Review and report: My first-ever Delta Transatlantic Flight

Despite flying a lot on Delta, I just took my first trans-Atlantic (and, by extension, first trans-oceanic) trip with the airline.

It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, fueled by a desire to go somewhere I hadn't been (most of Scandinavia would qualify) and lots of low-mileage award availability in BE.

I wasn't thrilled about the fact that the aircraft would be a 763 without lie-flat seats but, then again, the cradle seats were state-of-the-art a while ago, no? I was also less than thrilled with a departure time of 17:10 as I prefer east-bound TATL flights that depart somewhat later as I find I sleep better on them.

The flight went smoothly, the purser was happy to accomodate my request for giving me my hot entrée while everyone else was starting with the very beginning of the meal service (in fact, I even had time for an appetizer, the gravlax, which was quite good) and I was able to try to go to sleep fairly early in the flight.

I took a lot of pictures of the aircraft empty prior to boarding as well as pictures during the flight and created several slideshows (one on the aircraft interior, section by section, one on the in-flight experience, and one on the T4 shuttle bus) for a longer review I wrote for Frequent Business Traveler. The review includes some history of the route, which dates back to PAA.

I didn't really sleep much (thanks to the seats) but I hadn't counted on much sleep either, knowing what I was going to get in terms of seating. We arrived on time and I am glad I went.

Here are are a few photos from Delta BusinessElite Flight 202 New York JFK – Stockholm – Review

Originally Posted by JSpira

Despite flying a lot on Delta, I just took my first trans-Atlantic (and, by extension, first trans-oceanic) trip with the airline.

I would have chosen Copenhagen over Stockholm but Stockholm may make the cut this year.

I travel TATL Biz Class on Sky Team at least twice a year and I can report the DL Lie Flats are much superior to the old style seats you endured.

Out of all of the Sky Team partners I have used TATL, AF, KL and DL, I have had the best experiences on DL including the time the individual A/V system crapped out on an East Bound flight to LGW. Didn't miss it at all since I slept almost all the way but they gave me a $200 voucher for the inconvenience. KL and AF are fine but I seem to have the best luck on DL.

Cheers

Originally Posted by X3 Skier

I would have chosen Copenhagen over Stockholm but Stockholm may make the cut this year.

I did both - I immediately hopped on a flight to CPH upon landing in Stockholm. Spent two days there and flew back to ARN.

Originally Posted by X3 Skier

I travel TATL Biz Class on Sky Team at least twice a year and I can report the DL Lie Flats are much superior to the old style seats you endured.

I've heard mixed reviews about the DL seats but they HAVE to be better than the recliners.

Originally Posted by X3 Skier

Out of all of the Sky Team partners I have used TATL, AF, KL and DL, I have had the best experiences on DL including the time the individual A/V system crapped out on an East Bound flight to LGW. Didn't miss it at all since I slept almost all the way but they gave me a $200 voucher for the inconvenience. KL and AF are fine but I seem to have the best luck on DL.

I've flown on AF and KL both in F and C and was pretty happy overall (except I had bad experiences with AF's A380 IFE a few times but that didn't really impact me too much since most of what I want to view is on my iPad anyway).

The food was better on AF and KL IMO but not bad on DL. I'd still rate AA's food as better (and the wine selection on AA is definitely better, as are the wine glasses). The worst business seats are Lufthansa's current lie-flats (the new gen. is only in the 747-8 right now)

I guess each flight is a different experience.

When we lived in ATL, we flew Delta. Debbie reached Gold status and I was close to Silver. Debbie still flies with them occasionally and now that she's lost her SkyMiles status mostly in Economy Class. She recently flew MAN <--> ATL <--> BOG

Long Haul Economy class on Delta is simply terrible. Most transatlantic flights feature cramped uncomfortable seats, outdated entertainment system and completely inedible food. For an extra $50 or so Delta might let you purchase a seat with a couple extra inches of leg room. The bag allowance on the international legs isn't too terrible, but more often than not they've tried to charge us for baggage on the connecting domestic leg.

I have about 70,000 miles on DL and Debbie has more than that. I haven't used my miles as I can't stand the though of another ride in DL steerage.

I read that DL is upgrading the Pacific long haul fleet ahead of the atlantic fleet.

Originally Posted by JSpira

I guess each flight is a different experience.

Truer words were never spoken.

Cheers

We used to fly Delta's Business Elite TATL back when they were the only carrier with good connections to MUC that we could apply our AMEX points to. Neither Karen nor I were able to get anything like sleep in those seats, but at least there were plenty of movie choices on the entertainment system. Now that the AMEX points can be used for virtually any carrier, we flew in British Airways' business class to MUC via LHR last year. I wasn't thrilled initially when the "lay-flat bed" seats turned our to be a Rube Goldberg-ish seat-and-footrest combo that had to be fussed with for about 15 minutes before I could get it to its flattest (noooot quite) position, but it was pretty good and we were both awarded with our longest, most refreshing sleep ever on an aircraft. Maybe the big glasses of Port the flight attendants kept pouring had something to do with it.