Reserved seat disappeared

[racnwdow]

I have a flight booked (Delta) from Omaha to Rome.  On the way home, the leg out of Rome to Paris is actually on Air France.  When I made reservations in April through Delta, I paid to have a seat assigned (extended leg room) on all flights.  Air France required me to pay $23 fee if I wanted to reserve a seat at all.  I  got lucky and got a window seat with no seat in front of me (not a bulkhead).  I have an email with the reserved seat confirmations from April.  Saturday I hoped on Delta website to see how full the planes are and according to Delta I have no reserved seat for Air France and only about 5 seats available on the whole plane.  The back row and cramped  accommodations.  Has anyone had anything like this happen to them before?  What happened?  I have a call into Delta and expect a call back in about 40 minutes.  Not a happy camper at the moment.

[alidor]

Might of been an equipment change...

 

[mhb1757]

Look for the Air France confirmation number then log on to their site and see if they still have you listed as holding the assigned seat. This happened to us a couple of months ago on a Delta codeshare on Air France. Our original seats were still reserved but not showing on the Delta web site.

 

On the other hand we have a November flight booked to Lyon France on Delta and the AF flight from Amsterdam to Lyon has spontaneously changed our seat assignment 3 times now and I cannot change the seats on line. I have decided to just let it go since I figured it’s not a long leg of the trip and our experience with AF is that they do what they please and customer satisfaction  is not anywhere near the top of their priority list. 

 

Good luck. 

[racnwdow]

No change of planes.  Everything is the same.  Basically "so sorry".  Someone else has my seat.  They are refunding me my $23 for my assigned seat and I get a cramped seat. Doesn't matter that I have a printed confirmation from them stating I was assigned the seat.

[Zach1213]

6 minutes ago, racnwdow said:

No change of planes.  Everything is the same.  Basically "so sorry".  Someone else has my seat.  They are refunding me my $23 for my assigned seat and I get a cramped seat. Doesn't matter that I have a printed confirmation from them stating I was assigned the seat.

 

There's a chance it could have still been an aircraft change but a very minor one...for example, switching from one layout of A320 to another. Everything you see would still say it's an A320 (and possibly everything the person you spoke with saw, too) but it swapped between one of the three cabin layouts for European-based Air France A320s. That can throw off the whole thing, sometimes.

[*Miss G*]

This happens every time I book through Delta and one of the legs is operated by a partner airline.  Even though my booking shows my reserved seats, I will log into the partner airline to confirm.  Sometimes the seats are there for one leg but not the return, or vice-versa, so all I do is re-reserve the seat(s).  But you need to do this as soon as you have your confirmation # or you will lose the seat.  Just a heads up for the next time as it’s too late for your upcoming flight.  But keep logging back in just in case one opens up and you can snag it.

[Ashland]

12 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

 

There's a chance it could have still been an aircraft change but a very minor one...for example, switching from one layout of A320 to another. Everything you see would still say it's an A320 (and possibly everything the person you spoke with saw, too) but it swapped between one of the three cabin layouts for European-based Air France A320s. That can throw off the whole thing, sometimes.

This is exactly what happened to one of my upcoming flights with Air Canada...layout change. 

[AF-1]

Delta sent an email out two weeks ago to Skymile members.  The email stated one of the biggest feedbacks it received was from skymile members who were booked on codeshare flights; like Air France, KLM, Korea Air; and not being able to pick your seat until 24 hrs prior or not allowing you to access seat map on partner airline.  The email said they have now redone their booking website; for when you book on codeshare flight you can now pick your seat for all flights and it will show up under your Delta booking.  I have over 45 years flying internationally and been on all types of foreign carriers.  I no longer will book codeshares.  I will stay with Delta proper or American proper.  I know sometimes you can't do this because of the airport you are flying in or out of; but for the most flights I will use Delta only.  OP I feel bad and sorry for you. I have been in your situation too many times.

Edited September 24, 2019 by AF-1

[Ashland]

14 hours ago, AF-1 said:

Delta sent an email out two weeks ago to Skymile members.  The email stated one of the biggest feedbacks it received was from skymile members who were booked on codeshare flights; like Air France, KLM, Korea Air; and not being able to pick your seat until 24 hrs prior or not allowing you to access seat map on partner airline.  The email said they have now redone their booking website; for when you book on codeshare flight you can now pick your seat for all flights and it will show up under your Delta booking.  I have over 45 years flying internationally and been on all types of foreign carriers.  I no longer will book codeshares.  I will stay with Delta proper or American proper.  I know sometimes you can't do this because of the airport you are flying in or out of; but for the most flights I will use Delta only.  OP I feel bad and sorry for you. I have been in your situation too many times.

I also tend to fly DL or AA....This (October) will be my first flight on Air Canada...and I must say I haven't been very happy with the aircraft change that affected my business class seat for my connection flight...No business class at all and they moved us to the last seat in economy (when they made the change) and said when I called, they still considered that business class...We disagreed !!!! Moved our seat but now it's the 3 configuration not the 2 we prefer and booked originally.

[AF-1]

Ashland,  sometimes I think the foreign carriers just don't get it.  You pay or use miles to upgrade and that happens; it just is not right.  Enjoy your trip.  

[FlyerTalker]

22 hours ago, AF-1 said:

Delta sent an email out two weeks ago to Skymile members.  The email stated one of the biggest feedbacks it received was from skymile members who were booked on codeshare flights; like Air France, KLM, Korea Air; and not being able to pick your seat until 24 hrs prior or not allowing you to access seat map on partner airline.  The email said they have now redone their booking website; for when you book on codeshare flight you can now pick your seat for all flights and it will show up under your Delta booking.

