[jimworcs]

To Delta Airlines staff, I take my hat off to whoever pushed the right buttons to resolve the anxiety that my wife was facing. You have somewhat restored my faith in your company.

Not sure Max, based on the information provided on this site, that the information you were being given was accurate. The problem seems to be have been that the lazy liars at Delta were simply not doing their research and were just feeding you bull. The actual seating arrangements, as reported by WK and Justme, were timestamped as being together, even before you were fed all that nonsense by the customer disservice agents.

Not sure if the last 4 lines of your post are intended to be ironic.. I am with you all the way on attacking the falling customer service standards of US based airlines. Frankly, if you could have booked Qantas or some other airline for any part of your journey, I would have done so. However, if by this

why would people take on a further risk of airline attacks than any other foreign airline if they don't get any reassurance and service etc.

you are referring to risks of terrorism, I would say this is not a valid angle of attack. All airlines are potentially at risk for attack and indeed some of the failed attempts prior to 911 involved airlines of other nations. There are plenty of reasons to not choose US based airlines BUT I don't think safety is one of them.