Hello from Atlanta, as I’m now well into my Latin America review trip! After flying LATAM’s Boeing 787-9 business class from Miami to Santiago, I continued in Delta’s Airbus A350-900 business class from Santiago to Atlanta. I wanted to share my initial impressions of the nine hour overnight flight, and then soon I’ll have a full trip report.
For what it’s worth, I hadn’t flown Delta’s A350 business class since 2018, and figured it was time to revisit the product, especially since I recently reviewed the long haul business class products of both American and United.
In this post:
Delta One Suites on the A350 are pretty great
Delta’s A350-900 business class cabin consists of 32 staggered seats with privacy doors, in a 1-2-1 configuration.
This product is marketed as Delta One Suites, and it’s Delta’s best business class product, by far. This is a customized version of the popular Vantage XL product.
While it’s not my favorite business class seat in the world, I do think this is the best seat currently offered by a US airline. The seat is pretty well designed, with a high definition entertainment screen, some fun pops of color, and a privacy door. Most importantly, in bed mode I don’t find the footwell to be too restrictive, so it’s easy to get comfortable.
Delta Studio entertainment is excellent, Wi-Fi a work in progress
Delta Studio is the name of Delta’s inflight entertainment selection, and it’s phenomenal, among the best offered by any airline. The library is endless, including hundreds of movies, TV shows, audio, and more.
And the selection actually has things you want to watch, like… erm, Shawn Mendes taking a lie detector test, and House Hunters.
There’s also a customizable map feature, which I always enjoy keeping an eye on throughout the flight.
When it comes to Wi-Fi, well, that’s still a work in progress. Delta is in the process of introducing free high speed Wi-Fi throughout its fleet, which is exciting. Unfortunately for the time being, that’s not what customers are experiencing just yet, at least on this route.
The A350 I was on was equipped with Viasat Wi-Fi, but there was no coverage for the first half of the flight, and then the cost of a plan was $15, but it only worked for the last few hours. By the end of 2025, Delta should have free Viasat Wi-Fi on all long haul flights, and the coverage area should also be expanded.
Delta’s business class catering is a cut above
Delta’s business class catering on long haul flights is quite good, and this flight was no exception. On this flight, dinner was served after takeoff, and then breakfast was served before landing.
Dinner service began with warm mixed nuts and drinks.
That was followed by the first course, consisting of an appetizer, salad, and soup. It’s impressive that Delta proactively serves all three of those, and they were also all quite tasty. On this flight, that included lemon and lime poached prawns, creamy cauliflower soup, and a mixed green salad. The only negative thing I can say is that the bread roll was stale, and wasn’t even warm (I assume that was a fluke?).
There were three main course options (in addition to two more available exclusively for pre-order), and I opted for the seared salmon with lemon herb cream sauce, asparagus, and rice. The dish was flavorful, and the presentation was reasonably nice.
Then for dessert, I chose the only option you should ever have on a US airline, which is the ice cream sundae. 😉
For breakfast, there was the choice of a bacon, spinach, and tomato frittata, or greek yogurt with strawberry compote and granola. I select the latter, and it came with some fruit and a croissant.
Delta’s business class amenities are solid
Amenities offered in Delta business class are fairly good — they’re not the best in the industry, but I also don’t think they’re going to disappoint anyone.
When it comes to bedding, Delta offers a plush pillow and comfortable blanket. To compare that to other US airlines, I’d say it’s not as good as United’s bedding (which is the best in the industry), but perhaps marginally better than American’s bedding.
There were also slippers at each seat upon boarding, which is a feature I really appreciate, as it makes it easy to go to the lavatory without having to put on shoes.
When it comes to the amenity kit, I was hoping I’d get the new Missoni amenity kit, which was supposed to be rolled out on all long haul flights as of this month. Instead I got the old Someone Somewhere amenity kit, with Grown Alchemist skincare products. The kit is fairly basic, but does the trick.
This is the best business class in the US
I’d consider Delta One Suites on the Airbus A350 to be the best business class product offered by any US airline. Just to compare it to the other two “global” carriers:
- I appreciate United Polaris business class for the consistency throughout the fleet and the excellent bedding, but the catering is seriously not good
- American Flagship Business is decent enough nowadays, but it’s squarely middle of the pack
That being said, I wouldn’t universally rank Delta business class as being better than American and United:
- Delta also has some former LATAM A350s, featuring business class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration, which has to be one of the weakest business class products of a US airline
- Delta’s A330-900neos also have a product marketed as Delta One Suites, and while it’s good for what it is, it feels much narrower than on the A350 (given the substantially narrower fuselage)
- Delta’s A330-200s and A330-200s have rather tired reverse herringbone seats
- Delta’s 767s also have very narrow seats, and while the 767-400s at least have updated cabins, the 767-300s are the worst long haul international wide body business class product offered by a US airline
Bottom line
I had the chance to fly Delta One Suites on the Airbus A350 again, and I’m happy to report that the product is holding up well. Delta has comfortable suites with doors, endless entertainment, pretty tasty food (especially by US standards), and solid amenities.
