Economy Comfort on Delta-dilemma

You could get assigned the upgraded seat when you check in ... however, it is more likely that you will be put in some random seat in regular economy. One of the perks for Delta Silver status Frequent flyers is the ability to get this type of seat if it is available at check in. Delta charges them if they book in advance, but they are free when selected during check in. So if there are silver medallion members on your flight, odds are they will choose the upgraded seats. Their regular seats become available and that is what you end up in.

If you don't pick a seat at purchase, then Delta will assign you a seat from the leftovers at check-in. What seats are open right now, even if you can't select them? Delta blocks off a fair number of 'preferred' seats (ie. toward the front window and aisle) for their elite flyers up until check-in time. General strategy is that if all that's left in general economy right now are middle seats in the back, then you might as well decide you're not going to select a seat yourself- instead, play seat roulette and see if Delta's IT department decides to assign you a seat from the unclaimed and unused pool of seats originally held for elites, or given up by elites who got upgraded to first class.

Me, I'm tall and leggy, so I generally do go for the Economy Comfort option when available but that's just because I really can stand the extra leg room. I'll also note that EC seats also will get you a slightly better position in line for customs & immigration on international flights.

The only seats shown available are the Economy Comfort. I think that with the strong possibility that frequent flyers will get upgraded, I will go ahead and spend the money and snag them now.

Thanks.

I see you've already made your decision, but the one time I paid a lot more for EC seats for an international flight that there really wasn't much more room. So it wasn't worth the cost.

At 6-2, every inch counts so I have found economy plus/comfort - whatever it is called - to be worth it. I was on a flight recently on Delta to New York and four or five of the economy seats up front were vacant along with a few middle seats. Haven't seen a plane that empty in a long time. When the door closed a couple of economy passengers moved to these seats. Within a couple minutes an attendant asked to see their ticket and they were promptly ordered back to their original seats. Since those seats are revenue generators like business class, I don't think airlines are in the moody to let people use them for free. Otherwise no one would purchase in advance or few would.

So the new Airline Motto is "Make Our Customers Miserable At Every Step In Hopes They'll Upgrade". Woo-Hoo, I can't for the old "What Goes Around Comes Around"...because it will eventually.

Tim, the truth is that most Americans focus on one thing only. the "initial price" (there's a reason Spirit airlines is INCREDIBLY profitable)

What's "coming around" is what we asked for as the flying public. We said "give us cheap" and there's a price for that.

It's actually a better deal. If you are only concerned about "cheap" you get cheaper. If you are willing to pay more for comfort/luggage etc then you can do that. But this way when you buy the "el cheapo' fare you aren't paying for things you don't want and/or need.

Flew Delta Economy Comfort to Paris last summer. Paid something like $120 pp each way to upgrade. You get about 4" more space in front of you and more recline. The section is less crowded than economy. No pods here. I think the extra room is worth it if you can afford it. Theactual seat is not upgraded and was pretty uncomfortable as the hours passed, but I was able to doze on and off with the help of a prescription med (flying scares me). The flight attendants came around frequently with drinks (water, soda, juice, alcohol), and the meal was standard airline fare -- edible, no accolades. You get priority boarding. If your expectations are modest, you probably won't be disappointed. The great thing about booking on Delta is that you can preview the available seats before you purchase a ticket. Try SeatGuru (as someone else mentioned) and scope out the seats to see what works for you.