We boarded a bit late, around 8:50pm, and I turned left at the boarding door to enter the "Delta One" cabin of the 757, formerly known as BusinessElite (or just business class). The 757 cabin is particularly intimate, with 16 seats in a 2x2 configuration. Roughly half the JFK-LAX and JFK-SFO flights by Delta are…
Continue reading: Review: Delta One 757 New York JFK to Los Angeles
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I'm glad Nick is writing posts on this blog. A lot of Ben's posts for the last few weeks have just been the same repetitive crap. At least nicks posts are interesting to read and aren't just about credit cards the whole time
@Bill: All travel points/miles bloggers have credit card associations in order to maintain their high jet-setting lifestyle. I especially hate it when they tout that their flight is free--NOT REALLY when you have to spend $3000 in the first month in order to get the points and whatever sign-up bonus and then pay taxes & fuel surcharges. Such a lie.
@Nick: Delta is NOT a domestic airline. It's a global airline. While I am not a big fan of Delta devaluating SkyMiles and taking away previous benefits, as a DL PM, I do find DL service and product to be above average, compared to the other two legacy airlines. Just go to UA and AA FB pages... Actually AA is still loved but UA... blah.
Delta is the best airline for domestic travel, period....especially in J Probably the best (or at least a top 3) choice to any destination in Europe or Latin America.
Nick, glad to see this trip report. And the biggest thing you touched on for Delta is certainly something that I appreciate - their crews are usually welcoming and friendly, and genuinely nice to fly with. Their service in terms of food and other soft products are also very good!
@Luis: yes, though it's admittedly tough to find at the lowest levels. You can always redeem SkyMiles for the Delta One service between JFK and LAX, but you may find the redemption levels very high - as high as 60,000 each way.
While you compare this to AA F, you don't compare it to AA J. Which is basically the same seat and IFE. No dobut the food is still worse than delta, but it's worth noting that AA Executive Platinums can upgrade to the cabin for free, and lesser elites can try and use standard 500 mile upgrades. Delta and UA both require the use of limited/special certificates for ALL elites for upgrades.
@Ryan: Actually, Diamonds are eligible for complimentary upgrades to Delta One between JFK-LAX and -SFO.
This statement is just blatantly false: "especially considering that comparable airlines, such as American, don’t even serve dinner after 8pm in their first class cabins (much less business class)."
On the comparable transcon routes, AA serves a full meal in every flight in F and J.
Please stop repeating this falsehood.
I'm booked on a 757 SFO-JFK in June and I was wondering what you're thinking about 1C/D vs 2C/D. You have a photo of the legroom of both above, but having seen it in person, which one do you think you'd prefer wrt storage space, legroom, etc?
@Mike: that info was straight from Lucky's mouth. I tend to trust him on these matters, since he blindly cheers for AA more than he does for Taylor Swift.
Looks like an excellent flight! However UA has similar seats, slightly more modern IFE, and similar quality food (actually in my experience, better -- on this route). Internationally I also think UA and DL are comparable in terms of food quality in business class.
I would rate both airlines above AA for this route.
Unfortunately (for me since I fly mostly UA) most of UA's domestic network, outside of the "premium service" flights from LAX and SFO to JFK, is a disaster, but luckily at least their international premium product is competitive with DL.
It's funny to see that they tried to make an italian menù and they ended up mixing things a little bit.
If the first thing in the menù is an Antipasto than it's not a Primo. And you can't put pasta in the Secondo section. Pasta is a Primo! And then, in the end, cheese is definitely not a Dolce 🙂
Thanks for a nice review!
I agree that Delta is pretty nice to still serve a full three course dinner after 8pm. American and United need to take notes, especially on westbound flight to the West coast.
However after flying all four, my number one choice is JetBlue "Mint" - a beautiful plane, very friendly staff, lovely Direct TV, free wifi, and excellent catering. If you get the Mint Suites, it makes the flight even better.
Lucky is wrong, or he is thinking of normal domestic (non-transcon) service, which did indeed cut meals after 8pm. I would hope you would promptly correct your error, which appears two places in your post. You can go in and make a dummy booking for a post-8pm flight in J or F and look at the pre-order meal choices. I can send you a photo of the menu from my last redeye flight last month. Regardless, you are simply wrong on this point.
Thanks for the report! It looks like it's a lot nicer than the last time I did their premium transcon product. We disagree a couple of things though:
- I think JetBlue Mint has the best food. Granted, I didn't eat your meal, but JetBlue has a wider variety of things and their Saxon+Parole menu is the most bold and innovative food I've ever had in the sky.
- That private suite with a door isn't just "a little more private", it's an entirely different experience, IMHO.
- I've also found their Mint FA's to be the best in the domestic market – rivaling the experiences I've had on LH and BA International First
- Also, the super-fast, free Wifi on JetBlue is fantastic and a game-changer in terms of what you can get done during a flight.
