pampa

We don't seem to get lucky with Delta. We say we'll never fly them again, then a deal pops up, and keep having problems.

My wife was just bumped from first to comfort+ SEA-LHR and we had to call to get her moved to premium economy (yay computers). At this time, it's too late to buy another first class ticket in another airline (twice the normal price). And seriously, we bought this ticket in March and she was the one bumped?

She has Delta One ticket on the way back, but if they change the airplane, it'll probably happen again (I think moving from A330-300 to NEO, not sure). Now it's too late for us to do anything (she's there, I'm here in Europe already). If this happens on the way back, is there anything we can do?

Seriously, I'm thinking on not buying Delta One again and only use Delta in last case scenarios when I need a short flight somewhere. This happened one time to us on American, with a ticket bought through Chase. We called American (because Chase has its own problems), they helped us in paying a nominal fee to move the ticket to them, and they put us in another flight with BA in business. Delta has just one nonstop from Seattle, but we'd be glad to go with a connection. In fact, I may tell my wife to try that, although she'll miss another flight here in Europe coming later.

GrayAnderson

Are you willing to connect somewhere? If so, you could ask to route via BOS, JFK, DTW, ATL, or LAX. (I would not recommend re-routing through all of them...) You might also ask to be reaccommodated on VS.

pampa

VS is a god idea. We'll keep that in mind for the flight back. Wife is fed up but prefers to take the flight to not miss the other one. We won't have this problem on the way back.

Goodoldflyer

If you're paying for business class, you should get business class, or a refund.

Turns out other airlines have business class, too.

fotographer

do you know why she was bumped?

pampa

Change of plane. The new one is an A330-NEO and has 8 less Delta One seats.

We bought this ticket in March with miles, so maybe she was bumped because of it. And honestly, I've been trying to use these miles since 2020 with no avail. And the tickets cost 500k miles, I'm not even kidding. We just wanted to get rid of them since we are never able to use them for one reason or another.

Phone people explained computers do these things when she asked why she wasn't moved to premium economy in the first place.

I know people keep saying Delta is the best airline in the US but most times I've tried to use them we had problems. United always finds a solution, so did American, and even British - regardless if we're using miles or not. Delta one time canceled on us and said they only could take us home 5 days later for a LAS-SEA return trip.

wrp96

If she is downgraded on the return from Europe, then she will qualify for 75% of the fare back under EC261/UK261.

jrl767

75% of 500K RDM

does 261 even have a miles-to-cash conversion factor to apply?

ConnieDee

Yikes, being bumped out of D1 is my worst fear, since I no longer fly overseas on anything but because of health reasons. Lie-flat is the only way I can get some sleep (this makes a quite a tangible difference to energy levels after arrival.) Appreciate the heads-up these posts provide, but will have to work on Not Worrying about my long-booked SEA-HND D1 flight in October. I don't have status, (my status has always been based on vacation trips, so I'll probably regain Silver after this trip.)

Is there any advice on playing the "old person with health issues card" in this situation? Luckily I purchased very, very expensive refundable D1 tickets so I could theoretically change dates at the last minute, but who knows re: availability.

buckeye91

Do you know when the equipment change occurred? Same day or during a Schedule Change Saturday? I check all of my future itineraries, including times and equipment to avoid something like this from happening.

pampa

Not sure when the plane was switched but it was in the last week for sure since I checked just before I left for London about a week before.

Update on this: I didn't have much time to update since we've been busy but she ended up being back on Delta One albeit at the last minute.

When she arrived at the airport and after she went through security (with the premium economy boarding pass), she checked the app and learned she was downgraded to economy again. So she was in the phone with Delta as she was entering the lounge (Priority Pass). It turns out the plane had switched back to the original one so she was moved to economy again for some reason. In the call, she was finally moved to a Delta One seat.

The flight left 2 hours late and boarding was chaotic. People had a mix of boarding passes and seats were moved around. FAs told people to seat as fast as possible to their assigned seats but I guess they might have changed a bit for some. Luckily, she fixed her problem by calling them beforehand.

In the end, Delta gave her several thousands of miles (plus 3000 due to a problem with in flight entertainment that appears to have gone to a lot of people). Let's hope it doesn't happen on Sunday when she goes back.

For what it's worth, she loved the food, the in-flight service, and the fact that both calls to Delta took about 10 minutes to get her problem fixed.

Dallas49er

Free ticket..

Goodoldflyer

Seriously, they should have re-routed, not bumped.