Originally Posted by ty97

Anecdote FWIW:

I flew via DTW today. Both of my flights had been 0 seats available in FC per the upgrade lists as of yesterday afternoon (I somehow snuck into the last seat via upgrade around check-in time for the first leg). By last night, with capacity controls lifted, the flights were showing 6 and 4 seats available in F, though both were already at COVID capacity for F. Today, neither flight processed any upgrades from the list to F and stuck to the stated policy. I am assuming (though can't know for certain) that this is because neither of the routes I was flying had any flights canceled, so they didn't need the capacity. I think it was the right way to handle it. Why fill up the cabin against your stated policy when there are no cancellations on the route to try to accommodate? (I sat in my C+ seat on the second leg and have no complaints).

Based on my single experience, I'm wondering if DL is only filling cabins where necessary to make up for cancellations? That's still not great if they are going against stated policy, but it's better than doing it on all flights across the board.

Also, while walking from my arrival gate to my departure gate at DTW, I did hear a gate agent making an announcement about Delta lifting the capacity controls (not sure what exact wording he used) for today and tomorrow. I did not take note of what city that flight was headed to though.

I had one leg on AA today as well. Completely full flights, with standbys trying to get on. And I got coke zero from the FA.

Originally Posted by rylan

Well it’s blatant mismanagement on DLs part. They should’ve been prepared and knew well in advance there would be issues yet they did nothing until last minute and canceled flights and pulled capacity limits.
And my flight had the GAs processing upgrades and clearing standby and non rev pax into F and C+

Originally Posted by xliioper

Flightaware shows 4 DL flights out of DTW cancelled today -- morning flights to LAX and ATL, afternoon flight to RSW, and evening flight to MCO. While this would certainly cause some capacity issues on those routes that had cancels and probably some hub-to-hub flights. The majority flights should not have seen much of an impact.

Originally Posted by KDCAflyer

Marketing is just that, marketing.

Originally Posted by KDCAflyer

I'm of the opinion that no compensation should be offered to anyone here. Marketing is just that, marketing. Seat blocking was never included in the contract of carriage.

I never bought from day one that blocking out seats protected anyone from COVID. I felt perfectly safe on my sold out AA flights. If Delta's actions were grounded in science, everyone else would be copying them still. The liability that the other airlines would have been exposing themselves to would have been unimaginable. If Delta's decision was based in reality.

Originally Posted by J_Stroming

HUH?!? So no company should be held accountable for anything they say to entice someone to buy their product. Gotcha.

Originally Posted by KDCAflyer

Delta stated in marketing materials that they were blocking seats through a certain date. The contract of carriage gives Delta a lot of flexibility in change things without notice. Every Delta passenger agreed to these terms when they bought a ticket. I see no liability here.

Originally Posted by rylan

It’s still false advertising and not getting what you expected when purchasing the ticket.

is it also ok if delta puts everyone on busses instead of planes? They’re still getting the pax to their destination...

Originally Posted by btonkid12345

Are people on this thread who are flying today and tomorrow planning to file a complaint with Delta, at least? If not with the DOT or their State Attorney General's office; it can't get any clearer bait and switch than this. They advertised something and failed to deliver, all because of an error on their part, and all to save money.

If that isn't fraud (and save me the nonsense of all the carve outs in the COC), I don't know what is. They clearly knew about their advertising but still had intent to collect the higher fares from more passengers (and as others here have pointed out, are still selling seats on flights that are already at their advertised capacity).

Originally Posted by AMflier

I'm flying LGA to MIA tonight. I specifically chose DL because of the open middle seat policy and the late flight because it was showing very empty, so empty I was afraid it would be cancelled.
My flight is still going but they cancelled the afternoon LGA to MIA and middle seats on my flight are being filled. We'll see what happens tonight.

Originally Posted by KDCAflyer

To be clear, I'm not enjoying having to defend Delta here. But people demanding compensation don't have grounds in this case IMO. Delta may issue it out of goodwill, but there is no obligation. I don't even really see refund requests based on this to be valid.

If you truly wanted to guarantee an empty seat next to you, buy one. Delta has that option.