Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
I really thought about having this post as a Rookie Wednesday post but it is so important (and some don’t read “rookie” posts) that I wanted it to stand on it’s own and become part of the “Travel Essentials” tab here on the blog.
Do you notice a tiny little problem with the info from “My Delta” and my reservations above. Do you see what time I land and what time my next flight departs? And lastly notice the wording where the arrow points? Yeah, if not so sad it would be funny. And here is the really frustrating part:
I got no notice from Delta!
Delta really seems to be working on improving some IT issues. For example, they recently did a massive upgrade to the Fly Delta App that should, if things are working right, push gate and seat updates to you unlike before that had bits set in stone once you checked in. I really applaud them for these efforts as they were much needed.
But where Delta still has a major IT problem is cases like mine and why I preach and preach over and over that if you fly Delta that every Sunday you need to buy out the time to go over all your flights leg by leg to see if anything has gone wonkie as Delta may not tell you or worse. Worse you say?
If you do not check and see what is up as advised sometimes the Delta computers will just “fix” things for you. That sounds all good and cozy but in reality it can be a really nasty surprise. Like what?
- Your seat may change
- Your aircraft type may change
- Your upgrade may downgrade
- You may arrive at a vastly different time
- You may no longer receive a meal
And on and on. If you can think it with change issues it can and may have happened to you and you may not even know about it as Delta may, or may not, alert you to any of this. Yep, they may just make the changes and all you get is digital crickets.
On the plus side, due to these issues as I have talked about before, Global or Regional upgrade space may have opened up and again Delta has told no one. This just happened for me on my upcoming flight to Hong Kong and I am now sitting in Delta One all the way there and back. Does this mean that the first one to “jump” on the open space gets the seats and those who are slow do not? Honestly I do not know but this is why when I am waiting for GU or RU space I check each day by clicking on the extra created seat map as once that is selectable it is the notice the space has in fact opened up.
The bottom line to take from all of this is be proactive. Check your flights. Check on every single Sunday. Check each day when it comes to upgrade. – René
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Hi Rene, can you explain this further? The “I check each day by clicking on the extra created seat map as once that is selectable it is the notice the space has in fact opened up.” I see two seat maps that are almost identical. When you can select an upgraded seat your good?
Also the app upgrade is nice but it used to have a function that seems now to be missing. I liked in the past to be able to email my itinerary without the PNR or record locator attached. It seems the only way now is to go into each leg of the journey and email it. Which for one itinerary could be three or four separate emails! This function doesn’t even seem to be available on the website. I know for sure on AA’s website it gives you the choice. Any ideas?
@Jay – When the seat stays white you are not cleared. But as shown in linked post when it turns RED you can call and get the seat upgrade confirmed. No idea on a non-PRN workaround at this point.
This past Sunday Delta downgraded me to Comfort + from First class due to a schedule change. They claim they now have less seats in First Class but the reservation still shows as First but the seat is Comfort +. In reality they upgraded the plane with more seats and all they could state is we have the right to do this. In the end after 3 calls I got a seat back in the proper cabin but all they wanted to do was move me to a different flight or throw Delta money at me for keeping that seat when I paid for First. It does seem like they oversold First Class on this flight too which the agents couldn’t understand.
Rene, do you ever spend more time checking on the upgrade than being in such an upgraded seat?
@Roman – Sorry what?
I typically hold at least 25 reservations. I carefully choose flights based on price, itinerary, seat, meal, and equipment. I keep a detailed record of every reservation including the date(s) of any changes to flight numbers, itineraries, times, seat assignments, meals, and equipment.
I have flown more than 200K miles in the past twelve months. I’ve seen every kind of change imaginable and then some. For a 2016 Labor Day weekend reservation alone, there were 18 changes over 9 months. In another reservation in which I was to join two fellow DMs on an elite mileage run, Delta completely changed my itinerary but left my traveling companions’ itineraries alone. A call to the DM line got my flights back but the agent could not explain what Shena had done.
It takes time but for me it pays to diligently check my reservations.
Wayne
@Wayne – Thanks for your detailed comment. It is nice to tweak, for the better, via the schedule change rules!
I feel quite sure Roman’s comment was a dig at you but it does point to how much time delta forces us to spend just trying to receive that which we paid for. In this day and age of computers, flying should not be so complicated.