Very shortly, Delta Air Lines will upgrade its business class champagne, which is an exciting development for those premium passengers who enjoy a glass or two of bubbles. This was rumored some time ago, but the airline has now officially announced it.
Continue reading: Nice: Delta Serving Taittinger Champagne In Business Class
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I'm going to comment on this post and this blog more generally - there is an unwarranted obsession with the brand or the price of champagne served on flights. Personally, even as an equity partner earning >$6MM/year, I don't care for expensive champagne. It's all the same tart alcoholic bubbly liquid to me. The drinking of champagne is celebratory and ceremonial, and not a refined experience to be savored with the finest of palates or discernment.
I'm going to write a reply to my own comment to shove the peanut gallery below the fold.
I also love two buck Chucks by the way.
Everyone knows you're not an equity partner. At best a junior associate at a mid-tier firm. People with actual wealth don't tastelessly – literally too, in this case – flaunt it on travel blogs.
Taittinger is pretty good. I've had their Comtes de Champagne in F a couple of times too.
I am little skeptical of Grandes Marques sometimes, in terms of where they might be sourcing their grapes for their entry-level offerings. I prefer grower Champagnes but I get that those are hard to source in the quantity required for a major airline.
People with actual wealth aren't a monolith, who are you to know anything anyway? I am an equity partner in the New York office of a firm with over $6 million PPEP. I'm surprised TravelinPenis didn't usurp your false claim by saying I'm not an associate at any firm! Maybe he's too busy cleaning up his pants because he was unable to control the urine flow out of his microsoft.
There should also be another d-bag coming here shortly to say the real money is in high finance.
Never thought I would read the words "grower" and "hard" in such an innocuous sentence.
Good move, though they are really falling behind on the regular wines in Delta One - both intl and domestic. UNITED is serving wines better than what Delta served mid 2010s with a more consistent seating product and premium lounges in every intl hub (and DEN in the works).
Time for Delta to wake up and bring back the Andrea wine program that worked well and get serious about Delta One lounges in its real hubs.
How am I supposed to believe that when you don't have anything to back up your claim.
Am I just going through a denial? How convenient.
Although very good take on TravelinPenis.
I would think a name partner at Skadden would earn more than $6MM a year. As an MD at a real estate investment firm, that’s about the amount of carry I earn on one exit.
Taittinger Brut Reserve is nothing special. Branding is the biggest scam when it comes to Champagne.
Do any of you people let the type of champagne determine what airline you fly? Really, who cares.
I think it's a very decent, rather consistent NV champagne. I'm sure there are cremants d'Alsace out there that cost less and taste better, but I wouldn't trust an airline, particularly a US-based one, to be able to source them in the required quantities.
Lucky is easily impressed. it’s why he considers Lufthansa to be his favorite airline.
American regularly serves quality champagne on long haul. Last I enjoyed was Boizel Brut Reserve in business, better than tatty and LP IMO. Just because they don’t have an announced partnership doesn’t make them less premium.
Lucky’s last “nearly perfectly” flight on AA biz might have also had good champagne too, but in lieu of the menu he was more concerned with the gender and race of the person who (probably didn’t) determine the wine menu.
Not flying D1 again (at least a paid one)… just flew from atl - CDG and the D1 experience was terrible on all levels!
The food sucked. The tray was left out at the galley for a while before they served it, and the soup was served cold, the meat overcooked / burnt so I asked for a different meal and they were out. No drinks were offered, everything was served on one tray including dessert, the FAs just didn’t care… I ended up having a bite (salmon appetizer and salad), and that was it for premium dining!
Only decent thing was the seat and I managed to get about 4 hrs of solid sleep, so if I were using miles or a GUc this would have been fine!
Well, yes, guilty...
I only flew SQ F once in my life, and I thought since everyone is raving about Krug, SQ F must be the sh*t. Turns out that SQ F isn't the sh*t, and I do not even like Krug (I did very much (too much?) like the Comtes de Champagne they were serving in the lounge though...).
Good question. Or, chooses a flight based on the amenity bag. Gotta get excited about ear plugs, comb, pen, toothbrush, socks, etc.
