Delta is in the process of refreshing the business class product offered throughout much of their long haul fleet. The airline is installing Delta One Suites on A350-900s, A330-900neos, and 777-200s.
While the airline isn’t installing a new business class product on their A330-200s, A330-300s, and 767-300s, they are installing a new business class on their 767-400s. However, this won’t be the same product they have on their other planes.
That’s because the 767’s cabin is narrower, and there’s no way they can fit four of these seats in each row (and I guess they didn’t want to go with just three seats per row, given the capacity reduction that would have led to).
There are some updates regarding the progress of Delta’s new 767-400 business class.
Delta’s new 767-400 business class
While Delta hasn’t shared that much publicly about these seats, the new cabins look like this:
The seats will still be in a staggered configuration, just as they currently are. It seems that the main change will simply be that they have more privacy. Delta’s 767 business class is among my least favorite long haul fully flat business class product out there, as the seats are really, really narrow, and the footwell is tiny.
So the seats should be an improvement, but I think these will still be seats to avoid.
Delta’s first 767-400 has been reconfigured
While Delta’s first reconfigured 767-400 is only supposed to start flying in November, Airways Magazine notes that the reconfiguration process on the first plane is now complete.
The first 767-400 to get these seats, N828MH, has been in Guangzhou to get this work done since January 1, 2019. It goes without saying that’s a long time, but often installing new cabins for the first time (and getting those certified) can take quite a while. Apparently the process for this plane is now complete, and it could be in service soon.
Subsequent reconfigurations will be much faster.
The plane is scheduled to fly to Tokyo Narita tomorrow (June 24), and presumably will enter service after that, which is exciting.
Scheduled Delta 767-400 flights with new seats
Delta’s first 767-400 featuring the new seats will be entering service soon, and the airline has started scheduling these planes.
To see if your plane is expected to have the new configuration, look for a 767-400 flight that has the “NEW INTERIOR” text written next to it.
Airways notes that as of now the planes only seem to be scheduled as of November:
- DL1/2 between JFK and LHR will get the new interiors as of November 16, 2019, and DL3 between JFK and LHR will get the new interiors as of January 10, 2020
- DL58/59 between BOS and LHR will get the new interiors as of November 20, 2019
- DL 408/409 between JFK and ZRH will get the new interiors as of December 8, 2019
All of that remains subject to change, and it could also be that more routes get the new cabins well before that.
It’s interesting to compare the seatmaps. The current 767-400s have 40 business class seats, spread across 10 rows in a 1-2-1 configuration.
The new cabins will have 34 business class seats, spread across nine rows. What’s interesting is that they seem to take up the same real estate, so it does seem like there may be more space allocated to these seats. Unfortunately I wouldn’t expect the width to improve or footwell to get bigger, which is my major issue with these seats.
Bottom line
While Delta isn’t installing suites with doors on their 767s, the new product should represent an improvement over the old one. As of now Delta has scheduled reconfigured 767s as of November 2019, though given that the first plane should be entering service soon, I expect more routes will feature the cabin before that.
So this still isn’t a product I’d seek out, though it is an improvement over the old cabins on these planes.
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