Recently I flew from CLT via ATL to Oahu. The return was Maui to LAX to ATL to CLT (no equipment change from Maui to ATL). My flights and seat assignments were handled by a travel agent as I was coordinating travel to a wedding with several other people. The bride had asked that we all use the agent. This is not the way I normally handle my air travel. I decided I wanted to upgrade to business. I wanted to use my mileage bank to do this. I know Delta frequently offers "gate upgrades" for under $500 and I was prepared to do this in the alternative.
I initially wrote Delta and asked if I could upgrade. I was told that I could for approximately $4,000. Decided that wouldn't work. I was also told I could not use my miles. I am persistent so I did not give up hope. On my day of travel I decided to ask every Delta agent with whom I had contact about upgrading.
CLT desk agent: absolutely no way you can do it
ATL service desk: you can for $7,000.
ATL gate agent, number one: You can't use miles because you haven't converted your miles to points.
ATL gate agent, number two: No, we have no availability.
Suddenly in bright lights across the screen at the gate comes this announcement: Upgrades available for $250! Yippee, says I. No says gate agent number two, your fare (I paid almost $700 rt) doesn't allow it. One of my companions, who is Delta Silver level, not aware of my discussions but having the same fare, asked the Delta gate agent number 2 and was told the upgrade was only permitted for Hawaiian residents (no mention of this on the sign)! We eventually accepted defeat. The flight was on a Wednesday midday and was about 75% full so we were able to move about the plane and find seats with an empty seat next to it. Great.
Not so on the return. The flight was an overnight out of Maui, no empty seats on the flight. The agent had booked two of us in a three person row. The seats did not recline and toilets were at each end of the row. A relatively large man was seated in front of me and put his seat in full recline for the flight. To the right of my shoulder (I had an aisle seat) a light was on to illuminate the galley. The light stayed on all night. The flight departed Maui around 2200 and arrived at LAX a bit over four hours later. All passengers had to deplane and wait about an hour to reboard. During the time we deplaned maintenance went on board and removed every pillow and blanket.
Like I said in my title, I am just venting. There were clear information/service issues with Delta on the outbound. The return was just a hellish flight made worse by the removal of blankets and pillows (presumably since it was now daylight in LA it didn't matter that for the Hawaii passengers it was around 0200 and we still wanted those little amenities).
I realize I could have avoided some of these problems if I had booked my own flight and made my own seat assignment choices.
Again, just venting.

Your last line says it all. Brides don't get to choose everyone's travel agent. Still, it would seem like most or all of the shortcomings had nothing to do with who booked the flight and seat assignments can be changed by the traveler regardless. That kind of thing should be handled online and if that isn't possible for some reason, it should be done over the phone. Writing to Delta really isn't a good way to handle things like this before the flight. When a seat is fully reclined fully in front of you, the size of the passenger sitting in it is almost always going to be immaterial because it will leave you in the same situation whether it's a 70-lb. 10 year-old or a 300-lb. man. An upgrade that is only available for Hawaiian residents sounds a little strange and discriminatory (but hey, what do I know? There is other stuff like that in Hawaii and if you want to see people get defensive, just start asking about it as a non-Hawiian).

I also have no no idea about the Hawaiian-only deal, but:

- As Flyboy says, it pays to do some research and make calls on your own about the seats. You can check the comments on your seats on seatguru.com and call DL to change it in 10 minutes.

- Upgrades do depend on fare class. A $700 fare to Hawaii is definitely a discount fare, and you really cannot assume you're qualified to upgrade.

- Gate agents often don't know about the exact rules of upgrades. Gosh, there are like 20 different fare classes in DL's system, and I'm not surprised that most of them don't know exactly what your fare can or cannot do. A phone reservation agent is usually better at this, but personally, I find DL's outsourced agents in India often don't know as much as I do.

- Most airlines do not provide pillows and blankets on domestic flight these days, and your LAX-ATL flight is a domestic. Many passengers get on in LAX, not OGG or wherever. Therefore, you should feel lucky that you even get pillows/blankets on the first leg.

