One of the reasons for my absence from this wonderful fora is because I have relocated up to Worcester for work in the last six months. As a result it was a much easier journey to MAN than it would have been previously from the south coast. An awful alarm time of 4am saw me do the final things in my flat and I was onto the M5 at 5am. By 6.45 and having stopped at Keele services for a quick Starbucks I was pulling into the Valet parking at Terminal Two. My thanks at this stage must be passed to Neil for the recommendation and the sneaky AMEX voucher code, I owe him now!
Valet parking was effortless and by 7.10am I was at the DL check in desks using their self service kiosks. I had checked in online the night before but do not have a printer at the new flat so I just needed to get a new boarding pass printed. I was hoping for one of the swanky new DL redesigned boarding passes but for some reason the machine just chucked out a regular boarding pass. I was asked the usual questions by the out sourced security staff, sticker on back of passport and I was cleared to check in with the agent who appeared to be AF ground crew.
Security was fairly clear at this early hour. I got selected for the body scanner which was and painless. By 7.35am I was sat in Cafe Nero pondering what I would do for the next two hours before boarding. If I am honest the journey up to MAN had been a lot quicker than I had thought and I found myself with the luxury of having time to kill (something that you will see I didn't have on my return flight!). I did a bit of people watching and witnessed a rather obnoxius young family, I began to pray they would not be on my flight and was rather relieved when I saw they had VH bag tags on their carry on! At 8am I made a final couple of work related calls, one to my secretary where a final couple of letters were dictated over the phone and the other to my boss on her morning drive into the office. I then was ordered by my boss to switch my Blackberry off for the whole of my holiday and ensure that I had left my citrix log in code generator at home!
Boarding was well organised, with clear priority lane and normal lane laid out. There was the usual boarding scrum so there goes the theory that it is only the Brit Abroad types that partake in boarding scrums as the majority of boarding scrum culpruts were Americans with everything and the kitchen sink as carry on luggage!!
This trip was to be in Delta's new Economy Comfort cabin. This is their W offering, although it is more economy than premium however with a rather attractive offer of only £70 return when I booked online it was too good to turn down. As a result of being in Economy Comfort I got to board in Zone 1 so was one of the first on the aircraft. My seat mate for the journey arrived rather out of breath at the last minute and informed me that he had misread the flight times and at 8am was still in Southport, Merseyside, having made it to MAN in less than an hour!
The seat was an all leather affair with 35 inches of legroom just behind door 2 and was separated from the main cabin by a bulkhead. The only downside of this mini cabin was there was only one bathroom on one side of the aircraft available, the other bathroom on the right hand side of the cabin was behind a curtain and for Business Elite customers only (and was strictly enforced). This meant that if you were on the right hand side of the aircraft you had to trudge down to the back of the aircraft or climb over those in the middle seats to access the bathroom.
The first observation about DL was the age of the crew. A lot older than the usual we expect on VS however they were noticeably friendlier (no offence meant to the VS CC regulars on here) and were a lot more casual. The pilot was on to advice of a 8hour 58 flying time and advised us of the route. At 10am we pushed back from the gate and were out by the famous MAN pub by 10.15 and into the sky above Cheshire shortly after.
As soon as 10,000 feet was reached, somewhere over my families historical home of Liverpool, the crew were released and the first advantage of Economy Comfort was noticed….free spirits! In true V-Flyer style I ordered a G+T was pleasantly surprised to be given two bottles of Bombay plus tonic and, of course, a lime! The other advantages, other than the legroom and free spirits is where fitted (ex LHR/CDG/AMS) free premium tv shows (read HBO). This being an American carrier nothing is free so it was rather nice to have a little bit of luxury. I must say I thought the product was very well placed. It is no W but it is a much better product than the extra legroom Y seats VS offer. One clear disadvantage over VS is the lack of any personal IFE. DL are currently rolling out PTV screens across the 767-300 fleet. The 767-400 fleet are completed (these are the planes that operate into LHR), the 767-300 fleet is in the process of being done however, from A.net, it appears it has been put on the back burner for some months (see it happens at all airlines re refits!) apparently DL management have decided retro fitting winglets to their 767-300 fleet is more of a priority (given the fuel saving) than the PTVs at the moment. Equally they have decided fitting the domestic fleet with Wifi is a top priority (I guess given the threat from VX and the like).
