flyingbabyduck

I have been a STE member for years and have been given access to the preferred seating for free on Delta flights per their policy. I usually had two approaches to pick the preferred seats: (1) During the booking process. Once I entered my STE membership and got recognized by Delta's system, I was able to select the preferred seats in dark blue before making the final payment; (2) After ticketing, by going to Delta.com or the app to manage my reservation.

However, since a few months ago, I cannot select preferred seats any more on Delta website or app by either of these approaches. (1) During booking process. When I point my mouse on any of the preferred seats, the system immediately shows me an additional fee should I proceed with the selection; (2) After ticketing. My STE membership is in there and recognized (has the Elite designation), but in the seat maps, all preferred seats are locked and grayed out and I'm unable to even "pay" for them.

Would this have something to do with the booking interface update? I have noticed quite a few versions of that between the website and the app. For the website itself, I've seen two versions.. (1) the "most recent" one I guess where you have your flight info on the top, "pick your seats or upgrades" in the middle, passenger info and payment info at the bottom - everything stays on the single, broad webpage; and (2) somehow similar to before where these steps are broken apart onto different webpages. For the most recent version, I do see the possibility that preferred seating may be an issue as you literally choose your seats and enter your passenger info after that, and before submission. The system won't be able to detect your elite status until all is submitted.

Tried the iMessage chat (failed; rep said they also got preferred seating blocked on their end) and am waiting for the 800 agent to call back. What a pain.

sydneyracquelle

Call and ask a DL to assign you a preferred seat if you are entitled to it and you cannot do it online.

dcadwell

You're not booking Basic Economy, are you?

flyingbabyduck

Nope, regular Main Cabin fares.

MSPeconomist

With BE tickets, OP wouldn't be able to pick any seats in advance, either for free or for a fee.

Are we sure that SkyTeam Elites (FO level at about 25,000 status miles per year, which I presume OP has with KE) still have free access to preferred seats for free in advance?

Could the OP be confusing preferred seats with C+ seats? I can never remember which are light versus dark blue.

flyingbabyduck

On the phone with an agent right now. She provided a few explanations which don't apply to my situation or conflict with their posted policy...

Twitter got me seats last time; Tried iMessage this morning, and the agent said they cannot touch the "blocked seats" (different access than Twitter?).

dcadwell

Very strange. I've no issues going in and selecting either during the booking process or after the fact.

MSPeconomist

You seem to have status with DL. That could make a difference.

flyingbabyduck

Yes. Per Delta Professional -> Policy Library -> Preferred Seating. STE and E+ have access to preferred seating.

And OP didn't get confused yet... Dark blue is preferred seating while light blue is C+.

KE's status threshold is different than Delta. 30k miles in 24 months with at least 20k out of these are accrued on KE metal, then you keep Morning Calm (STE) for another 24 months. 500k flying miles on any ST carrier gives you lifetime STE+ status.

flyingbabyduck

Finally off the phone. Agent was really nice anyways. She checked with her "support team" and the answer I heard was something like "Delta's system does not fully recognize KE's status so you need to wait until later". But there's no sufficient supporting information for this. Bottom line is that she manually picked the seats for us with the help of her support team.

If policy has not changed, I would expect the same, consistent process and experience like before. And what's the point for trying to charge me during booking, and totally blocked those out even if we want to pay for them after ticketing? I just can't get the above explanation. Filed a complaint to corporate on Delta website regarding this "IT" issue.

Dutch101

Had a similar issue yesterday.... TATL TPA-AMS KLM booking (yes, for the 20k AMEX points bonus) on Delta metal, went to Delta.com to pick my seats and it only showed me preferred seats on the outbound, but not the return flights. Called, and got a number of different explanations, including the ones you got (issue with KLM booking, wait a week, can't touch the seats, seats are sold out...etc). Long story short, 3 HUCAs later finally got a rep that was able to assign the preferred seats manually with (long) assistance of the support desk. Rep stated that she learned something new today... sounds like there might be a system issue.

BER Flyer

I had the excat same issue. DM booked on KLM ticketed/DL operated flight, no access to preferred seats - only the last 12 rows or so, no window seats. Had to call DL to get an preferred seat.

flyingbabyduck

Tried a dummy booking today. The following situation applies to pre-ticketing:

When FF # with no status was entered, seat map showed that all preferred seats are blocked - couldn't even select to pay for them, but this does make sense.

When FF # with STE status was entered, seat map showed that all preferred seats are available - but you need to pay an additional fee.

After ticketing? Preferred seats were all blocked - see the similar situation for the fellow elites above. This seems conflicting with the current policy. https://pro.delta.com/content/agency...d-seating.html I was even able to select the preferred seats prior to ticketing before.