Feel like I hit the lottery----have you ever heard of this on an international flight???
 

I know that this probably should go to the Europe board or the airline board, but since my story starts in the U.S. I'm taking liberties with this post and doing it here!

My wife and I are off to Italy in October. We're traveling to meet a large group of friends in Sicily and will spend about 10 days in southern Italy ending with a return from Rome (FCO). When I booked our flights, I chose Delta because they had the best seating configuration on their 767-400 for coach 2-3-2 (I didn't want to spring for business class at about $7K per ticket even though we've traveled first or business on our last two flights to Europe). In any event, I booked our tickets and because I have gold status with Northwest I gave our WorldPerks numbers to the very pleasant Delta international agent. She told me that because I had elite status with an alliance airline I could be seated in the "premium" coach seats on the flight. This all made sense as Delta, NW and other airlines save some of the front of coach for folks with elite status. All I really wanted was seating on the outside of the plane so that my wife and I wouldn't be sitting with anyone else.

Earlier today I realized that I was sitting on nearly 500,000 miles that I had forgotten about (AMEX rewards miles along with Delta, Continental and NW miles) and so I called Delta just on the wild chance that I had tickets that could be upgraded with a combination of miles and/or $$. Another very pleasant Delta agent for international travel told me that I wouldn't need the upgrade, "Save your money for gelato" he said. He explained that the plane being used for flight 76 is actually in a "renovation" phase and that our seats assigned in row 4 A & B are actually business class seats!!! He advised me that we wouldn't get all of the perks of a typical business class flight, "Maybe a nicer meal but maybe not the flight kit.", but that we'd have the biggest seats on the plane. Have you ever heard of this????

DL is reconfiguring many of its 764 to international configuration with BusinessElite seats. But meanwhile, they're using some pre-configured ones to Europe, and only selling coach.

If you look at the seatmap on delta.com for your flight, you should see it has 6 seats across for Rows 1-7, and then regular coach starts from 10.

[For those with BusinessElite seats, coach starts from Row 15.]

You'll also see rows 1-7 appear to be 2-3-1 on the map. But in reality, they're 2-2-2.

These are domestic FC seats. So, while much more comfortable than coach, it's not the same as BE. Even if you want to spend miles to get BE, you can't.

Being assigned those seats are a benefit for being a Skyteam elite. You earned it by flying a lot.

American was also doing this for its 757-200 flights to Europe.

I wouldn't get too excited. They change planes and schedules all the time, and seats are not guaranteed until you have your boarding passs in hand, and not even then.

this happened to me twice going and coming from new zealand.

the service, however, was not business class, just the seats. so if you have a long flight, you may still want to upgrade for the amenities and service.

otherwise, you'll enjoy a comfy ride only.

so, yes, it happens!

kerikeri :)

I think some are missing the point.

There are only two types of seats on this domestic-configured 767-400. Rows 1-7 are doemestic first class seats. 39" pitch, 2-2-2 seating. Rows 10 onward are regular coach, 2-3-2.

There is no BusinessElite seats on this aircraft. And that's why DL doesn't sell business fares on these flights, and won't take your mileage upgrade.

Since the OP alrady gets seat 4AB in the front, there's no place to upgrade to. They're already in the best seats. And if there's any last minute substitution, that will mean a 767-300 or a 767-400 configured internationally. And the OP should be able to keep his 4AB seats if there is such a last minute sub.

So, there's no downside here. Nothing to worry about. Nothing else to do. Nowhere else to upgrade to.

I'm trying to picture this. So are you saying you'll be sitting in a row surrounded by people being served different meals in a different way from yours? Every time the attendants come by are they saying, "oops, never mind. You don't get the first class service we're giving to the people in front of you, behind you, and next to you"?

My guess is that everybody gets the same food. The agent was probably wrong.

But if the front cabin (row 1-7) gets better food, so be it. The people sitting in the back won't know those sitting in the front are paying the same. They'd think that's first class/business class.

Out of curiosity, I went to seatguru.com to look at the configuration of this plane. Seatguru notes that if you are flying Delta's 767-400ER trans-altantic in the next several months, the aircraft is being sold as an all ecomony plane. Seatguru recommends snagging a seat in the first class section for the extra room. It sounds to me that the OP has done just that.

That's right, we just caught a break. I recall when getting seating done that I couldn't do it on line, so I called Delta. I told the international agent for Delta that I thought it was odd that the seats in coach were numbered as low as they were---she didn't really know what was going on but was very nice to notice that our elite status got us in the premium seating. Even if the seating is more domestic business class than that used for transatlantic, we're happy! My original point was simply that I'd never had this kind of luck before.

It is not luck. You are a second level NW elite and airlines reward your loyalty with some perks. Like complimentary upgrade on most domestic flights on NW and CO when there's availability.

This is somewhat similar, as you're also getting a domestic FC seat. Only difference is that you get the upgrade early.