight - all middle seats are taken

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Trying to get two seats together on DL flight - all middle seats are taken

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Old Sep 6, 2019, 8:42 am
  #1  
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Trying to get two seats together on DL flight - all middle seats are taken

Anyone ever run into this issue? I am flying tonight on DL1539 from JFK to LAS. I'm flying with my SO on a companion pass. We are unlikely to be upgraded to F (middle of a 18 person upgrade list with 5 seats left), and I reversed a Comfort + upgrade that put us into two separate middle seats. In economy, in rows 14-17, every middle seat is taken, leaving aisle and window seats. Kind of an inefficient distribution of seats - should we select seats in one of these rows and hope we can reshuffle passengers around during boarding to give everyone an empty middle seat? I am guessing there will be some empty seats on this late Friday flight...
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 8:45 am
  #2  
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Take window and aisle in the same section and offer to switch with the person in middle seat.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 8:47 am
  #3  
 
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Take window and aisle in the same section and offer to switch with the person in middle seat.
agreed. We have never had an issue having a middle seat switch for us. They will thank you.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 8:51 am
  #4  
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Understood - I guess I was curious on how Delta assigns rows of "premium" seats with middle seat customers without aisle/window customers. Are these basic economy fliers that are assigned seats at check-in?
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 8:55 am
  #5  
TTT
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Originally Posted by Adelphos
Understood - I guess I was curious on how Delta assigns rows of "premium" seats with middle seat customers without aisle/window customers. Are these basic economy fliers that are assigned seats at check-in?
Sometimes the Premium rows are only aisle/window. The middle is left for selection for anyone.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 8:56 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by TTT
Sometimes the Premium rows are only aisle/window. The middle is left for selection for anyone.
I know - that's my usual experience. I was wondering why this flight may have been the opposite (aisle and window left open, middle occupied).
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 8:59 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by Adelphos
I know - that's my usual experience. I was wondering why this flight may have been the opposite (aisle and window left open, middle occupied).
Your flight could be filled with kettles, maybe traveling in a group. Basic economy passengers shouldn't have seat assignments before OLCI starts.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 9:41 am
  #8  
TTT
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Originally Posted by Adelphos
I know - that's my usual experience. I was wondering why this flight may have been the opposite (aisle and window left open, middle occupied).
Fewer premium-eligible purchasers but more main cabin buyers so they select the only open seats, which are middles. Also, Basic Economy likely filled those as well.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 9:52 am
  #9  
 
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Or some passengers selected those middles seats in hoping that they can take over the whole row.... Which is unlikely to happen due to BE.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 9:57 am
  #10  
 
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Take window and aisle in the same section and offer to switch with the person in middle seat.
or take C and D in same row and you won't have to talk through someone if you aren't successful with an onboard swap
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 10:07 am
  #11  
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You can find the "Preferred" seats (not premium) on the seat map charts here in dark blue -- https://www.delta.com/us/en/aircraft/overview

As you can see, there are often middle seats in between preferred seats which are not preferred. These would be open for kettles to select when on Main Cabin fares. Once the aisle/window non-preferred seats have been exhausted, presumably many would select these middle seats.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 11:13 am
  #12  
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Originally Posted by xliioper
You can find the "Preferred" seats (not premium) on the seat map charts here in dark blue -- https://www.delta.com/us/en/aircraft/overview

As you can see, there are often middle seats in between preferred seats which are not preferred. These would be open for kettles to select when on Main Cabin fares. Once the aisle/window non-preferred seats have been exhausted, presumably many would select these middle seats.
And others (like myself) would just book on another flight or airline! But to be fair, DL does have a decent number of non-premium aisle/window seats for booking, you just have to be early. AA is notorious about the very limited number of free aisle/window seats. Though a kettle can pay for many of the "preferred" seats, I don't think DL offers that option at all.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 6:40 pm
  #13  
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We ended up with 21D and 21F in the exit row, middle seat empty. Lesson learned - go for the row with the premium middle seat so it doesn’t get assigned easily
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