Delta's Best-In-Class Business Class Goal: Can The Airline Succeed?

$5 wine on a $5,000 business-class ticket is going to get low scores. No mattress pads, inedible food, premium-economy amenity kits, etc. Why is it going to take Delta until the end of 2025 to improve wine and improve linen?

As a DL diamond, I couldn’t agree more. This was the last year I decide to run the rat race with them. I can comfortably make platinum with delta and spread the rest of my travel across other airlines that provide better pricing, quality, and routes instead of putting that extra to DL and their partners in order to get diamond. Their premium ain’t so premium when you compare it against non US airlines, and I couldn’t agree with you more on the hard product and the inconsistencies. Both AA and UA beat them there. Luckily, being on the West coast, I usually can line up my flights to be on the nicer DL1 suites or fly with a partner transatlantic… but they’re just not competitive enough to keep my exclusive business. Maybe this effort will change it… but honestly, until the hard product improves, I doubt it.

"Beginning dedicated flight attendant training for business class"

I'm sort of shocked that this wasn't a thing they had in place, already!

The key initiative in the list is the Basic Business Class project, which is all about increasing profits rather than improving NPS.
Essentially there will be a (temporary?) upgrade in soft product to justify the new higher fares. Those who keep paying todays fare will find their product stripped back, no lounge, no seat selection etc. etc.

Pre-covid DL had a better rating but since then their OTP has slipped, and the competition (other than AA) has started to catch up.

I cannot see how this is going to work

Only read the title: no

Frozenkiwi and FNT telling it like it is.

Wine should be an immediate and shock and awe fix.

Then level up the food.

What's written in JonNYC's post - "Soft product upgrades under development include cuddle pillows, tray linens, and expanded pre-select meal offerings
New beverage partnership/ new champagne"

is all small ball stuff.

They have to do a lot more than offer some extra pre order meals and bring in a beverage partner.

See what UNITED did to its wine program, full overhaul.

A very simple thing they could do, which basically does not have any costs. Have the flight attendants refresh the lavatories regularly throughout the flight.

I posted on Facebook the other day re: ending my delta era as 2024 closes. (Ie 8 years as an intl diamond). Someone asked why and this is what I wrote:
——-
“Essentially three reasons.

¥¥ Delta switched their program from a distance based to a spend based model. Previously the mark to hit was 125,000 miles. Now it requires $28,000.

¥¥ One of the main perks of diamond are 4 Global Upgrade certificates. They’re now considerably more expensive to use. (Previously one could upgrade a £350 coach ticket to business. Now they require a premium economy. So pretty much £1000 minimum, but often running as high as a crazy £3000. Depending on route, you can often just buy business for less on another carrier. It’s just no longer a benefit worth chasing, esp with my flexibility

¥¥ Skymiles inflation. In many situations, skymiles are essentially ‘skypesos’ owing to Delta’s AMEX partnership.

Delta floods the US market with billions of miles and simply jacked up their awards. Any award flight touching US are jacked to absolutely bonkers levels (700,000 miles RT for business to the US is the norm these days compared to 120-200,000-ish RT for everyone else’s on transatlantic routings).

Spending miles is still much more lucrative outside the US market, but they’ve been very steadily chipping away there too so direction of travel is pretty clear.

Will still fly them (love their new lounges!) - but loyalty is now little more than a transaction with them, so I’m treating the relationship accordingly, lol. Makes sense shifting to a new program with rules that syncs better with my to-ing & fro-ing”

Well, BA has just started having a 3 days course for cabin attendants to be assigned to first class. But yes, it is kind of shocking that it was not already the case.

The thing here is that Delta is trying to fix the “value” issue: “is the price paid worth it?” They now charge much more but do nothing different. Introducing “Basic” business class isn’t going to fix this and will only make their scores worse. Paying for additional services is just going to alienate customers. I know I’m not the only one who finds it extremely frustrating when other carriers make me pay to choose a seat in business class.

One of the things I have found extremely frustrating in the last year is the exorbitant prices Delta now charges for an experience that isn’t markedly better than other carriers, and an approach of “including less” isn’t going to fix this.

I pushed to Diamond this year, and will hit million miler status sometime in 2025. After that I’ll be done with things like positioning flights to find a good fare on DL partners. Flying with status is nice but DL is just pricing me out of my most frequent routes.

