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

@xJonNYC has the scoop on how Delta Air Lines is planning some improvements to its long haul business class, which is marketed as Delta One. This is part of Delta’s goal of offering a best-in-class business class product. The question is, will the changes make a material difference, or is the airline being overly optimistic?

Delta has a customer satisfaction problem

While Delta is often thought of as the most premium airline in the United States, it seems that a lot of the carrier’s premium customers aren’t very happy. Specifically, Delta has seen a sharp decline in its net promoter score (NPS) among Delta One passengers traveling across the Atlantic.

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For those not familiar with NPS, this is a measure of the percentage of customers who are promoters minus the percent of customers who are detractors. The carrier’s NPS for transatlantic business class dropped sharply from 2019 to 2023, and while it has started to improve marginally in 2024, the airline still has a long way to go.

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

Delta has lofty goal with its NPS, and hopes to get that number to 60 (from a low of under 33 in 2023). That’s super high, so how does Delta plan to accomplish that?

This part I THINK i have right: The reason for all this is that Delta's transatlantic business class NPS scores have fallen notably vs. prepandemic. NPS down 28% – was even worse in 2023 (I think I have that right)

— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) November 29, 2024 at 4:50 PM

How Delta will improve its business class experience

Delta is undertaking an aggressive project between now and the end of 2026 to improve its business class experience, and this includes a variety of initiatives. Here are some of the changes that Delta plans to make in the next couple of years (some of these are already underway):

• Continuing to open Delta One Lounges; they’re already open in New York (JFK) and Los Angeles (LAX), and should open in Boston (BOS) and Seattle (SEA) in the next several months
• Continuing to expand the Missoni partnership, including introducing Missoni eye masks, slippers, and socks
• Upgrading catering, as the airline is currently transitioning to DO&CO catering out of New York, and plans to continue expanding that
• Rolling out free Wi-Fi on long haul flights, which is a project that should be completed in 2025
• Elevating bedding, including expanding the number of flights with mattress pads, and adding a cuddle pillow
• Improving the presentation of meals, including upgrading tray linens and service ware
• Upgrading beverage offerings, including a new champagne partnership
• Expanding the ability to pre-order meals
• Improving the quality of headsets
• Beginning dedicated flight attendant training for business class
• Rolling out “basic” business class, with “good, better, best” pricing tiers
• Improving the quality of seats, including taking delivery of Airbus A350-1000s, updating the cabins of Airbus A330-300s, and updating cabins with Delta’s new branding

Of course let me emphasize that this all remains subject to change, and airlines change their budgets for various things all the time, based on market conditions, strategy shifts, etc.

DL: Delta's 'good/better/best' unbundling of business class that Glen Hauenstein talked about at Investor Day is planned for 2026

— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) November 29, 2024 at 4:46 PM

Can Delta offer a best-in-class business class?

To Delta’s credit, a lot of these changes are genuinely positive, and frankly, long overdue. The way I see it:

• The biggest improvement we’re seeing is the opening of Delta One Lounges, as Delta’s competitors have offered premium international lounges for years, while Delta hasn’t
• Free Wi-Fi is also a positive innovation, but up until now has caused frustration for many international travelers, as the Wi-Fi transition isn’t seamless
• I’ve seen a lot of negative reports regarding Delta’s catering in business class (though in fairness, the food was quite decent on my recent Delta One flight), so improving food and drinks will certainly make people happy
• I’d say the other changes are fairly minor, but add up, like an extra pillow, a mattress pad, etc.

But if you ask me, Delta’s single biggest issue across the Atlantic is something that the airline hasn’t even addressed. This is simply that Delta’s wide body fleet is super uncompetitive when it comes to business class seats, especially across the Atlantic:

• American exclusively flies 777s and 787s across the Atlantic, and at least all the seats have direct aisle access and are reasonably comfortable
• United has great consistency with its Polaris business class seats, with the only poor experience across the Atlantic being on 757s

Meanwhile on Delta, the A350-900s and A330-900neos are nice. The A330s are a bit outdated, but at least there are reverse herringbone seats, and there are plans to update them. But the real issue is Delta’s 767s, and in particular, the 767-300ERs. Delta’s 767-300ERs have the worst international business class product of any major US airline, by far (I’m not including United’s high density 777-200ERs, which primarily fly domestically).

Worst of all, Delta has no plans to improve that. Yes, those planes will eventually be retired, but for the coming years, customers will continue to find themselves in these seats. While the 767-400ERs have refreshed cabins, the seats are still super tight.

So if you ask me, the single biggest thing standing in the way of a higher NPS is Delta’s actual hard product that so many passengers experience.

Bottom line

Delta has seen customer satisfaction in business class decrease significantly, so the airline now wants to invest in order to reverse that trend. Between now and the end of 2026, we’ll see Delta make all kinds of product investments, ranging from new bedding, to better food and drinks, to new flight attendant training. Only time will tell if this leads to a best-in-class experience, though…

What do you make of Delta’s plans, and do you think the carrier can be best-in-class?