Hi all,
I’m a larger passenger (6’5”, ~400 lbs) and always book an extra seat for comfort and practicality when flying. I understand that most airlines don’t refund the second seat, so I usually just factor that into my travel costs.
Recently, I flew multiple segments with Delta Air Lines, including regional connections and mainline flights. Despite specifically booking an extra seat correctly (using “EXST” as instructed), my second seat was reassigned on every single flight—8 out of 8 segments.
Even after:
Booking seats in advance
Following Delta’s guidance exactly
Notifying gate agents before boarding
…the extra seat kept getting given away to standby passengers.
This led to repeated awkward and frustrating situations:
Having to tell standby passengers they couldn’t sit there
Being forced to squeeze into a single seat on some flights
Getting moved to different (sometimes broken/unusable) seats
Dealing with embarrassment in front of other passengers
On smaller regional jets, it’s not even a comfort issue—it’s physically not feasible for someone to sit next to me, which is exactly why I paid for the second seat.
I’ve submitted refund requests, but they’ve all been denied so far, and customer support hasn’t been helpful.
Has anyone experienced this or found a reliable way to:
Prevent the extra seat from being reassigned?
Ensure the booking is properly “protected” in the system?
Successfully get a refund in cases where the extra seat wasn’t honored?
Any advice would be appreciated, this experience has made me genuinely hesitant to fly again.
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