Delta drove me to try other airlines on my DTW-NYC routes this year, and it turns out they are just fine. Not great, but enough. In comparison, DL is just overpriced and lacking in value.

Well the 767-300's i think i read are going to be retired in 2030 so its unlikely to have a refresh cabin.

Linen and mattress pads on that scale, and presumably at custom sizes, would take a while to produce, and could easily be a lead time of a year or more. It would be similar with amenity kits.

The wine… it shouldn’t take more than a few weeks to burn off the supply they have and switch to something better. I don’t know to what degree DL is stockpiling wine at those price points, but they could even change the Int’l business wine on almost no notice to something better and burn off the remainder on domestic flights. Hopefully an easy change they can make sooner than later.

Why pre-ordering isn’t available on every flight with a meal already is a mystery. Hopefully they’ll also do away with the sad meal boxes on certain flights round-trip catered from hubs. They should at least be able to cater a proper hot meal on the outbound of those catering turns.

Have to agree. I was a 10 year platinum/diamond flyer with Delta and in 2017 stopped trying for elite status. Number one reason was the gutting of the SkyMiles program. It wasn’t just the devaluations and negative changes - but also managements gleeful exuberance at destroying members redemption values. That attitude was from the top down.

Maybe they could also bring back Delta One pj's.

Their own partner in Virgin Atlantic does this.

first, where is the data to support the statement about DL's NPS falling? It may or may not be true but relying on hearsay on the internet proves nothing.

second, it makes no sense that the 767 is the reason for the fall in DL's NPS. The 767 fleet has been shrinking and is a smaller percentage of the fleet as new A350s and A330NEOs have come into the fleet. AA and UA have not been retrofitted in that time.

if there is a reason for dissatisfaction, it is that the value is not there for many because they aren't getting it for the cheap mileage redemptions they did or with the benefits.

The solution is to take the product more upscale which involves relatively small additional expenditures.
ie DL does have mattress pads that it uses on TPAC A330 flights so the product exists. They have just upgraded food and staffing in Premium Select and the difference is notable.

They can do the same.

And let's keep in mind that AA will never be competitive with Delta in service while UA does not even have an industry leading business class product and their food is known as some of the worst on global airlines.

Yes, Delta can step it up another notch and win more customers as it grows its international network which is already the most profitable among US airlines.

As retired person with a love for travelling I do probably about a 100 flights a year. About half of them are feeder flights as I need to start from a small airport, which leaves about 50 mid and long haul flights a year.
My decision tree is as follows, provided I have the luxury of choice:

- wide body over narrow body (and avoid 767)
- Star Alliance and Skyteam over anything else except Qatar, Emirates, Etihad
- Airbus over Boeing (with the exception of 787, other Boeings are way too noisy)
- if it has to be narrow body, Airbus and Embraer over 737
- for US travel to/from Europe and Asia, avoid US airlines
- never ever transit via US

Delta abrirá un delta one lounge en SLc?

I am not a fan of the free WiFi. Both because they replaced Viasat on planes before the rollout of satellite coverage was complete, and also because now domestically it seems since everyone knows about the free WiFi it is super slow and unreliable. I’d happily pay $5 per flight for WiFi I could count on, but the bandwidth issues have been getting really bad.

the biggest issue is the lack of mattress pads except on 6000+ mile flights - it's uncomfortable and unsanitary. This is an absolute must for overnight flights IMO - and is far more important than ancillary amentities and even lounges.

I feel like they must do something on international flights, or I’m just really lucky to have very clean fellow passengers on my flights…

The 767 is literally the reason why I avoid Delta in business class. I'm starting to question if you've ever flown it. Can you imagine paying thousands and thousands of dollars to end up on a seat so uncomfortable with an IFE from god knows when? Of course that will affect their NPS. And the 767 is almost impossible to avoid if you go to Europe.
I like Delta overall but that aircraft is the worst of all main 3 carriers from a premium seating perspective.

I saw a ridiculous sub $400 fare rt from aus atl gru with an overnight layover on Delta. If there was a reasonable upgrade offer from main cabin on one of those older 767s I would bite .

Don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance of flying D One as an American flyer. I’d be more inclined to try a one way flight in main cabin on Singapore Air or Korean Air 747. I mean how much better can the service possibly be than on American.

"but often running as high as a crazy £3000. Depending on route, you can often just buy business for less on another carrier"

This part is so true. Delta wants $4600 for LAX to Mumbai (via Heathrow or Paris) in premium economy. Cathay wants $4400 for LAX-HKG-BOM in business on the same date.

