Are you tired of the extra fees that airlines charge for seat assignments? Airlines have increasingly turned to seat assignment fees to boost their revenue. Passengers must understand their rights and how to navigate these fees. Not surprisingly, airlines have written the rules in their favor, and there’s not much you can do about it.
Selecting Your Seat
There are many things an airline can charge you for, including but not limited to these seating fees:
- Premium seats (bulkhead and exit row)
- Extra Legroom (Comfort+, Main Cabin Extra, etc.)
- Preferred Seats (Closer to the front of the plane)
- Everything but the middle seat
When you choose a seat, you’ll see a graphic showing all available seats and any additional fees, if applicable. Despite appearing to have a set seat assignment, legally, you’re only given a number on a screen or piece of paper. The airline isn’t obligated to provide you with that specific seat.
A passenger seated next to us on a Delta flight found this out the hard way.
When Can An Airline Change Your Seat Assignment
The quick answer is that an airline can reassign your seat whenever it wants. They don’t even need a reason. However, airlines don’t like to move passengers around unless they have to since it opens them up to having angry passengers. Imagine paying for a Comfort+ aisle seat and ending up in a Main Cabin middle seat.
That’s why airlines try to avoid moving passengers around except when necessary. However this type of “necessary” happened on our flight when we had a last-minute equipment change. Initially, our seating map on a 767-400 looked like this:
Within 24 hours of departure, our plane was swapped for a 757-300. This meant that instead of having 4 aisle seats per row, there were only 2, and 2 middle seats per row instead of just 1. Consequently, some people with aisle seats ended up with middle seats, including both me and my wife (we originally had 2 aisle seats, across from one another, on the 767-400).
I had little to complain about since I didn’t pay for seating assignments. The only open non-middle seats on the new plane were preferred seats, and while I didn’t want to pay extra for a one-hour flight, the Delta SkyClub agent moved us, so we were sitting in a window and middle seat. As we boarded the plane, we met our aisle mate, who also was bumped from an aisle to a middle seat. The main difference was that he paid extra for a Preferred aisle seat.
If no aisle seats were remaining, would he have any recourse?
Passenger (lack of) Rights
You need to look at the Contract of Carriage for information about your legal rights. Delta Air Lines’ contract is straightforward.
Delta will exercise reasonable efforts to transport you and your baggage from your origin to your destination with reasonable dispatch, but published schedules, flight times, aircraft types, seat assignments, and similar details reflected in the ticket or Delta’s published schedules are not guaranteed and form no part of the Contract of Carriage. Delta may substitute alternate Carriers or aircraft, change its schedules, delay or cancel flights, change seat assignments, and alter or omit stopping places shown on the ticket as required by its operations in Delta’s sole discretion. Delta’s sole liability in the event of such changes is set forth in Rule 23. Delta is not responsible or liable for making connections, failing to operate any flight according to schedule, changing the schedule or any flight, changing seat assignments or aircraft types, or revising the routings by which Delta carries the passenger from the ticketed origin to destination.
If an airline moves your seat to one less expensive than the extra amount you paid, they are only required to refund the difference. Even in that case, they’ll usually require you to request a refund.
Final Thought
It’s important for airline passengers to be aware of the potential for seat assignment changes and the limited rights they have in such situations. Airlines can reassign seats at any time, and passengers may not have much recourse if they end up in a less desirable seat than the one they paid for.
Whatever you do, please be considerate to the airline employees you talk with to fix the problem. They weren’t the ones who reassigned your seat or swapped planes, so it’s in your best interest to work with them rather than against them. While they might be able to find a solution, sometimes it’s impossible. In those instances, find out how to file a claim to get a refund for services that were not provided.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
1 comment
JAL has repeatedly changed my and my wife’s assigned seats on us. Since my wife and I both really want window seats the only time we can both have one is when we’re flying business or first class where the seats are 1-2-1 across. I book that every time so we can both be happy. JAL has switched us to middle seats in first class the last two times we flew with them. It made for an unpleasant start to our flights.