V-Flyer

Mrs Hull and I managed to get a cheapish deal ex DUB to Las Vegas (£1300pp in Business) for the new year, so having flown to Dublin on Boxing day and spending the night in the Radisson DUB we arose at 0700 to make our way back to the terminal which took around 30 minutes as while we were checking out we missed a shuttle, although the terminal was not very far away at all it was very cold so we decided to wait for the next one.

Check in was a breeze and we were soon on our way to the lounge for coffee and biscuits, we were collected at 1000 by a DL representative who led us down the US pre clearance which is a great idea, which entailed inserting your passport into a machine much like the ones you use to check in, confirm your details via a touch screen and retrieve a slip of paper to show to an agent, Mrs Hull decided to use a different machine she ended up being shown to a different line to me, I had a nice chatty lady who seemed more interested in the Sons of Anarchy hoodie I was wearing whilst Mrs Hull had the full "welcome to America" questioning at one of the CBP booths, some 30 minutes late she emerged and promptly hit the big red angry face on the "how did we do" survey machine.

We boarded straight away and were directed to our seats 1+2A no polite welcome and certainly no AU recognition as others have received even though it states "VS Gold" on the boarding pass.

Champagne offered and accepted, refills too that was about as good as it got the crew had no spark and did not work well as a team, the food was bland and dry (we both had Chicken) Mrs Hulls cocktail never came, the best course was the ice cream which I enjoyed with some more bubbles

As we were in for a long day I decided to try and get some sleep
Now as you can see the seat is not very wide and when you recline into the sleep mode it feels like what I can only describe as "being lowered into a coffin" with you feet in a tight recess and shoulders pinned at either side it is hard to move around but once I got comfy I managed nearly three hours sleep.

Before landing into JFK we were offered Pizza which yet again was nothing to write home about.

The seatbelt sign was on for nearly the whole flight even though we encountered little or no turbulence and heaven forbid if you stood up whilst one of the flight crew left the cockpit for a comfort break, the cabin crew would block the aisle with their carts and glare at anyone who moved.

We landed on time and Taxied to T4 where our plane to LAS would take us from, it was nice to not have to go through Immigration, we thought we would try our luck and visit the JFK Clubhouse but it was closed so off to the Delta Sky Club.

The flight did what it promised in getting us to JFK but was not a fabulous experience like you get with VS. I would not chose Delta over VS or BA unless a serious saving was on the cards.

That all sounds a bit disappointing!

tontybear wrote:That all sounds a bit disappointing!

It really was.

Hi Hull
Thanks for the trip report. As a Vegas regular too, interesting to see a different route.
How many tier points would you earn on this trip?
Thanks

Hi

You earn 5 TP's per leg over 3000 miles and 3 TP's per leg under 3000 miles in Business class. So we should get a total of 16, still waiting for the return ones to post. You also earn 150% miles plus 100% AU bonus.

At least that's a great consolation.

How terribly disappointing for you and the Mrs, Dom.

Was this the business Elite offering?

Bretty wrote:How terribly disappointing for you and the Mrs, Dom.

Was this the business Elite offering?

Indeed, yes it was Business Elite on a B767, the return from LAX was barely any better either.

Mmm, not great by the sounds of it ,that seat sure would struggle with my hulking torso by the looks of it ,the CC sound a tad paranoid as well .
As least you got there but I'm guessing you won't be handing over any of your hard earned to delta any time soon !

I'm sure you were in the Priority Pass lounge in DUB where I was on my trip to DXB on EK. My experience was that it was a pretty pathetic offering of a lounge. When I got there, it was chock-a-block (although that improved with the calling of the Delta flight ) and the coffee machine wasn't working as it needed to be emptied - an exercise that took the best part of 30 minutes for someone to attend to. Later I needed a knife for my cheese and biccies and I had to wait for a knife to come out of the dishwasher.