Why on Earth would I pay $200 more for premium economy on Delta, or Virgin, or Air France, versus business on Cathay??? Are they even paying attention to the competition?

I’m a Delta fanboy, I admit. But I do not see where Mr. Dunn’s comment is coming from.

Great, their 767-300 fleet is shrinking, that’s fine in a vacuum. But compared to competitors, it remains their biggest liability, and they seem in no hurry to fix it.

Frankly, even a refresh would do. I’m flying on a TATL 767-400 in D1 next week and am expecting a fine experience because it will feel modern. I don’t need a Q-Suite on a 7-hour flight. But the gross, aging, dated, tired, worn 767-300s were just fine when I first flew them 13 years ago. Now, they would be a huge disappointment as a paying customer.

Delta, you do good things, but wake up and fix this.

I love Delta, but no one in their right mind would pay the same OR MORE for them on a long haul international flight vs Cathay.

Delta owns 49% of Virgin and Dwight James who is the bearer of bad Skymiles news is on the board of Virgin

I've been a Delta Diamond for a few years here in MSP. I go BEYOND out of my way to avoid Delta internationally, Air France/KLM are leaps beyond DL..especially with the outdated A330's here. The catering on Delta is awful, the service lacklustre and indifferent.

Delta also doesn't have an industry-leading business class product.

@Clem what are you talking about? Have you flown Delta within the past two years? As TD correctly notes, 767 routes are shrinking. At this point it’s basically leisure routes from ATL and some less competitive routes from the northeast (Edinburgh, Dublin, etc).

@Redacted - on my routes (LHR, CDG and MXP), most flights are on the 767. I think it's mostly the 767-400, and the seat and IFE have been refreshed a little but it's still way too narrow and uncomfortable. I see a few flights now have the 330neo - but won't risk an equipment swap to end up on a 767, when I can fly ITA, Air France or even VS.

While I recognize I, as a mere Gold Medallion, am not the demographic they care about, almost none of the proposed changes have any appeal whatsoever to me.

No matter what, they still are flying those 767s and have you read what Ben wrote about: have no timeline on when they will be retired. With a username like redacted, it makes us wonder if you are Tim Dunn especially where you wrote Tim Dunn correctly notes…

@DanTheMan Have you heard of Tim?

Maybe one more thing: Delta don’t bother to even plan a D1 lounge at even one fortress hub. While AA and UA have done that for years. That makes me question if Delta really care about customers, or just to lure flyers when they have a choice, and then shows the real face of money-robbing capitalist with zero product returned once an unfortunate customer happens to live in one of Delta’s hubs? Just wondering.

It’s a shabby product all around

I completely agree. I requalified for Diamond through 2027 because of MQMs. This has allowed me to experiment with other - much better - programs. I just,don’t see myself returning

It is possible this is more a priority process than sheer disregard. Would make sense to introduce in competitive hubs first for capitalist reasons… now if in 5 years we still haven’t heard anything for ATL then I’ll quickly agree. The announcement of SLC is an indication they may all be coming…

"Maybe one more thing: Delta don’t bother to even plan a D1 lounge at even one fortress hub"

That's not true at all, as they've already announced one for Salt Lake. Also, common sense should tell you that they're going to place them in their competitive hubs first, as those would be helpful against rivals' offerings.

I loathe this airline for its prison-guard FAs and pathetic customer service. You're not treated with anything close to basic human respect unless you're Diamond (maybe Platinum). Everyone else is scum. They're overpriced and have pathetic schedules. Their fanboys that swarm all over the Net like a pack of rabid weasels have taken the red and blue pills and can't break out of it no matter how many times people tell them that their "premium" airline is a flaming bag of dog waste. I wish for nothing less than death for them. And there are more people thinking like I do with every day and are willing to speak up.

I personally think the SEA one is quite significant. It's one of the largest hubs for international service now, but the lounge offerings have not kept pace. Nearly every international carrier uses the same exact contract lounge, which is just abysmal.

There is still not a single true business class level lounge there, the BA lounge is garbage. Delta's D1 lounge, even if it's the smaller footprint design, could be significant in better breaking into that market as a true differentiator.

Which airline(s) do you like, as an ORD captive?

