<p>We’ll start by saying I get that compared to other issues, this is small potatoes.</p>
<p>We bought our tickets a month ago through travelocity and at the time chose our seats. We even paid something like $29/ticket for the thrill of sitting in aisle 15. Nothing special or upgraded about the seats or location in the plane.</p>
<p>Both times when we went to print the tickets we suddenly had no seat assignment and had to get the assignment at the gate. The first time hubby called and said what’s the deal, we paid $58 and have a seating assignment already. The first time the csr fixed it. On the way back when he called again the csr asked if we bought the ticket through the delta website. When we told her we didn’t she informed us that they only honor seating assignments when purchased through the Delta website. It didn’t matter we paid for the upgrade. And apparently that’s because they don’t get all the money for that.</p>
<p>In fact the csr was so helpful, she gave us the last row on the plane, with no refund. The guy in front of us had a worse horror story and he heard exactly the same story from the delta personnel. You must purchase tickets through their website to not get bumped, to get seat assignments, etc.</p>
<p>Thankfully Delta isn’t the only airline, we’ll never fly it again. Oh - and thank goodness that poor guy who kept getting bumped realized that I had no window and no place to move and didn’t recline. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, most airlines treat passengers with tickets bought on travel websites as 2nd class. I only purchase tickets directly from the carriers as this sort of thing has been happening for several years. Sorry the trip was so upsetting, long gone are the glory days of travel.</p>
<p>Complain to Delta higher up the chain, but do not let Travelocity off the hook easily. Travel sites should do more to protect their customers. The airlines were given the unspoken green light for this kind of nasty behavior. </p>
<p>That wasn’t a delta problem. YOUR mistake was buying the ticket via a third party (e.g., travelocity, expedia, etc). A third party cannot confirm seat assignments on an airline; they can only request them.</p>
<p>I use those third party sites only to shop for a ticket, then I go directly to the airline’s site and buy it from them. Ditto for rental car & hotel.</p>
<p>Seems like there are more chances of problems if you book an airline ticket through a third party travel agent like Travelocity than if you book directly through the airline.</p>
<p>If the woman from Delta was asking if you bought the ticket from Delta, that would tell me she can’t tell from the reservation screen, so my answer would be “Of course I bought the ticket through delta!”</p>
<p>And Travelocity WOULD be refunding that money, for both flights.</p>
<p>Delta is trying to force everyone to buy through their website. I would always do that, However, fine print or not, Travelocity knows this completely, they ripped you off, and you need to demand that money back from them. I doubt you’ll get satisfaction from Delta, as they don’t want you to buy from others. This is a scam from Travelocity. How can they charge you extra for seats they have no control over?</p>
<p>I have flown on average 1 - 2 times per month for 20 years and I cannot think of a single airline that I have not had some kind of problem with. I agree that you should pursue this with Travelocity - maybe even with your credit cad company.</p>
<p>I am curious, though, does Delta have to pay Travelocity some kind of booking fee if you book a Delta flight through Travelocity? Why would Delta care where you bought your ticket?</p>
<p>“However, fine print or not, Travelocity knows this completely, they ripped you off, and you need to demand that money back from them”</p>
<p>Well, if they had a fine print somewhere saying that seats are not guaranteed and it was reasonable to believe that you should have seen the fine print, then you entered into a contract, and Travelocity would not be obligated to refund anything. I’m not saying that would be moral or ethical. How many of us click through this “boilerplate” crap to get to the desired screen fast? That said, as a good corporate citizen, they should refund you the money. </p>
<p>Done it both ways through Delta-direct and third party. I no longer do ANY third party transactions through Delta.
I don’t get any better deal through a third party and I certainly don’t get the same treatment… Delta customers who deal with them first line definitely get more first line treatment.</p>
<p>That would be absolutely everyone, according to a contracts professor I heard on NPR a few weeks ago. He did a study on this question and found that no one - zero, without rounding down - read those agreements.</p>
<p>I have seen lots of airline travel problems, but none with reservations and ticketing. This is probably because I usually book directly with the airline. The exceptions are usually where the code-share airline offers the ticket for a lower price than the operating airline*, in which case I call to get the operating airline’s record locator and use that to manage the reservation (seat assignment, check-in) with the operating airline.</p>
<p>*For example, some seats on a United Airlines flight may be sold through Air Canada, at a different price from what United Airlines offers those seats for.</p>
<p>I live in a Delta hub town, and HATE flying them. Southwest for me every time, but I had to fly Delta in an emergency a few weeks ago. Reminded my why I loath them…</p>
<p>Third party vendors (i.e. Travelocity, Expedia, etc) are not travel agents. Travel agents book directly with the airline. Third party vendors are more like football ticket scalpers. Buyer beware…</p>
<p>I NEVER never will book using travelocity again? NEVER. On a trip a few years ago, they changed my itinerary. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was I was arriving in Denver an hour AFTER my connecting flight departed. Yes…they issued me an itinerary where I was arriving an hour too late to catch the connection they had made for me!</p>
<p>I don’t remember the airline, but they were wonderful. It helped that I had their website open, and my original itinerary still existed and had empty seats. The airline fixed it.</p>
<p>Oh…and yes…I called Travelocity first. They told me there was nothing they could do. I’m totally done with them.</p>