Delta Forced My Eight Year Old Son to Fly Alone

test

Spirit assigns seats when you are at the airport. So if you get there
early enough (we found out the hard way once when we didn't) then your
family can sit together. It's the latecomers to the airport that get
moved anywhere. Unfortunately they are still fairly small in size and
do not travel everywhere.

Honestly, your 8 year old son could probably give a crap less about an
apology from Delta Airlines! Get to the real point! lol

I've moved seats three times this year for families in just this sort
of situation. No problem. Twice I was asked by the parents & once by
the FA.

The one time the FA asked it was because I was giving up an aisle seat
for a center seat. As I have no NEED to sit on the aisle (bladder of
steel, ;)), this wasn't that big of a deal to me. Regardless, she
gave me a bottle of wine for my "inconvenience".

Did you ask the FA for help with this? Or just ask the folks around
you? I can't believe someone wouldn't have worked with you.

I can understand it would be really frustrating to think you have your
seats altogether & find out that's not the case just as you go to fly.

I found the following info on the Delta website in regards to seating
selection. I personally don't thin that over booking the flight
amounts to needing to change a seat assignment to accomodate a need
for someone with a disability. I still think he has a legitimate
gripe.


Seat Selection

With our online interactive seat map, you can confirm your seat in
three mouse clicks. In some cases, seat assignments are made
automatically based upon your preference for a window or aisle seat,
noted in your profile.

If your seating preference is not available, "NA" will appear in the
"Seat Assignment" column of your itinerary. In this case, you will
receive your seat during check-in on the date of departure.

We accommodate the seating requirements of customers with certain
types of disabilities. This could result in the occasional need to
change another individual's pre-assigned seat, with bulkhead seats
being particularly subject to reassignment. We appreciate your
cooperation in these special circumstances

As others have said, you could have sat in his seat then son could
have sat with his mother and sibling. I'm sure there were other
parents on that flight and would have moved around to help out.

My stepdaughter has been flying from Florida to PA since she was 5
years old since her parents' divorce. For 75.00 each way a flight
attendant was there to bring her on and she was the first one off the
plane too. She is now 19 and has more air miles than I will ever have!

I completely agree with you about the seating, however, could you
please answer the $64,000 question... Did you ask anyone for
assistance?

"First I would Like Delta Airlines to send a written apology to my
son."

I've asked this before. What are you going to do with a written
apology? Frame it as proof that you forced an all mighty airline to
grovel at your feet? If you get it, it's going to come from a customer
service person who's never laid eyes on you and has a stockpile of
form letters to sign the appropriate exec's name to and send you. I
know. I used to be that CS person. Knowing that, will you still feel
important when you receive it? I imagine your son doesn't care about
receiving a letter, either.

"Second I would like Delta to show me just how important a customer I
am to them"

You are every bit as important to them as every other passenger that
has ever been on one of their flights and had their seat changed. No
more, no less. Did you think you were the first? The most important?

From the way this letter is written, it sounds like only one family
member (the 8-year old) had to sit separate from the family. Is there
a reason that one of the "adults" couldn't have taken the separate
seat. That would have allowed the 2 young children to sit with one
parent.

I totally agree with the other commenters - you should have asked the
flight attendant or a nearby passenger if there would be someone
willing to switch seats. I know I would have switched in a heartbeat
if someone had asked.

How many letters about this are there going to be?

1. Your son was not flying alone. He was seated away from you, but you
were on the same plane as him.

2. Write this down on a cue card and use it in the future. "Excuse me,
my son is young and is not quite used to flying. Would someone near us
be willing to switch seats with him so that he might sit by his
parents? Thank you, I know he would deeply appreciate this."

3. You want a freebie because your seating plan was messed up? If I
got airline credits for every bump in my travel plans, I'd be visiting
London this spring break.

I have to agree with the others who asked "did you ask"? The FA's
will usually do their best to try and accommodate you.

This is not inherent to Delta but occurs on all airlines, seat
assignments are not guaranteed. I'm not saying I agree with it, just
stating a fact.

First of all, if you spoke with a flight attendant they may have been
able to help. Someone on the plane would have moved so you could sit
with your son. From time to time, they have to change seating
arrangements for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they changed the
airplane to a different model. It happens. I was upgraded to first
class once because of this. Next time, ask for help instead of
expecting something to just come to you.

I went to great lengths to keep my family together on this flight.
The seats were assigned to us -- we have our purchase confirmation
dated in May that shows our seat selection. My son may be
"technically" old enough to fly alone, but we chose for him NOT to fly
alone. Our choice - one they took away from us when they unilaterally
took our seats from us to accommodate other passengers. We were not
consulted, informed, or even apologized to. And, we were basically
told "too bad. Nothing you can do. Flight is oversold." What does
"oversold" mean? They sold more seats than they have? And how does
that relate to taking our seats and reassigning them to other
passengers - without even telling us?

Yes, it does happen all the time - and most people just accept it and
take it -- and thus, perpetuate it. This is an unacceptable business
practice, one we just accept as routine. Though it is obviously the
airline's perogative to oversell its flights (though it should be
illegal to sell something it does not have), it is mine to fly another
airline as a result and to let them know they lost a very frequent
customer. In addition, It is my perrogative to post my frustration and
dissatisfaction on Planetfeedback and let other readers of this forum
decide for themselves if they wish to fly with a carrier that operates
this way.

I suggest this only because you don't mention any problems with
disagreeable co-passengers, but did you ask the flight attendants if
they could ask people to move to accommodate your request? I've had
that happen on many flights, and someone always relinquishes their
seat, happily.

I have picky seat choices. It's too bad that seat reservations really
don't exist anymore.

No matter how crowded flights are, this is still a service industry.
A flight purchased ahead of time for a family, when seats together
were available at the time, should remain as such. What if we
purchased concert tickets and they over sold the concert - would they
then be allowed to split up my group to best meet the needs of the
venue? Why would any other customer be better accomodated? Why would
he not get what he purchased?

While an 8 year old certainly could fly alone, and is capable of such,
I doubt it was an enjoyable flight for him.

I would say situation this would be acceptable only if the family was
the one being added to the flight and this was how they could be
seated to add them.

I am planning a trip from CA to Florida next year - I won't be booking
on Delta(assuming that they are even an option), thanks to this
letter.

Could not a switch of passenger around one of the three clusters (you,
child, wife+child) be made by a considerate passenger?

I wonder if this will be happening more and more if flights are
eliminated and the remaining ones are flown closer to capacity.

This happens all the time, as you pointed out yourself. So you should
not have found this to be a surprise. I don't think they are going to
do anything for you. Your son is old enough to fly alone, knowing you
are nearby. What would have been real nice would have been for a
neighboring passenger to move to accomodate your needs. Did you ask?