@Stanley it almost seems like there are 4 or 5 people who post on nearly every thread that may all be the same person…

I fly transcon multiple times a year. Based on the overall in-flight experience, I have always opted for AA Flagship First over Delta One. While others will disagree, I think that when AA transitions to XLRs, its new Flagship Business will also be superior. As for international, I agree with others and will opt for Air France over Delta. (Delta's pricing accentuates the decision.)

It’s the service, there’s no concept of genuine hospitality. The FAs are superior and empowered over pax… there’s no “humbleness” or kindness.

I’m a 2MM/Diamond, on a recent trip got upgraded at the gate to D1 (a330), got into my seat and as the FA was taking pre-departure meal orders or confirming online orders - she literally freaked out that I wasn't the person listed on her roster, and went on to double check that I’m in the right seat even after I showed her the delta app. It’s not like I really want to sit in that D1 on the old 330.

Just returned from a trip in Asia and Europe, 7 different airlines (including AF and KLM) , all in business class, some i had not heard of before this trip and all, without a doubt, superior to Delta1.

So if Delta is sincere about offering best in class, please overhaul your entire D1 FA training and re-do it. Consult with other airlines that do it really well… then we would be more than happy to pay extra for the service and joy of flying D1

It's hard to imagine that flight attendants actually care what tier status passengers have. It's hard to imagine that all flight attendants have bad attitudes. Something about your comments seems "off."

'It’s obviously not great when you have a significant decrease in the number of customers who wouldn’t recommend an experience, compared to those who would.'

Not sure if I am misreading, but I think you meant increase?

Delta is late stage Roman Empire. No it won’t help when you still have sketchy seats in J

Delta is a bad airline, full stop.

@Timamtrak you may be onto something here. Multiple accounts but with the same person. They really want to feel like people are actually agreeing with them but in reality that is not the case.

Correct. Double negatives going on.

But then Delta has to provide clean mattress pads. They're going to have an issue providing clean bedding with the leaked photos since the bedding won't come wrapped in plastic or sealed in a cloth bag. Delta seldom caters extra bedding. I've been on flights where someone's bedding was soiled or otherwise stained and the crew didn't have an extra set.

Holy wow, NPS down 28%?? I would certainly have guessed it was down quite a bit based on their service standards and corporate culture as compared to domestic competitors over the past half-decade or so, but a 28% plunge is absolutely BRUTAL.

again. Where is the data? there is alot on the internet that is true or not.
And if the data is true, Delta knows why. and they also know how well their competitors are doing with NPS.

If it really comes down to devaluation of the mileage program, other US carriers are doing the same thing and will see the same result.

and as much as some like to cling to the notion that it is the 767, the cabins of the 767s haven't changed over whatever period the plunge supposedly occurred. And neither have any other US carriers done anything substantially
better on their aircraft.

And if DL really is committed to a wholesale improvement of its product, then the question is what AA and UA can and will do. DL could have a substantial product advantage in a couple years and also have the most fuel efficient and modern international fleet. AA and UA are both committed to holding onto the 777-200ERs which won't see another round of product improvements.

Neither has a large new generation widebody on order so the A350-1000 will far overtake anything AA and UA have or will have not just in performance but in passenger amenities.

yes, Delta can very much succeed in comparison to its US competitors but also create a product that is on par if not above what its global JV partners offer.

@Stanley C it is odd to me that there are several people who post on almost every thread every day yet haven’t bothered to make an account. I don’t want to type my name and email in every single time but I guess whoever it is is too lazy to go about creating a fake account. Not my blog but I’d prefer only registered users could post comments. Would cut down on some of the nonsense.

This is it. All this hard product "upgrade" discussion is still lipstick on a pig. An expensive pig. An overvalued, expensive pig. People like Tim Dunn (assuming they don't work for Delta anyway) are too laughably fargone to see things in any sort of objective light. The fact is that DL has a decent J experience but their price point is such that, unless it's a reward flight, my J experiences are on literally any other carrier - but mostly AF/KLM or AC/UA. The cost differential for a marginally better (if better at all) hard product is so egregious. Plus, I like reverse herringbone and DL doesn't offer that except on aging 330s. And this is all before you consider soft product like food and service. Food is subjectively alright and the Do&Co rollout is glacier-like in speed. And while I'd venture their service is "better" than the US3, that's a VERY laughably low bar to compare yourself against. They have so much more to do than above - and the above aren't even a sure thing.