Oh, and champagne, which would have been free in any EK lounge was €15 a pop in DUB

I agree with the seating on DL BE, but i'm 5'4 and spent most of the flight trying not to slip into the coffin. So i got my hand luggage and stuffed it in the recess to prop me up

Not good!
We've had some good reports coming out of Lhr recently with delta as well.
Better stick with Virgin then?
D

Blacky1 wrote:Mmm, not great by the sounds of it ,that seat sure would struggle with my hulking torso by the looks of it ,the CC sound a tad paranoid as well .
As least you got there but I'm guessing you won't be handing over any of your hard earned to delta any time soon !

I certainly don't see any more DL trips on the horizon for Mrs Hull and I.

honey lamb wrote:I'm sure you were in the Priority Pass lounge in DUB where I was on my trip to DXB on EK. My experience was that it was a pretty pathetic offering of a lounge. When I got there, it was chock-a-block (although that improved with the calling of the Delta flight ) and the coffee machine wasn't working as it needed to be emptied - an exercise that took the best part of 30 minutes for someone to attend to. Later I needed a knife for my cheese and biccies and I had to wait for a knife to come out of the dishwasher.

Oh, and champagne, which would have been free in any EK lounge was €15 a pop in DUB

I believe it was the DAA Executive lounge, not too impressive, it certainly doesn't fill one with hope for a long flight.

At least the Coffee machine was working during my visit, I didn't see any Alcohol during my visit, I'm guessing it was in the little fridge with the frosted glass door.

Delta have so many seats in their fleet at this point in business that it's a frustrating experience figuring it all out. The 767 seats are "worst in class" IMO, but the easiest product out there and available that can be fitted into those aircraft reasonably easily and give you lie flat. BA's and United's are proprietary and have each their own version of back-n-forth, which would be too big of a deviation anyway for Delta. The seat Continental went with I think takes up a bit more space. So we have the coffin, which is less than ideal. DL also has put in the CO style seat on some 757s and I think they still have some VS seating somewhere, as well as the Cirrus seat on their newer planes. Most main LHR flights have the Cirrus, I think, which is rapidly becoming the standard.

With all the airline hopping I've done since leaving VS a few years ago, and for all the grousing about its many cuts, it can still be that bit nicer than most others. US airlines are clearly in a race to the bottom, AA has taken a big axe to its International Biz product and is mostly taking F out of the fleet, we are clearly in an interesting phase. Most of them seem to think that a solid seat and extensive network will trump pretty much everything else, which is not an unreasonable assumption to be honest.

Sorry to hear it was so mediocre.

I would avoid all the USA airlines for long-haul travel unless I had no option.

Hull wrote:

honey lamb wrote:I'm sure you were in the Priority Pass lounge in DUB where I was on my trip to DXB on EK. My experience was that it was a pretty pathetic offering of a lounge. When I got there, it was chock-a-block (although that improved with the calling of the Delta flight ) and the coffee machine wasn't working as it needed to be emptied - an exercise that took the best part of 30 minutes for someone to attend to. Later I needed a knife for my cheese and biccies and I had to wait for a knife to come out of the dishwasher.

Oh, and champagne, which would have been free in any EK lounge was €15 a pop in DUB

I believe it was the DAA Executive lounge, not too impressive, it certainly doesn't fill one with hope for a long flight.

At least the Coffee machine was working during my visit, I didn't see any Alcohol during my visit, I'm guessing it was in the little fridge with the frosted glass door.

That was the one. The other is the Aer Lingus Gold Circle Lounge.

It was jointed until the passengers for the DL flight left! And yes, the booze - well at least beer and white wine - were in the fridge with the frosted glass. The red wine was on the counter when I was there.

Maximus wrote:Sorry to hear it was so mediocre.
I would avoid all the USA airlines for long-haul travel unless I had no option.

American's 777-300 fleet has the same J seat as Cathay Pacific and Wi-Fi, so I'd suggest that's a good experience.

But I agree with your sentiment. US carriers do have a very poor rep in the UK.