We’re seeing quite some nice improvements to the long haul business class products of major airlines in the United States. We recently saw American introduce its new Flagship Suite business class, and United is also rolling out its new Polaris business class, and next up it’s Delta’s turn.
Continue reading: Unveiled: New Delta One Business Class Suites For Airbus A350-1000
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Gorgeous. It's the rare seat that actually blends efficiency AND good taste. It looks comfortable, simple, and premium. And the color scheme is surprisingly cozy and sedate for the airline of white plastic and purple uniforms.
Looks beautiful. Hopefully, the rollout will go better than some of Delta's other interiors and renovations. It will also be interesting to see how many different international wide body premium configurations they will have.
Looks fantastic, especially with 24" screens throughout. I like the color finish as well.
The first DL A350-1000 is about 60 aircraft away from rolling out from production so we will see the first aircraft by fall.
As previously noted, DL will have over 180 Suite equiped widebodies by 2030, far in excess of what any other US airline will have
looks great, but in their instagram reel announcing this they said "most suites of any US carrier". huh? As you noted the United 787-9 has more. what are they referring to? weird thing to lie about
Looks pretty good overall; probably going to be the most comfortable of the Big 3's next gen products. I do wish they'd get rid of the white on the doors/interiors. It makes it look too much like a dentist office or a cubicle farm (especially the Vantage XL on the 900). I'd say in terms of aesthetic, United did the best with the business cabin, followed by Delta and then American. In terms of Premium Eco and Eco cabins, I'd say American's actually look the best on their 787-9P, followed by United and Delta. As you said, they're all pretty similar, so it comes down to soft product and network scope and reliability, where Delta is still in the lead.
Not that this matters in the grand scheme of things, but I wish airlines based in the US would be a little more creative with their color schemes onboard planes. The cabins are always just so sterile and boring
That's if suite = 3' door.
UA has by far the coherent international wide body premium product offering.
It's telling that Delta is following AA & UA with the selected suite and abandoning the previous D1 suite and layout. I wonder why?
The question is it worth the wait in 2027 to redeem possibly at least 10,000,000 Skypesos for a one way from New York to London or Paris or maybe just between JFK and SFO/LAX HAHA.
window seats Way too far from the windows. Delta has been my favorite for long haul, but that will change with this stoopid configuration.
Looks elegant. I like the darker color theme. Can't wait for the 35Ks. Beautiful.
Looking forward to all of it, Tim. Listen, we do the Coke v. Pepsi a lot on here, but this is good stuff. Sure, United and American also have newer Suites incoming as well. All of it is great for US-based J passengers.
you harp on this incessantly but tell us how many airlines tried to have a single business class product at the expense of some that are class leading?
Polaris is a dumbed-down, high density seat that isn't class leading. Delta One on DL's 359s has been on that list for years even at 10 years old.
As noted, it is harder and harder to get substantially better products but DL is there w/ these latest iterations.
and you still can't admit that Suites mean doors - which Polaris does not have while DL has 80 aircraft in service w/ them.
and UA's consistency just went out the window w/ their newest product.
Love the a350. Real competitive advantage for me versus 787s.
Not sure I get the tv swivel?
Business class plus products are gimmicky. Customers would rather a window seat than the plus seats in the middle.
Not at all. Polaris Elevated and Polaris are very complementary and both are space efficient. It is interesting that Delta is going with reverse herringbone also now and using the same seat as UA & AA. Great to see DL with some announcements too and hopefully they will be able to get their Basic D1 offering to the market some time soon.
I love the design choices Delta made with this seat. IMO it looks much more upscale than some of their previous iterations (I'm just not a fan of the lighter blue and bright red color schemes). And the larger TV screens were a smart choice - tbh I think it will make these instantly look more high tech than the UA/AA seats and give a perception that they are newer for a longer period of time. Wish United could have gone a bit larger on their non-Studio seats.
All of it looks better than American's design choices though. They have the ugliest seats of all the new generation products unveiled in the past year for my taste. And also made the odd decision to not put larger TV's in the bulkhead seats. Since Delta's are 24'', they won't look oddly small in the bulkheads whereas American chose smaller base TV's than United (at 17.5'' vs. 19'') and then didn't use a different size in the materially larger bulkhead seats. It literally looks like they salvaged TV's from old planes and stuck them in the new front seats...
The plane is a gigantic turd, the airline is pure evil, and the cabin is vastly inferior to Polaris, because Polaris is not installed on a disgusting Airbus.
I'm sure Tim is somewhere gloating about how this makes Delta better than United etc etc and I'm normally a United supporter and use facts and actual data to show that Tim is grossly incorrect etc. Congrats on coming to the 2020s.
But my thoughts:
1. This is good - good for everyone, I want every product in the US to be better so the competition gets better.
2. I don't think this is a surprise - Delta was the only airline without a next-gen business product and now they'll have it, I think the seat looks good. I'm a little disappointed in their seat model choice in business but this is still a decent product - I am excited to try it.
3. I'm quite concerned about their economy choice - that seat looks almost like a Spirit back breaker with no padding, I'm yet to sit in it so I'll be very happy if its more comfortable than I expect.
More like Coke versus Crystal Pepsi. DieTeam could disappear tomorrow with all its members and I wouldn't notice.
Look, I'm usually with you but Airbus>Boeing. That's why the United a321neo is the best airplane flying in the US today. Hoping for a UA a350 to destroy Delta in the 2030s.
Tim: *(Criticizes United because completing the Starlink rollout will take 1-2 years)
Also Tim: *(Gets all excited about Delta completing a seating upgrade in 4 years)
The 777-200LR seats that they introduced a decade plus ago were phenomenal. And even recently when these aircraft were flying for Air India, they still felt like one of the better cabins in the air.
This feels like a step back from that.
Any and all Airbuses are inferior to all Boeings. And Franco-Canadian Spaghetti-os is inferior to the E195-E2.
I have read that the Economy seats will have additional padding and 1 inch of additional pitch.
In regards to the "Business Plus" seating it was actually mentioned by the THAI CEO in an interview last year that while Delta (undisclosed) at the time was the first customer of this seat, THAI which has also selected this seat for its upcoming new 787s and A350/777-300ER retrofit, will be the first airline to launch this seat with the "Business Plus" seating option as well. An image of this already being leaked a while back, expected to first roll out on its refurbished 77Ws in mid to late 2027.