You are just totally butthurt by the fact that a lot of people, and a growing number every day, doesn't think your Only Perfect Airline In The World is wonderful in every single way. Me, I felt like a voice in the wilderness when I was telling people that Delta was awful to the point of going out of my way to never fly them again. Well, guess I have people out there who do agree with me.

I'm a United 1K, and I do like them.

I saw on multiple flights the FAs kissing Diamond butt while ignoring everyone else.

I never said delta was or is perfect.

I have said that Delta consistently rates at the top of the big 3. By multiple data sources. Domestically and internationally. All the anecdotes don’t change that.
Can and will Delta do better.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

And United and American will too.

Every company that wants a future has to improve. Delta will secure a bright future for itself and its customers

We flew roundtrip to Amsterdam from SEA. On the way there, nice D1 Suites. On the way back, it was an older back with old-school D1 and crappy TV monitors. The seats themselves reminded me of Alaska First Class but lay back.

Get rid of the old planes. When you fly D1, there should be no chance you experience that. It's not worth the D1 price premium.

I pre-ordered a vegan meal for a D1 flight. I'm vegan for ethical reasons. It's a big deal to me personally.

The flight attendant, who was mailing it in through food service at that point, gave me the wrong meal, and I at what was apparently a scallop (I didn't know what they look like, and they were small enough that I just put the thing in my mouth and ate it).

She couldn't care less. I started getting irate, and the bursar came over. Her only concern was whether I was allergic and whether they need to turn the plane around.

P*ssed off how the whole thing was handled. Can you imagine serving an observant Jew the wrong meal, them eating pork, and the bursar's concern was whether they were allergic? It would make the NYT.

I *called* Delta, and the only that person also could care less... just throwing an extra 10,000 SkyPesos my way.

I'm Diamond.

Overall, I like Delta, but the service quality is inconsistent, and that needs to improve. (The same is true on the planes -- the old-school D1 with the crappy monitors and the seats that other than being a bit wider and lying flat could be straight out of Premium Select or whatever it's called need to be retired or sold to Spirit.)

My observations on Delta's trans-Atlantic D One:
Food is consistently well below any expectations. I keep hoping Delta will recognize that for the money spent their food is unacceptable.
The idea of training Delta One/ business class staff specifically to improve the overall experience is most welcome. We flew a daytime Lisbon-JFK last week and the cabin staff were simply invisible much of the time.

One more comment - the app is awful. I remember when they rolled out the overhaul 2-3 years ago and I thought 'well this is way worse than the old one, but it'll get better'... well maybe marginally better but is still awful compared to United, and compared to the old delta app. I constantly have to force close it and reopen as it is 'loading' indefinitely. At least American's app (and most foreign airlines) don't try... but Delta's tries and fails.

IMO, US Airline apps by functionality and usefulness, best to worst:

1 United, by a wide margin
2 American
3 Southwest
4 Spirit
5 Delta
6 JetBlue

@ORD, fair enough. Lots to like about UA. They have the best app of US airlines by far, I really love the Polaris seats. I just despise flying the 737 (any type) and wish so much of their network wasn’t built on it. That’s a personal issue, though.

A lofty wish indeed! Perhaps Ed B should take the JFK -MXP first ( or even Biz) & see what “ world class” means. As a Diamond Delta for quite a few years; I find the gift wrapping is there ( the hellos . May I help etc) but totally bogus… ask for the TV to work transatlantic ; good luck !
Ask for a clean bathroom ? Wishful thinking!

Good luck! I hope they achieve it But as long as they only care about the bottom line & not the passenger/ customer, its not happening!

A lofty wish indeed! Perhaps Ed B should take the JFK -MXP first ( or even Biz) & see what “ world class” means. As a Diamond Delta for quite a few years; I find the gift wrapping is there ( the hellos . May I help etc) but totally bogus… ask for the TV to work transatlantic ; good luck !
Ask for a clean bathroom ? Wishful thinking!

Good luck! I hope they achieve it But as long as they only care about the bottom line & not the passenger/ customer, its not happening!

Definitely agree that it's no match for UA on the functionality nor presentation, but the whole force close and reloading thing seems to be more of a personalized problem. I've had zero issues with that.

As for American's trash app: anyone who's lauding that, clearly does not have a hyphenated name or suffix. Their app, despite years of complaints, just can't handle it with international check-in.

