Back in November of '06 it was decided that the entire office would be attending Comic-Con. I took it upon myself to begin the search for flights. For those of you who don't know me, I take pride in "traveling right" (I'd like to think I coined that before Expedia, but as I have no proof I'll have to let that one slide). As such, when I came across roundtrip airfare from PHL-SAN for the low-low price of $219, I knew it was time to pull the trigger. I quickly snagged 2 tickets for Tom and I on Sunday and 6 for the rest on Wednesday. Even better, I got a 3% discount for using an American Express card, lowering the price to $213. Our reservations were in place and there was much rejoicing. Ok, well, that's a lie. There was much rejoicing among those of us excited to go, and groans from the rest. I'll let everyone figure out which responses match up with which staff members :)

Fast forward to two months ago when I received a call from Delta informing me of a flight change that would cause Tom and I to miss our connecting flight. I spent 5 minutes on the phone discussing our options and decided to take a later flight with a layover in SLC as they had a nice lounge to relax in. When I inquired about seats they said they were unable to assign them at that time, but assured me that I would be given seats upon check-in. While I didn't like the sound of that, I always end up changing my seats to the emergency exit row at the start of the 24-hour check-in window anyway, so I wasn't bothered.

The 24-hour window began as I was hiking down the Watkins Glen trail in the finger lakes region of NY. As such, I stepped to the side of the trail, pulled my laptop out (which I backpacked up), plugged in my cellular modem and logged into Delta's webpage to ensure proper seating for Tom and I. Now, if you're thinking this sounds extreme or a bit OCD-like, I'd have to say yes and yes, but I digress. I typed in our confirmation number and navigated to the seat selection stage but instead was taken directly to the print page where our tickets said "see gate attendant". It was at this point where I became concerned.

At the exit of the trail I placed a call to the reservations line and pleaded my case. The representative understood our situation and said she would go ahead and give us seats, exit row seats at that. After repeated attempts to do so, the computer wasn't allowing her so I asked for her supervisor. While I was then speaking to someone else, the story remained the same. As the flight was now under 24 hours out, it was in the hands of the airport and there was nothing she could do over the phone. I explained to her that in decades of flying, I'd never stepped into an airport without a confirmed seat, that I didn't feel comfortable doing so and that it sounded like the flight was oversold. She repeatedly insisted that my tickets were confirmed, that there was plenty of space and that it would be taken care of at the ticket counter, NOT the gate. After 60 minutes of back and forth, I gave up (this is EXTREMELY rare) and accepted my fate.

As Tom and I sat in traffic in the Terminal E departures lane at the airport, he asked why there was such a backup. I quickly responded that this Terminal was shared with Southwest and it would certainly be "amateur hour". I'll save that rant for another day, but let's just say while I'm willing to take extreme measures to ensure comfortable travel, any group of flyers who are content to sit on the floor at the front of the line for 2 hours to get a good seat for a 45 minute flight aren't the type of people I want to travel with. Once we managed to get through the horde of idiots, we stepped up to the self check-in computer and slid our card. The computer quickly found the flight but still refused to let us select any seat, for either flight. I promptly alerted the attendant who suggested that we take care of this at the gate. Tom's agreed and said "just hit print". While that would have been a logical thing to do, I outright refused to leave that counter without a seat, any seat. I'm not sure if he was sympathetic to our situation or it was so busy he figured complying would be the fastest way to disperse with us, but we walked away from the counter with seats for both flights, and exit row seats at that. Normally at this point, I'd proceed to the airport lounge for a complimentary beverage, but since Delta made the genius decision of placing their lounge outside of security, we thought it best to get through that gauntlet as soon as possible and just wait in the terminal for our flight.

As we're waiting by our gate, we notice there's a line forming at the counter. I point out to Tom that that would have been us and that our seats were a far more comfortable place to be. Then comes the kicker, the gate agent comes on the microphone and offers $400 and a hotel room to anyone willing to take a flight out the next day. In other words, the previous day the twat on the phone LIED to me and the flight was indeed OVERSOLD. I finally felt vindicated and got a solid "yay for traveling with Tim" from Tom.

Sure, it seems that we won the fight that day, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they purposely put that seat-kicking 3 year old behind me.

Touché, Delta.