A few weeks ago, I wrote about our family’s trip to Seattle. We’re heading out there on an Amtrak train (thanks to the $1100 in vouchers I got from complaining about our LAST trip) and then flying back one way from Seattle to Cincinnati. Amazingly, for all the crap that the travel hacking community gives them, DELTA had the best availability back – there were MULTIPLE flights on the day we needed that had EIGHT saver seats available
(SEE ALSO: Why is American award availability so awful?)
(SEE ALSO: Ugh – United Award ticket availability seems just as bad!)
Enter… the SCHEDULE CHANGE
Then last week I got an email from Delta, letting me know that my flight had a schedule change.
Normally I don’t mind schedule changes as they can often open up better flights – that’s how I got 16 extra hours in Rome (for free!)
As you can see, it didn’t change things by much – only a few minutes on our SEA-SLC flight, which actually gives us a bit more time to connect in SLC (it’s going to be a tight run!). But what interested me was the link to “Choose Seat” for my SLC-CVG leg.
Wait? Where did my seats go?
Picking seats for a family of eight is a bit of an …. adventure. Poor seat selection led to an on-plane argument with another passenger which culminated in her telling my wife and I that we were “the type of people that shouldn’t have children” (direct quote)
So hoping to not repeat that, we actually sat down and picked out our seats for our 2 upcoming flights. (Well, how would YOU arrange 6 kids on a plane?)This was the configuration that we ended up with
The idea was an adult in 13C and 13D that can wrangle the 2 kids in their own row PLUS the extra kid in the row in front of them. You can see that this pic is the SLC-CVG flight as we’re in rows 13-14, as opposed to rows 21-22 on the SEA-SLC flight (pictured above)
But NOW, when I logged in, I saw us arranged like this
Umm…. that is not going to work! Actually that wouldn’t be HORRIBLE but certainly not ideal! I’m not sure what happened there – perhaps something to do with the schedule change resetting everyone’s seats? I know Delta (and other airlines) like to charge you to pick your seats or to select “good” seats, but I already had seats picked out!
(SEE ALSO: Should airlines be regulated to ensure parents sit with children?)
(SEE ALSO: Why yes, I WOULD like to pay $15 for the seat right next to me)
I am hopeful that I can get someone at Delta to fix this for me, but in the meantime I did end up configuring things slightly differently as a worst-case scenario
Anyone have any tips for me on how to get this fixed? Will Delta reservations be able to open up seats like this, or are the “dark” seats already taken by other passengers?
- Ever been bit by no Delta one ways with Alaska miles? It stinks.
- Last Day for a Chase Amtrak transfer! Here’s where I’m going with my points – what about you?
- Would you rather transfer 60K SPG points, or 75K American Express points?
- Amtrak points for sleeper travel is DEAD… or is it?
- Where our family of 8 is going for 40,000 miles and $93 (it's further than you think!)
- Delta just SPLIT UP my family!
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Read my blog 🙂
.
Pay attention to Schedule Change Saturday warnings ie almost every Saturday every week.
.
Use Delta Assist to check on seats that seem blocked that are maybe not.
Thanks Rene! I’ll definitely check that out
two words: gate agent.
My family of 3 was split up on a flight with only 2 empty seats (not together). Got to the gate and the agent magically got us a row of three together. Clearly your situation is a lot harder, but the powers of the gate agent are nothing to sniff at.
I would move #5 to the middle next to #1 and ask the person sitting next to #4 to switch with #7 when boarding.
Maybe $320 for C+.?
This is one of the reasons I love Southwest. We had the same thing happen to us because of a schedule change on 3 /4 legs resulting in our family being scattered with no seats together when we had picked our seats next to each other months ago. Luckily we ended up getting one of us by our 2 year old but the other parent was separated on 3/4 flights. Not ideal but we all made it there.
This is exactly the kinds of issues I have been addressing in my articles and posts. Delta has just gone crazy when it comes to their IT department, online booking and continual schedule and equipment changes. And yes, these things happen A LOT!
No, all the blacked out seats are NOT sold! I would urge you to appeal to Delta head on at their reservations desk, or on their website under the tab “Comment/Complaint” but get their attention and assistance to sort this out for you! DO NOT wait for the Gate Agent to save you. They are already overworked and if the flights are booked or oversold, their options will be VERY LIMITED by the time the flight gets in their hands (less than an hour before departure.)
Additionally, Delta is headed down a dark alley come May 16th when they start their Comfort+ “W-fare Class” fares, which are the Comfort+ seats, where elites used to be able to get at booking, will END!
Elites traveling with companions will be dragged down to LOWEST elite level (if any) of any of the companions! Yikes!!
I urge everyone to speak out, contact Delta, write Delta and make your voices heard! Family travel is the LOWEST priority to Delta Air Lines unless you want to PAY for the ‘privilege’ of flying together!
Going forward, Delta will DESTROY Family travel!
I have written a few articles on this issue on my own site…but we need the voices to be heard!
How coincidental that the exact same thing happened to me today. I called delta to get it fixed but after 25 minutes or so on the line, they said there’s nothing they can do except move us to the last row where they have “family seats” blocked off. I had her move us to those, even though I had originally reserved better seats further up. They’ve done this to me more times than I can count and it’s very frustrating.
Ugh super annoying!
It truly is interesting that:
1) a domestic flight customer leaves home early enough to get to airport security 2 hours early (and also allowing for a 30 min traffic delay)
2) after leaving home, a tractor trailer overturns and blocks the freeway
3) customer calls airline alerting to situation
4) customer doesn’t get to gate at least 15 minutes before boarding starts, solely due to the overturned tractor trailer
5) AIRLINE CANCELS THEIR ENTIRE RESERVATION
1) AIRLINE’S PLANE BREAKS DOWN, STRANDING PASSENGERS FOR HOURS OR MORE THAN A DAY — GOOD LUCK GETTING THEM TO REALLY HELP YOU
This sort of nonsense has to stop