Ben just recently reviewed Delta's international 767 Delta One service on his London trip report, and I recently reviewed Delta One on the transcontinental 767, but I'd actually never flown Delta's business class internationally before, so this was a bit exciting for me, even if it was still on a 767-300, which is one of…
Continue reading: Review: Delta One 767 Los Angeles To Tokyo Haneda
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I have also been wondering if the food quality has been dropping lately. I've had a few so-so experiences lately as well.
One of the challenges with DL is that they have certain "premium food" routes with excellent food, and other routes with more so-so food. For example JFK-LHR, CDG, AMS, and a few others offers an outstanding premium meal from Blue Smoke, while JFK-MAD, MXP, etc. offers the "normal" Delta One meal which simply isn't as good. I think similarly from the west coast I believe there are special meals to NRT but maybe not to other Asian ports, even HND? I'm not sure of all the details.
In my opinion even if some routes are not quite as prestigious it would be great if all routes got the same food service. I think Delta is being short-sighted in not considering that someone flying JFK-MAD this week might be using that experience to decide whether to fly them on JFK-LHR next week.
Nick'
I flew this route when it first came on line. It may had only been on line for a few months. Then, they flew the 777. On the way over business class had 10 people (two seats were filled with two very excited you Delta flight attendants going to Tokyo for fun) the rest of the bird was not even half full. On the way back, I was the ONLY person in business class. It is really strange to have the whole f not of 777 to yourself. The FA said they were going to be bored to death and spent a good amount of time talking to me. It was a fun trip!
That headache is called a hangover. You get them from drinking to much wine. The headache is made worse cuz your body is feeling the effects of the 8000ft cabin pressure.
Skip the champagne and only have ONE glass of wine next time.
Review seems a bit melodramatic with an overuse of italics, as well as the hand-wringing over the 'dreaded' non-bowled nuts and the 'dreaded' Richard Anderson video, etc.
Sample size is way too small to question whether the entire Delta catering wing is 'slacking' on meal quality because a couple of you weren't floored by recent meals...akin to having a 30 minute delay on a regional flight and doubting DL's status as the premier operational carrier.
To access Deltas check in lounge at LAX do you actually have to be flying Delta One out of LAX or can your ticket have Delta One on a different segment but on the same reservation. For example if I was flying from LAX-SEA in first class and then flying SEA-HKG in Delta One on the same reservation would I get access to the Delta One lounge at LAX?
I'm a professional food person and can I just say, mozzarella and lentils are rarely a good Idea. Maybe if you were trying to work the seasonal aspect, served warmed with a perky dijon lemon herbed vinaigrette lentils might play a good foil to smaller, pesto marinated mozzarella, but two parsley flecked slices of dry mozzarella on some under dressed lentils? Mmmmmmmm not so much.
Just a little foodie rant from a fan, now back to our regularly scheduled programming 😉
Have to agree about the wine comment by others, I really try to avoid too much alcohol on long flights now as it never results in a good finish to a long flight. I've also never understood why the food experience is so important to people? I get that you have to write about it for a review, but IMO commenting that the beef was slightly more cooked than you'd like is rather meaningless isn't it? It is airline food after all! No offense, however, and I actually enjoy "italics". The things people get upset about! Really. Pass the package of nuts 😉
I love Delta, I do. Even though they don't have showers on-board. But the food to and from Asia lately has been abysmal. JFK-NRT, SEA-HKG, and especially the return from HKG - inedible.
Food catered from international outstations tends to be terrible unfortunately. I wish that the airlines in general would do a better job at ensuring the quality of catering from non-hub airports. In some cases, the aircraft is catered for both legs from the origin airport. The food served on the return leg has been sitting in storage onboard for 12+ hours in some cases. Yuck!
Interesting that the menu includes Chinese translations for each item in addition to Japanese. I would assume that passengers connecting to China would go through Narita rather than Haneda, but maybe Delta uses the same menus on both routes?
Those late-boarding people who helped fill up the biz cabin were probably non rev employees. Not paid pax
I can't believe Delta is flying 767s across the pacific ocean.
The 767 business class seats are terrible: as someone who is 6’ 1″, my feet get very uncomfortable inside the foot well when I put the seat in lie-flat position.
The food and drinks are also mediocre at best.
Are you sure the glass of fizz on the ground was the Jacquart? I've always seen DL pour some cheaper fizz, normally Cava, on the ground. Usually too warm and always too sweet. They only pop the real champagne in the air, (and even then don't put the bottle on the drinks trolley). They definitely seem to keep the champagne pretty hidden.
@Nick — Delta doesn't include the second lumbar pillow on all international flights, only those twelve hours and longer. As for the dry salad, the menu indicates that it should have been served with a vinaigrette. Perhaps the attendant forgot to bring it to you? Lastly, as @Bradders notes above, your pre-departure beverage was probably cava (likely the same Segura Viudas Brut served on the JFK-LAX/SFO Delta One routes), not champagne.
@Bgriff — I don't believe the Blue Smoke (JFK-AMS/BRU/CDG/DUB/FRA/LHR/ZRH), Michele Bernstein (Mexico and Latin America), Michael Chiarello (LAX/PDX/SEA-HND/NRT; JFK-LAX/SFO), or Linton Hopkins (ATL-AMS/CDG/FRA/LHR) menus are intended to be any more or less "premium" than the unbranded offerings served on other Delta One routes. Indeed, I've enjoyed Delta's unbranded meals just as often as those associated with a chef or restaurant.
@Michael C — The last page of each Delta One menu indicates the associated routes near the bottom right, along the binding. The pictured menu is for LAX/SEA-HND/NRT.
Im a frequent flier with delta since 2007. I use to starve myself before my flights to japan (either from lax, sfo, dtw, msp, jfk, atl etc) because the food on business class was sooo daaamn good. Especially those aged beef served with that delicious sauce in the in between flight meals. Unfortunately ever since delta changed chef to this Michael guy, the food on the asian route had drastically dropped in quality. The food taste like caferia food trying to do away with it by a little bit of plating skills lol. I use to brag about the food to friends but now i dont. There is hope though, delta business class serves the japanese meal on the japan routes (which thankfully isnt cooked/prepared by this Michael chef) but is limited in number. You can request the japanese meal during booking so you are gauranteed one. I think its been like 3 years now since this Michael chef took over and ruined my inflight meals. Or it could just be that Delta started not caring about their frequent fliers.