Is it my favorite business class product in the world? No. But for a US airline, it’s as good as it gets, and the airline deserves credit for that.
If you’ve flown Delta’s A350 business class, what was your experience like?
to NO ONE's surprise, Ben's honest assessment results in a full scale meltdown by a whole bunch of people.
Delta is the ONLY US airline that current offers a widebody suite seat. They have about 5 dozen aircraft with it. If an inch here or there matters, then so does a door on a business class seat and DL started the process of adding them 7 years ago.
There is no other major global airline...
to NO ONE's surprise, Ben's honest assessment results in a full scale meltdown by a whole bunch of people.
Delta is the ONLY US airline that current offers a widebody suite seat. They have about 5 dozen aircraft with it. If an inch here or there matters, then so does a door on a business class seat and DL started the process of adding them 7 years ago.
There is no other major global airline in the world that has the same business class seat in every widebody aircraft of its fleet except for UA. And they took 7 years to install Polaris and it wasn't class leading by the time it was first installed; Delta One Suites have been around for 7 years.
Delta is continuing to retire the 767-300ERs and use them in heavily leisure markets and as a supplement to other aircraft as well as in the domestic market - often where they are competing with other airline narrowbodies.
Food quality is subjective but Delta's category for every class including Premium Select is significant better than AA or UA's.
and the most important part of any airline is its service and Delta's is consistently at the top of the US industry. It is far more consistent in an industry where you can get parts or all of "the package" on AA or UA.
Considering that the US is the largest aviation market in the world and US carriers get more than half of the premium cabin demand - but less than half of the coach demand of international carriers that touch the US, DL offers a decent-enough product and service.
I don't know, Tim.
No one seems to be having a meltdown except the guy coming on to write a 6 paragraph diatribe over a positive Delta review.
Since nuance escapes you sometimes, I mean you.
Glad Ben had a great flight! I would've ranked lack of wifi a bit higher but Ben has certainly been on more international birds than me or you.
remarkable how delta has this and then they have… the 763. must screw with passenger expectations at least a little
Let me tell you, nobody—and I mean nobody—does it like Delta, okay? Delta is the most premium airline in the world. Believe me, I’ve flown them all, I know. You step on a Delta plane, and it’s like stepping into a palace in the sky. The seats? Unbelievable, like sitting on a throne. So much legroom, folks, so much legroom, you could have a party down there! The pillows—so soft, like a cloud, like something...
Let me tell you, nobody—and I mean nobody—does it like Delta, okay? Delta is the most premium airline in the world. Believe me, I’ve flown them all, I know. You step on a Delta plane, and it’s like stepping into a palace in the sky. The seats? Unbelievable, like sitting on a throne. So much legroom, folks, so much legroom, you could have a party down there! The pillows—so soft, like a cloud, like something out of a dream. The service? Out of this world! They treat you like you’re me, and let me tell you, that’s saying something. People get on a Delta flight, and they just lose it. They’re giddy, they’re overwhelmed with how tremendous it is. I know a guy—big guy, tough guy—he gets on Delta, and boom, it’s like he’s in paradise. And the meals? Better than some of the restaurants, believe me. You board Delta, and it’s like a first-class spa in the sky. Everyone's talking about it, folks. Wetting themselves with excitement, but I won’t get into that. Just the best. Nobody does it like Delta!
Without a doubt it is the best US Business product in the whole extent of the word, I have flown that route several times and that's my go to. The 2-2-2 configuration is definitively NOT the worst, I was very pleasantly surprised, yeah no suite or 100% aisle access, but I dare you to try it on this route sometime. I prefer it 700% than flying UA or AA soft, hard, and operationally product speaking
Seems strange to say a business class is the best when there isn’t even WiFi but I obviously respect your expert opinion
Every other US3 has WiFi internationally
@Ben
Tim Dunn must be dancing at home after reading this article. "DELTA"
Absolutely not. JetBlue Mint is far and away better than this. Plus most of DL intl flights are on janky 767s
Is "best in the US" really saying much?
