Delta domestic prices query

[RonnieB]

I was panicking about booking a flight into NYC from Atlanta around memorial Weekend in May as the prices were going through the roof, into all 3 airports, up to triple the weekend before or after – but when I went to book and got to seat selection, there were hardly any seats booked? Is this just opportunistic by Delta because it’s that weekend or some other reason. As an example, main cabin reward flights are 18k one way, when normally around 6500 points.

[ChrisC]

Not everyone is obsessed with selecting seats the moment they book.

Seats maps are useless at trying to see how busy a flight is.

Memorial Day Weekend is a major travel event and so I’d expected flights to be full and get more expensive.

[RonnieB]

ChrisC wrote:

Not everyone is obsessed with selecting seats the moment they book.

Seats maps are useless at trying to see how busy a flight is.

Memorial Day Weekend is a major travel event and so I’d expected flights to be full and get more expensive.

I dunno – you seem to be contradicting your own argument, seat selection on Delta is free at point of booking with main cabin and above so why wouldn’t you?

But I agree with point about Memorial Day weekend, I suspect they are just anticipating demand rather than there actually being current demand.

[merlin90]

If you have an ExpertFlyer subscription you can check availability. As ChrisC notes, the seat map (even if seat selection is free) isn’t always the best gauge of how busy a flight is, particularly this far out.

[ChrisC]

No it’s not contradictory.

Just because seat selection is free does not change the fact that a lot of people aren’t that bothered about where they sit.

I thank those people because it gives the people who do select as part of the booking process a wider choice.