bumped by delta
 

I was traveling Edinburgh to JFK JFK to Orlando got on the plain at JFK to discover someone in my seat. My 2 children and fiancee had a seat but not me I complained right away . Another 3 people came on with the same seats as my fiancee and 2 children. what was going on. The airhostess called for a manager who asked us to get off the flight or security will. We got off right away only to discover delta saying we are very sorry but we have overbooked you .My son was ill and I have a broken back and was suffering bad . 20 other members of our family were still on the flight not knowing what was going on we booked these tickets together in Jan and could not understand why we could not get on. My cases were all on the flight and they advised us we could not get them back . I just melted to the floor I could not walk any further due to my broken back also we had hand lugage and my son who is 2. I just gave up my buggy 5 minutes ago surley you can give me that. They sent someone who then returned with my cousins buggy I said I will take it but can you please let them know I have it and they can have mine until we get this sorted they advised me to go back on the plain to tell them myself . I hobbled along and got on the flight advised them what was happening and that I had their buggy and hobbled back off . Still in shock and crying we were all sent to walk to the shuttle bus to a taxi rank and go to the Ramada untill the next day were we were sent by taxi to laguada to fly to orlando 8.30pm that night .we had meal vochers worth 7 dollars each they were worthless as the cheapest meal was 20 dollars. I had no phone and no way of contacting my family.we were well into our holiday spends before we even reached laguada. the whole experiance was a nightmare!!! I cant believe it happened and that we got the same compo they were offering to volenteers even before we got on the flight 400 delta dollers each. We have tried to redeam them to discover we cant I have emailed delta no reply as yet would like some advice if You have any.My friend works for security at Edinburgh airport and she thinks security has been breached on several points I have made . I am very sad and dont feel we got the compo we deserve as we were on the fliight and had been in the gate for 3 hours or more prior to take off.I went to the delta counter as soon as I got to JFK as I had seat req on my ticket noone els in my family had this to be told our seat and tickets were fine and it was the same man who took us through the gate and also back off also how on earth did they let us through that gate if I knew before I got on maybe thing would have looked better for Delta.

I think you should contact the US DOT and ask them to intervene. You had a confirmed reservation and were involuntarily removed. You are therefore not required to take "delta dollars". Delta are horrendous... being forced to travel with them again is more akin to punishment than to compensation. Yet another Delta disaster. .they really are trying to compete with Ryanair for the worlds worst airline. Hopefully someone will post the link for the DOT..

Definitely file a complaint with the DOT here:

http://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/es.cfm

This was obviously an involuntarily denied boarding and you should have been advised by Delta of your rights as far as compensation. You should have been issued a check on the spot. Unfortunately when you accepted the vouchers Delta probably had you sign a statement releasing them of any further obligation. You should claim that given the circumstances you were confused and that the vouchers were signed for under duress.

Maximum compensation for involuntary denied boarding is now 800.00 per person if you cannot reach your destination within four hours of the original arrival time.

Jilith:

Which flight were you denied boarding on: The Edinburgh-JFK leg or the JFK-Orlando leg.

You say "got on the plain at JFK to discover someone in my seat" and then later in the narrative you say "I went to the delta counter as soon as I got to JFK."

I am just a little confused as to where the denied boarding occured. If it was at JFK, then it appears that you should have been provided with Denied Boarding Compensation or "DBC" in a cash payment. As Azstar stated, the DBC compensation is 200% of the price of that ticket, up to a maximum of $800.
You could accept the Delta Dollars but the cash option must be made available to you.

If you were denied boarding in Edinburgh, our DOT rule does not apply.

Either way, please file a complaint with DOT at the link provided by PHXFlyer.

When I got to Jfk I did visit the counter first off to be told everything was fine and got a tkt for my pushchair when I got on ~I was then taken off soz..
Thanx for all the advice Jill

Not sure that was the case, she said:

Sounds like a "seat request" ticket which would be a low fare class ticket purchased on a travel website such as Travelocity, Orbitz, or Cheaptickets that "reserves" you a seat, but does not assign you one and does not necessarily guarantee a specific seat. While I do agree that the situation could have been handled better and there very well could be a legitimate issue, overbooking is common industry wide.

Wrong again, dude. On DL if your boarding pass prints out with "seat request" it means you have no assigned seat and that all available seats have been assigned. In other words, the flight is overbooked/oversold.

What the hell is your problem, DUDE? Are you going to attack EVERY thing I post. You sir have never worked for Delta. I DON'T care if you fly "about" 6 round trips a year on them, you obviously have NO clue how the ticketing works. I will add to my previous statement that just because you buy a ticket from a low-cost website does not necessarily mean you will not have a seat, but since they are the ones that sell the super cheap tickets most problems like this stem from such tickets. I want to explain to you how the system ACTUALLY works.

True. If your ticket says "seat request" you indeed do not YET have an assigned seat.

Not true. When your ticket says "seat request" it is because all the seats in the class of service that you purchased that are available for a passenger to pick for themselves are assigned, not all the seats on the airplane. So, with that said, let's do some math as an example. Flight 123 from PHX to ATL is an MD-88 with a capacity of 14 FC seats and 128 YC seats. All 128 YC seats have been bought and assigned. 10 more people have purchased YC seats but none have been assigned seats. Which technically makes coach "oversold." Only 2 people have purchased FC seats, which leaves 12 open. Which means that the flight as a whole is not oversold now, it has a positive 2 seats. You know as well as I do that 12 medallion members will be moved from YC to FC, which will free up their 12 seats in the back. Now, with that said, the 10 people who did not have seats originally will now be given the open seats in coach, and the flight actually goes out with 2 empty seats. Hope all that makes sense. If it doesn't, I'm sure you'll let me know.