I'm in agreement with Ben on the food, for better or worse, when we're comparing it with AA and UA. Unfortunately, AA's catering has slipped quite a bit as of late. On my transatlantic AA food last month, the food was definitely inferior to what I am accustomed to in domestic F on DL.
“ On this flight, dinner was served after takeoff, and then breakfast was served before landing.”
Is this unique? ;)
United bedding might be good, but I've unfortunately yet to experience it. I flew in Polaris back in January, IAD-BRU, and not only did the senior flight attendant refuse to prepare my seat, pillow, and blanket for sleep while I was brushing my teeth and changing into pajamas, but they don't even offer the padding on a flight of 7 hours 50 minutes. I agree that the catering is also underwhelming.
Surprised not to see a comparison with JetBlue as well? They definitely have a very limited international network compared to Delta, and they use narrow bodies, but I feel like they should still be relevant to add to the benchmark.
Seeing that the flight was booked with just 75,000 miles iirc, is it even worth comparing to Mint?
The granola presentation does look better than what you would get on a fancy Asian carrier. But does anyone get bored with the usual croissants?! Why not some sourdough or for a U.S. airline, English muffins or bagels?
The Delta One cabin on the A350 and the A330-900 is very competitive, when it comes to the seat and the service, though like it typically is on US carriers can vary from pleasant, efficient, and welcoming to robotic, cold, and overly familiar. The food standards on Delta are not what they once were and having flown this cabin on a few TATL and on TPAC flight this year, the standards of cabin cleanliness have...
The Delta One cabin on the A350 and the A330-900 is very competitive, when it comes to the seat and the service, though like it typically is on US carriers can vary from pleasant, efficient, and welcoming to robotic, cold, and overly familiar. The food standards on Delta are not what they once were and having flown this cabin on a few TATL and on TPAC flight this year, the standards of cabin cleanliness have fallen considerably.
The seats on the A330-300/200 and 767s are not good. The 763 in particular has to be the worst premium cabin on a US wide body.
D1 is a really good hard product, it is as good as it can get in US for the near future but the catering is definitely not cut above, it looks on par about average with all the other carriers and I would not really rave high about what was presented to you. I can say, arguably, I had better foods in premium economy in some carriers
Flew this plane many times MSP-CDG and agree with your review. It is by far the best business class in the US. As for the food, the short rib Delta serves on Delta One is fantastic. Glad they are charging that amenity kit which is horrible and passengers leave at their seats after the flight.
I’m surprised to see the food get great marks. The TATL D1 flights I’ve been on have had some of the worst J food, not particularly edible. The only thing that came close was when UA didn’t load my allergy meal while flying W, and the flight attendant scrounged something up from Y (i suspect her own meal).
I did really enjoy VS’s UC equivalent seat on the A339. Though assume it would have...
I’m surprised to see the food get great marks. The TATL D1 flights I’ve been on have had some of the worst J food, not particularly edible. The only thing that came close was when UA didn’t load my allergy meal while flying W, and the flight attendant scrounged something up from Y (i suspect her own meal).
I did really enjoy VS’s UC equivalent seat on the A339. Though assume it would have been even better on a wider A350. One of the great advantages of the staggered seats is actually being closer to the window than in a reverse herringbone setup.
the WiFi situation is frustrating. They’ve equipped so many long haul planes with Viasat before the satellite coverage is there, so now instead of paid (or free) WiFi, there is no WiFi. Wish they would have left the Gogo (or whatever it’s called now) until the viasat satellites were launched
Pathetic but true - Delta One is probably as good as we’re gonna get in the states. Would almost be world class if they could provide food that is edible and drinks that don’t taste like *iss.
I haven’t ever tried p*ss, but if it is comparable to drinks on delta flights maybe p*as isn’t so bad?
Well - not sure Americans should have much say when it comes to a sophisticated taste palate considering the vast majority consider bud light and coors light to be beer…
Oh right
Coors/bud light are just so awful compared to the omnipresent Heineken throughout Europe lol
Great initial review - it looked comfortable with good seats and bedding - I wasn’t impressed by the food but it looked ok and of course the obligatory US dessert - requiring zip prep and fast food ready
Seems odd to have no mention of JetBlue. I would argue that specific seats are even better than what Delta offers on specific equipment types. United has the most consistent business product out of any US airline, Delta has a better product if you happen to be on an A350, and JetBlue has an even better seat if you happen to have a throne or studio.
Thought exactly the same thing.
Agreed. Jetblue has way better food with actual chef partnerships. Service can be better than the other 3. Wi-fi has been great in my experience. And if you get the throne seat, I'd put it right behind Delta's suites.