Delta Air Lines They lock down almost all the seats on the plane and force you to buy premium seats if you want changes Atlanta Georgia

Delta Air Lines is a rude airline and so far, one of a kind. I have flown with many other airlines in the world and never encountered such blatant attempts at ripping customers off and treating them like idiots.

I was told by their agents to go online 24 hrs before the flight to change my seating so I could be with my travel companion (seats together).

Apparently, their policy is to pre-assign all "general population" (read: peasant) seats when people book their tickets, which means that ALL the seats that I could change to were already blocked out. 

The agent KEPT telling me I could upgrade to a premium seat that was still available and all would be fine. I do not want to and cannot afford to do so but it seems that is all they offer.

This happened not once but on 3 of the 6 legs I was flying with these guys over the course of a week. 

They have crafted their airline to ensure that no seats are ever available to freely change to from whatever they already assigned to you. You are stuck with whatever you get and if you want something else, they almost force you to pay for it. 

Other airlines give you some wiggle room before the flight to go online and change the seats to work in your favour. In 30+ years of traveling, I have never seen such a ridiculous excuse of an airline.

Do not fly Delta. You will be sorry.