Hey, if I'm flying long haul in Y, Air France is probably the only airline pouring champagne. So it makes sense to fly them.
In all seriousness, there are touch points where a small difference in cost leaves a disproportionate impression. Champagne is one of them. Some travelers are going to see that bottle and think that maybe the airline isn't trying to squeeze every last penny out of the experience. So, it makes to me total sense to choose an airline based on the champagne, as it's a heuristic for the whole experience: do you want to fly in Champagne Class or Cava Class? What about Air André?
Sounds like my experience on the 11pm ATL flight to Paris. The wine's undrinkable too. So just hurry up and sleep in the tiny lie-flat. Delta pilots love to ride that seat belt sign at the first light chop, so TATL is a particular pain. I'll keep avoiding Delta, thank you.
Missoni was such a nice upgrade to the previous Some One Somewhere that felt really cheap. Glad to hear they are upgrading the champagne too, considering how much you pay for the D1's (from both cash and miles perspectives).
Yes, nice but a bottom line of Tattinger Just as United serving Laurent Perrier in not so great but I guess better possibly than what they serve today. Would be exciting if they followed EVA Aur‘s lead and served really upgraded champagnes.
Delta has always been pouring a cheap sparkling wine pre departure in Delta and I have noticed on a route I fly frequently that the Champagne bottle is never on the Beverage cart. If you order the Champagne, the F/As don’t look too happy and say “ I have to get that from the Galley”. They come back with a glass that tastes identical to the predecessor swill. Anyone’s guess where the “real” Champagne ends up…
DL isn't going to be serving Comtes de Champagne. They're serving the regular brut, which is a perfectly acceptable product, but not anything special.
Delta, once again, is about flash branding over a material product. American has food that is miles better. United has an overall wine program that is much better. Both AA and UA have a FAR better seat product than even the newest on DL. And we haven't even gotten to the FFPs.
United's wine list is quite good, but I'm sure if you polled the average Polaris passenger they would all take a trade for worse wine and better catering - even if United is slowly improving in that area on some routes.
I’ve noticed this too. Are they trying to hide the champagne so no one orders it? Or more likely there’s only 1-2 bottles so they ration it and substitute the cheap shit when they can.
You're such a great writer and analyst. Very well balanced.
Of course Champagne quality matters when making a premium purchase. The same way that nobody chooses a car because it has cupholders...
You bet that when I sit down on Emirates and get served a great pour I am reminded that I made the right decision not to spend my money on a US airline and their basic offerings.
Rumor is that you will only be served that brand of champagne if you paid full fare, aren't on an upgrade or a SkyPesos award. Otherwise, you will be served Mionetto Prosecco.
The idea that Delta is NOT serving champagne on domestic Delta One flights is absurd.
No matter what kind of Champagne or Cremant: I wouldn't want to drink it out of the glass shown above - how terrible!
“Delta is the premium US airline”
What a joke. Let’s pivot over to Delta wine both domestic first class and international D1. D1 has gotten better over the last 2 years but barely drinkable.
Domestic first class wine is rock gut. Undrinkable.
We keep hearing about improved wine quality from Delta. 5 years after the pandemic started Delta continues to crap on its highest value customers.
It's pathetic that Delta can't serve this champagne or any champagne on Delta One domestically. That Honolulu flight is longer than transatlantic flights. How do you sell $5,000 Delta One tickets between JFK and LAX and not serve champagne?
The reason for no champagne?
As Tim Dunn would attest.
Delta is a for profit company and filling up planes.
ATL is a fortress hub.
Polaris sucks.
AA is unprofitable.
UA is 2nd tier transpacific.
SEA is profitable.
A350-1000 is a miracle jet.
NRT will bankrupt JL/NH.
HND will give US carriers the edge.
ICN and KE is a great hub, who needs HND partners.
1+1 = Delta.
Ed is God.
All this from the latest earnings call summarized by ChatGPTim.
Read the press release before Lucky's post, and I had the same thought. That word eruption could have been 1/4 as long and gotten the same point across. Must have been a slow day.
This is what happens when you hire PR writers that are unable to effectively use AI prompts. It would seem some intern, perhaps, didn't modify the prompt and basic info with srylistic guardrails for ChatGPT or whichever application they use.