 

And you believed them??  Perhaps they can claim this for AF/KL and KE, but my upcoming flights on China Eastern don't come up for seats from the DL website.  Plus, the China Eastern website won't process any tickets unless they are numbered on their own stock -- a DL ticket on MU metal will not show up with either ticket number or locator.  Took a phone call to China Eastern to reserve and now no way to confirm other than seeing it "unavailable" through ExpertFlyer.

 

OTOH, it was a way for me to burn off some of my SkyPeso stash for far less than flying on DL metal.  And the hard product on their 777 isn't too bad, with fully-flat and all aisle access.

 

[racnwdow]

On 9/23/2019 at 12:31 PM, *Miss G* said:

This happens every time I book through Delta and one of the legs is operated by a partner airline.  Even though my booking shows my reserved seats, I will log into the partner airline to confirm.  Sometimes the seats are there for one leg but not the return, or vice-versa, so all I do is re-reserve the seat(s).  But you need to do this as soon as you have your confirmation # or you will lose the seat.  Just a heads up for the next time as it’s too late for your upcoming flight.  But keep logging back in just in case one opens up and you can snag it.

I showed I had the seat in April when I booked.  And I still was assigned the seat about a month ago. This was a relatively recent happening.

[waterbug123]

On 9/24/2019 at 12:13 PM, AF-1 said:

 I no longer will book codeshares.  I will stay with Delta proper or American proper. 

 

Good luck with that if you do much international flying. It's generally impossible to book a Delta intra-European flight for example; FCO to CDG will always be operated on a partner airline and thus a codeshare flight. 

 

14 minutes ago, racnwdow said:

I showed I had the seat in April when I booked.  And I still was assigned the seat about a month ago. This was a relatively recent happening.

 

Frequently with European airlines, if you are booked in coach you actually can't select a seat for an intra-European leg until 24 hours before your flight.  Get your Air France record locator number (Delta can give it to you) and log in to your flight on the AF website and see what it shows for your seat options.  That's the best way to select seats on a partner airline anyway, to hopefully avoid these types of glitches.

[*Miss G*]

3 hours ago, racnwdow said:

I showed I had the seat in April when I booked.  And I still was assigned the seat about a month ago. This was a relatively recent happening.

 

Yes, my Delta documents always show that too.  But if you log into the partner site you will see that your “reserved” seats aren’t always reserved.  For instance, my flight next week showed I had no seats confirmed on the partner airline for the outward journey, but they were reserved for the return.  So I re-reserved the original seats (on the partner site) and they haven’t changed since.  If you use the Delta confirmation # when you log into the partner site it will retrieve your reservation and tell you what the booking # is for THEM.  There is an apparent disconnect between the two airline booking systems.

[*Miss G*]

3 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

Frequently with European airlines, if you are booked in coach you actually can't select a seat for an intra-European leg until 24 hours before your flight.  Get your Air France record locator number (Delta can give it to you) and log in to your flight on the AF website and see what it shows for your seat options.  That's the best way to select seats on a partner airline anyway, to hopefully avoid these types of glitches.

 

To add to the above... when I flew economy I needed to log into the partner airline to purchase the seats for that particular leg.  I could not purchase the partner airline seats through Delta so I’m thinking maybe only the Delta portion was purchased because $23 seems fairly low.

[AF-1]

Here is the Delta article I mentioned in my post.

https://news.delta.com/five-ways-delta-making-it-easier-travel-its-global-airline-partners

[travelplus]

What we learn from this is that even by paying a fee to reserve  a seat or extra legroom seat we can still end up with a cramped seat. Your assignment is never guaranteed due to equipment change, broken seat etc.   What I would do first is at online checkin at 24 hours before the flight ot choose a better seat and if not I would   plan to arrive to the airport early (3.5 hours) before the flight and see if they can get you a better seat. If  not you can try again at the gate.

Another option is to see if you can get Premium Economy during online checkin for a discount. Would give you more legroom and other extra amenities.  For me if its $100 more I don't look back and just pay it. Its worth it for my comfort. 

 

 

 

 

[waterbug123]

On 10/1/2019 at 12:33 AM, travelplus said:

Another option is to see if you can get Premium Economy during online checkin for a discount. Would give you more legroom and other extra amenities.  For me if its $100 more I don't look back and just pay it. Its worth it for my comfort. 

 

 

If you routinely find an upgrade to premium economy for $100 at check in, you should start playing the lottery, LOL.  I would expect a price like that for bumps to economy comfort/comfort+ type seats, but to get actual premium economy for only $100 extra would be a steal. 

[travelplus]

23 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

 

If you routinely find an upgrade to premium economy for $100 at check in, you should start playing the lottery, LOL.  I would expect a price like that for bumps to economy comfort/comfort+ type seats, but to get actual premium economy for only $100 extra would be a steal. 

Depending on how full the flight is and the airline is one can get a good offer to upgrade.

[waterbug123]

On 10/3/2019 at 5:34 AM, travelplus said:

Depending on how full the flight is and the airline is one can get a good offer to upgrade.

 

Not arguing that, just saying that if that $100 upgrade is for true premium economy then it's a real steal.  I would expect a rate like that more commonly is for economy comfort/comfort+, which many mistakenly believe to be premium economy.

[travelplus]

11 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

 

Not arguing that, just saying that if that $100 upgrade is for true premium economy then it's a real steal.  I would expect a rate like that more commonly is for economy comfort/comfort+, which many mistakenly believe to be premium economy.

It was for a  true Premium Economy Seat!!! If its available for such a seat then I buy it no questions asked.

[waterbug123]

13 hours ago, travelplus said:

It was for a  true Premium Economy Seat!!! If its available for such a seat then I buy it no questions asked.

 

Just curious which airline offered that and what routing it was for?