A few days ago my flight from ATL-BWI I was seated right next to someone else in my row, 2A/2B. This going against their new seating policy of 50% booking in first and 60% in economy. There were actually 3 no shows up front and that was the only reason everyone up front was able to move and not be seated right next to someone. So, since Delta has begun to announce it's seating policy how many people have been seated right next to someone anyways? They've generally done a pretty good job in my opinion handling the challenges of operating their fleet during Covid life but was wondering if this was an isolated incident with Delta or if there have been a lot of others that have run into the same thing since they announced the Covid seating policy? I've unfortunately had to continue to travel for work but this was the first time I've been seated next to someone in the last 3 months.

The new seating policy isn't retroactive, they've made cuts on future flights to prevent it, but if they overbook due to too many cancelled consolidated flights, they may not have a choice but to fly everyone, the 60% rule isn't a domestic law, it's simply what they are aiming for to comply with some international laws, like China for instance.

Not sure if this is the reason why, but a theory I have is that DLs IT wasn�t kicking people out of pre-selected seats that were later blocked off. So if someone purchased a F ticket 2 weeks ago when their were no capacity restrictions and selected 2B (which has since been blocked off) and never changed their seat, then they would get to keep it.

It is also not financially viable for too much longer. Either fares go through the roof or something gives. CARES Act $ only go so far.

Wasn't the initial policy not do free upgrades beyond 50% in FC and to block middle seats in PS, C+ and coach, plus not to put NRSAs on when it would make occupancy high?

If the 50%/60% are actual limits on sales, does this include projections of no shows or not? I can't believe that it would be used to IDB someone who had previously purchased a ticket.

Earlier I asked (but never saw an answer) about lap kids and whether they can occupy the blocked center seat if doing so would mean that they are sitting to someone who isn't traveling with the kid.

Piling into this thread - I'm thinking of booking a flight from LGA to ORD in August, in the hope that things will be better then (if not, I'll just take a change voucher, no big deal).

I'd love to hear others' perceptions of safety. Thanks.

A friend flew into MSP this morning on the only flight today from BOS. He said the plane was about half full - there was an announcement that they had 86 passengers on board on an A321. That's in contrast to the same flight exactly a month ago on which he said they had 8 passengers.

When I did my one trip since the COVID panic started in earnest, I sat alone in 3 A/B, and then had the last row that they sold in coach (31F) to myself.

The MSP-SEA trip on 5/5 was close to a "sell-out" under their social distancing rules, with about 70 pax on a 737-800.

I was looking at a couple of possible trips, and I noticed that they've "X-outed" seats in F that they are not selling. I also noted that on a DCA-DTW-SFO itinerary in the first week of June, paid F is only about $60 more than paid C+.

Just did a flight earlier this week and we were all staggered through out the plane....this was a 717 and I was in 14a...there was someone in 13a and someone in 15a. Both of those folks are within the 6 foot window.

People who are venturing out are going to have to get over the social distancing part of travel. If that is a concern to you don't travel!

Book 2 seats and wear a NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) Hazmat suit.

Depending on the exact configuration, on a standard domestic single aisle aircraft in steerage, 6' of separation likely means seating people in windows only and alternating empty rows. Thus, one person for every six seats or roughly 16% of capacity. You do the math on what the PRASM for that seat will need to be for DL to break even once the CARES Act support runs out.

haha, I know you�re joking but on yesterday�s (pretty full under the new rules) SEA-LAX two passengers showed up wearing white hazmat suits, full face shield, mask and gloves. On the other end of the spectrum my neighbor across the aisle (15D) boarded without a mask, glared at the FA when she told him he needed to wear one, then promptly removed it again for most of the flight.

you�ll get all kinds and if you�re gonna get on a plane (which I�m not planning on doing for the foreseeable future) you need to be okay with that...

I think it is about mitigating risk. Unfortunately airplanes will never be places that you can social distance. However, if you can limit capacity it helps mitigate the risk.

I personally will only fly on an airplane out of absolute necessity for the foreseeable future, and I suspect many people will feel the same way about that. It does get tricky when you work in a corporation and your boss encourages, or you feel pressure to travel. There are also family emergencies, etc. that require a flight. Other than that, I plan to not be up in the air for a very long time. You can thank me for your enhanced upgrade chances!

There is no way that Delta will be able to run a plane profitably on that amount of social distancing for the long term, but I also think we will have more CARES act money coming the airlines way soon. There is no way in an election year the president or the congress will want to have the domestic airline industry absolutely decimated, especially since they didn't just let one or two of them fail right out of the gate. They will double down on their strategy and brag about how they saved those jobs. Especially with Georgia and Texas being big swing states potentially in this election.

Precisely. If demand returns blocking seats is not a fiscally responsible policy even if COVID-19 is not under control. If you are uncomfortable sitting next to someone else, don't travel. Personally I don't think COVID-19 will ever go away but hopefully it can be controlled. Each person is going to have to decide for themselves what risks they are willing to accept.

DL seems to permit anyone to buy two seats for any reason. Some other carriers, IIRC WN for example, require that the person be too big for one seat.

Maybe DL ieventually permit one to buy something like one and a half tickets or pay a fee (although Frontier got bad publicity for this policy and dropped it) to guarantee an empty middle seat, or DL could just promise to block middle seats in C+ or create the equivalent of EuroBusiness cabins and fares.