I'm sure I'm not alone. I do 4 or 5 round-trip transatlantic trips every year in business. I'm a diamond and million miler. With one exception when I flew Delta from Frankfurt to Detroit, I've only flown Delta once in five years. Air France is always my first choice. Way better food and way better wine. Delta has a better pillow and blanket. That's the only thing they do better. While Air France's bedding is bad, they always have sufficient extra. So, I can get two pillows and two blankets. Delta never caters extra bedding. But the lavatories are bigger on Air France. So, I can comfortably change into pajamas. Air France has true first-class. So I don't expect Air France business-class to be a replacement for first. Delta doesn't have real first, even though it pretends Delta One is first. So, Delta One falls short of expectations for the price, the marketing, and for the fact that this is Delta's best product.

United’s 200 787s on order, with deliveries already underway, don’t count as a large widebody order?

UA’s aircraft order book, narrowbody and widebody, dwarfs competitor order books.

The rumor of the updated Polaris seat means further improvements would be in the near future.

Plus residents in some of the country’s largest business centers (Chicago, San Francisco, Washington DC, in addition to LAX, NYC, both with larger UA international networks than DL’s), can take United nonstop, versus having to connect if they want to take Delta.

I have to be honest with you, the gap between American and US carriers is really not that significant.

Air France has decent food, but really not to the extent where it's a reason to pick it specifically. The bulkhead seats, however, are a differentiating factor and would easily have me picking Air France over any other TATL carrier.

I am largely indifferent if I am on a Delta A330neo or really any other European carrier. In general, no one really distinguishes themselves in the TATL Europe market as truly exceptional.

and you know how many of the dozen plus 787s that UA had on order this year they will receive ?- 3 according to their latest investor guidance?

they expected to have well over 1000 aircraft in their fleet this year and won't even break 1000.

All of the aircraft orders UA has mean nothing if Boeing can't deliver - and they are not delivering at anywhere close to a snail's pace.
UA will receive more new aircraft from Airbus this year than from Boeing.

It isn't a surprise that DL right now is getting its mainline aircraft exclusively from Airbus and is largely getting them on-time.

DL is also retiring some of its older aircraft including 767s, 757s and A320s even while growing.
DL will receive 14 widebodies this year and at least 11 next year on top of the first A350-1000s they will pick up from VS.

UA's fleet is still the oldest in the industry and is not going to get younger at the rate of new aircraft they are taking so they too will have no choice but to retire aircraft once deliveries pick up - or UA will pay much more for maintenance and fuel.

and the 787 even when Boeing delivers it is simply much less capable and efficient of an airplane than the A350, esp. the -1000. The very position that UA touts - the size of its international network - is very much at risk to other airlines that can grow at much faster rates than UA including DL.

and as much as everyone here wants to talk about DL, UA's premium cabin service is not exactly globe leading either.

“The gap between American and US carriers…” did you mean European?

Air France also holds economy passengers from deplaning before business. Sounds stupid or snobbish but it does make a difference. Air France is far from perfect but they do an excellent job at making business feel elegant and upscale. At Delta, it's more like an Applebee's experience. Including the 55-year-old flight attendant calling you "hun."

This was the slow year for UA 787 deliveries. The pace will pick up significantly in 2025 and UA, already having overtaken DL on yet another metric, will continue to grow faster.

DL only had 11 more widebodies delivered than UA had this year. Their growth next year and beyond will be less than UA’s.

DL’s large order of Boeing MAX planes will be delayed, so DL is also affected.

You also haven’t answered question about how quickly the fleet age gap is narrowing. I’m sure the gap has narrowed each year, and will significantly narrow in 2024.

Last May my wife and I flew to Paris in Delta One; at best it was an underwhelming experience and on the trip out it was substandard due to crew errors and omissions. I've experienced much better with Delta and other carriers in the past, though I'd never flown directly to Paris. This was a miles trip, but cost 800,000 miles (timing was essential for a birthday) so expectations were high. On both flights, it was an A330 - I detest the 767 from my days flying to Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo, and would pay extra not to fly one again - but the lie flat seats were rather uncomfortable for sleeping, and I wonder if I might as well save thousands and fly Premium Select instead on Delta. For our trip to Paris next April we have opted for Air France business class, for $8,500 cash, as surely it must be better than Delta.

So you got upgraded.. got it.

Well, BA has just started having a 3 days course for cabin attendants to be assigned to first class. But yes, it is kind of shocking that it was not already the case.