Anyways, flying is a chore, no question about it. The mistakes you make are: 1) didn't do enough homework - checking seatguru.com about your seats, calling to change; and 2) had your expectations too high.

Airlines are removing amenities and food services on flights these days, and most airlines fill their plane at 80%. 80% mean you cannot expect to have 3 seats for 2 person, period. And there are worse situations out there, like sitting on a full 757 flying 9 hours from Berlin to Newark, or stuck in a middle middle seat in a 2-5-2 layout for 10+ hours...

Just venting: what sadistic ghoul designed the 2-5-2 configuration?

cmcfong,
Do you still have your ticket or printed confirmation? It should indicate what fare class your ticket was booked in (designated by a single letter). $700 from the east coast to Hawaii sounds like a heavily restricted, discounted fare class to me.

On Delta, you cannot upgrade in advance using miles unless you're booked in one of the higher fare classes. I can't remember right now what the domestic fare classes that qualify are.

And if I recall correctly, any L/T/U fare is also not eligible for paid upgrades at the gate. I'm guessing you were booked into one of these fare classes.

Next time, you can do some research in advance by either searching or posting a question on the appropriate airline forum (in this case Delta Skymiles) on www.flyertalk.com and you'll get the answers and advice you need right away. In this particular case, the answer might have been 'no way you're going to upgrade', and you could have saved yourself a great deal of frustration.

Thanks.

Just one more thing. You can sometimes find discounted first class fares from the east coast to Hawaii on Delta for $1300-$1400. I don't know if the agent looked into this for you. If checking yourself, look for flights with A fare seats available. I believe AA and other airlines also offer discounted F to Hawaii in a similar price range.

BTW the first class A fares are cheaper than the lowest upgradeable with miles economy fares. As a matter of fact, if you choose the 'Coach (Flexible)' option on delta.com reservations, it should automatically display the A fare if available along with the economy B & Y fares.

Thanks, Patty. You certainly are a great resource. Frankly I doubt I ever take another long haul flight unless I am in business or first. Too old, I guess.

Delta has better had low FC fares to Hawaii. Most other airlines have international business-class type seats to Hawaii, but DL uses regular domestic FC ones. Quite a big difference in comfort.

Dear Lord, what a nightmare. Reminds me of the difficulties I have EVERY TIME I TRAVEL WITH DELTA. And if you're from Charlotte, why on earth would you stray from US Air? I love them. Easy to use frequent flier miles (I have seen on this website that some people have had trouble, but I have flown domestic, international, and upgraded, all on FF miles, with no trouble as to flight schedules, availability, anything). Delta on the other hand.... black out after black out after black out.... restriction restriction restriction. And most of the time their gate agents are rude when you ask. I don't get it--they used to be so wonderful...

scbelle, USAIRWAYS is the carrier I normally fly. Unfortunately the bride wanted all of us travelling together and asked us to go through a travel agent who booked me on Delta. As an earlier poster said, brides don't choose. However, I was under the impression more folks would be able to afford the trip if we all used the same agent.

I can understand wanting to go with the flow of the wedding... If I'm in your situation, I am going to remember your story, and go my own way!

No way to change things now, obviously. But I was under the impression that discounts from travel agents on air were a thing of the past. "More people would be likely to afford the trip" sounds like someone was getting free air to me as a perk from the travel agent (but maybe I am being cynical).

This sounds no different than the "deal" the travel agency on contract for the company my husband works for - we are encouraged to use them for personal travel as well - and the fares they find are almost always higher than what I can find on my own.

Airlines still give out group discounts, usually for a party of 10 or more. Don't know too much about how they work or restrictions, but I was part of a 10-person group that flew IAH-CDG on CO in spring of '04 for ~$330, tax included. About $50 off the already pretty low discount spring fare.

[But it wasn't really the best deal for some of us afterall, as we only earn 50% EQM, and EQMs are very important to some of my relatives. Could have got 100% by paying a little more and book on continental.com.]

Can't the person making the travel plans with the travel agent select seats for everyone in the party? This way he could avoid the last row that might not recline.

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