Anyway back to the flight. Drinks were served and were very American in their sizes. About 90 minutes into the flight, and after a second full bar service (VS take note!) the lunch service was started. This was a choice of chicken, lasagne or chicken salad. I went for the chicken salad followed by a cup of tea which was reasonable. I believe this is the first time I have had a cold main meal on a plane and it was good. This was followed up by a beer or two.
The lack of IFE meant I listened to my iPod and spoke to my late arriving seat neighbour. I must admit the one thing that impressed me about DL was the frequency of drinks and snack runs and also the approachableness of the staff. They were fantastic. Drink/snack runs were done every hour on the dot and you could approach the staff whenever you wanted. There was no sign of galley FM at all. My seat mate and I took it turns to runs down to the back and effectivley ended up having our own little drinking session.
As we approached NYC afternoon tea was served. Again this was generous, it consisted of a hot Calzone pizza, ice cream, full bar service followed by tea/coffee service. It is fair to say that the food sizes were a lot more American than British, as one would expect on a flight operated by an American carrier.
As we cruised in towards Georgia the Captain was on again to advise we would be on the ground early and to thank us for our custom. A rather choppy initial decent into ATL commenced and at 2.06pm we touched down and the familiar "Fly Delta Jets" sign could be seen. It had been four years since I was at ATL and I am still impressed by the sheer dominance of DL here. It is quite breathtaking just seeing the widget logo everywhere. I tell you, it will make IAG/BA post BMI merger look small in comparison. DL have now branded all the jetways and service trucks to promote the airline sporting slogans such as "Delta- Atlanta's Airline", "Delta-more non stops from Atlanta than anyone else", "Delta- Georgia's airline for 70 years and proud" and so on. After a taxi of Amsterdam proportions we pulled onto stand at the E concourse.
The doors were opened and being in Economy Comfort I was off sharpish as 2L was used and was into the immigration hall fast. Given the issues that MCO has been having of late ATL seemed a great option. They have over 50 desks here, with about half dealing with aliens. We landed at 2.06 and by 3.10 I had completed immigration, collected my bags, cleared customs, got rid of my bags again and cleared a second security check and was on my way to my connecting flight down to MCO.
A quick pit stop at Dominos for a pizza and I was sat in the A Concourse waiting for my flight down to MCO. All in all the transfer had been seamless and given the friendly service on the flight over from MAN I was beginning to say that I would use DL for all my transatlantic services from now on.
THe flight down to MCO was a bit like a bus service really. Boarding was very casual but efficient. I was surprised at the lack of Brits on the flight. We were on a 757-300 which was a Northwest bird pre merger and it was my first time on a 753 so another for the log. THe flight was packed and I found myself sat between two very charming middle aged American ladies, we had a great chat about travel, politics, terrorism, the UK/US special relationship and Florida. Ontime push back and after a short hold we were off. The flight from take off to touch down was a little short of 54 minutes which was just enough time for a quick bar service and a clear up. We flew down wind of MCO and came in over the 417. Again another first, as all the transatlantic direct flights come in over Kennedy and Orlando itself before touching down on a southerly runway.
We were quickly onto stand and I was off and into the familiar surroundings of Airside 4. I said goodbye to one of the female seat mates (the other having vanished) and made my way to the monorail. On boarding the monorail I bumped into said obnoxious VS flying family! So there we had it, I may have left MAN an hour or so earlier but by the time they had got to MCO and cleared immigration etc there was nothing in the journey for either of us.
Upon arrival into the atrium I saw my parents and we were home within an hour and thirty. I walked in and after a quick shower I had a beer in hand and was ready to relax!
So Delta. Would I use them again, yes no question. The crew on all flights were friendly. ATL worked very well and given the sheer number of connections across the America's they have I would certainly use them again. Economy Comfort was good. Its no W but it is a good service and I thought it worked well especially in these times of everyone feeling the pinch when a W or even J seat may not be the cheapest the EC seat on DL is good. I will not lie it is no PE leather couch but it is good if you want a Y seat with more legroom and better service. All in all I was very impressed with DL I would use them again and I think I would go as far as saying I Would select them over VS especially if the price was as good as it was today.