But again, thank you! Now that JetBlue has driven the price of Mint's competitors by over $1000, I might actually give Delta another try!
Finally, reviews of Delta/Skyteam flights. Thanks Nick. And going back to one of your earlier posts, finally, a review of BEER on a flight. Either Lucky needs to get out of his bubble a bit more or have you write more reviews. Jus' sayin.
@Mike: it's an abbreviated light meal service. I did what you suggested and the 9pm JFK departure meal options on American Airlines are "fruit and cheese plate" or "caesar salad." Please don't tell me that's remotely competitive.
@brianna hoffner: I actually flew Mint last year, and wasn't as sold. The Saxon+Parole food was good, but Delta One is certainly a more elaborate multi-course service -- I felt like on JetBlue they just brought out all the food at once, and there were some hits and misses. The Suite seat is very, very good, and the Wifi was excellent as well. The seatback entertainment, however, was a huge drawback - you get a small selection of satellite TV but no on-demand movies or shows. And I found the ground services to be poor.
If you like the privacy of the Mint seat or if you like AA's A321 First class seat, I'd suggest booking one of the 767 transcons in Delta One between JFK-LAX, where you can choose your own solo window seat with direct aisle access.
Yeah, the lack of a lounge and general nastiness of the JetBlue terminal experience at LAX is, for me, the absolute worst part of the whole Mint experience.
I flew American's premium transcon last year and found the food on board to be disgusting. But dang their lounge-within-a-lounge at JFK is nice 🙂
Nick: simply not true. There is always a chicken option, which is the same chicken entree served on any other flight. There are sometimes glitches with pre-order menus, but it is real, and was "Cranberry and Almond Crusted Chicken Breast" on my redeye menu from last month. (If eastbound redeyes have it, late westbound flights certainly will too.)
And the 8pm westbound to SFO has full service and three normal entree choices, none of them salad-like.
@Mike: if you're going to fanboy for American, pick your battles. Food is definitely not the one to die on the vine for. Speaking of dying on the vine, that pretty much sums up their salad offerings. Hey-o!
But for serious- let it go. AA's catering is notoriously bad. If you're trying to suggest one cranberry chicken breast offering at 8pm is competitive with Delta's, you're swinging and missing.
@Giel - Don't pick 1C/D - restricted space.
And yes AA catering is an abomination. Delta wins hands down in that department on these flights.
Unfortunately over the last year or so the crews have become less 'special' than they were. I actually prefer United PS crews now. And prefer the United version of the same seat, as it isn't that cheap leatherette with no adjustable headrest.
If only UA would get the catering up to snuff...they do a great job with the main courses but the app / no cheese course and dreadful AA quality wines are sore spots.
@Nick- Looks great, I'm not sure I would give up the herringbone seating on AA though, would you say the service difference on Delta for a night flight is worth it? I've had some truly great experiences on both airlines. Personally its hard to argue with delta domestically, but internationally the One World options with AA and the new planes are difficult to leave.
@Alexander: I think for a 5 hour transcon flight, the individual all-aisle-access seats in Delta One on the 767 are very competitive with AA's A321 herringbone in F, and are quite private. The service, catering, and amenities that Delta provides definitely add a value above and beyond American, in my opinion. Great seats are important. So is service, food, wine, IFE, bedding, amenity kit, etc. on which Delta shines.
No, the "one cranberry chicken breast offering" is a 10:45pm eastbound flight when almost everyone just sleeps instead of eating anything at all. Perfectly reasonable, I think.
The 8pm westbound will have the normal three courses and choices like chicken, beef, or pasta.
The catering may well be better on Delta, but at least be honest in your post. It still shows falsehoods that you haven't corrected.
@Kieran: Journalists with integrity make corrections when presented with evidence that they made mistakes.
Prefer bloggers? Writers? They do too. At least to soften blanket statements that have been proven at least mostly false.
I'll stop now, but really, edits are long since warranted.
@Greg Thanks, switched to 3C/D. From the photo above it looks like 1 has good room too. I've been trying to find some definitive answer to this for some time and as yours is actually the first real recommendation I've found, I'll go with it!
Too bad SkyMiles is terrible. Americans product is good enough for now as long as they keep their FF program consistent
Nick: how big is the cubby above the seat? I'm booked on this plane in December. Being a redeye, I'd like sleep most of the way. However, I use a CPAP machine. It looks like the power outlet I'd use to plug in the machine are on a shelf above the seat. Other than hogging the shared platform between the seats, I don't see anywhere else I might be able to put my machine, which is about 10" by 6".
Hi Lucky,
I am travelling on a Delta flight from JFK to LAS. Its a codeshare with Virgin Atlantic VA4811. I hope the seats are not old! Theres no pictures on how those seats would look like. Do you know which config I might get? Thanks