V-Flyer

Here is my Delta review, After a wonderful 4 nights in NYC it was time to head from the East Coast of USA to the West Coast, my last internal flight in the USA was in May 2008 flying the opposite route San Francisco to New York with American Airlines and it wasn’t the best experience in a cramped seat, poor service and most importantly no entertainment; which is a must for someone like me. I rarely sleep on flights.

With memories of 2008 and following my flight with Virgin Atlantic in Upper class, I had no real expectations for this trip, so prepped for this trip by not sleeping the night before, fully expecting a poor flight and hopefully sleeping throughout it.

Check-in was a smooth process, and the lovely ground team were kind enough to give me a few pointers for San Francisco and Napa Valley. After the usual security interrogation due to having a beard and an Asian name, I made my way toward Wingtips lounge which I had access to due to my Priority Pass. The lounge was basic and I decided to have a coffee whilst watching CNN, which had more coverage on the Brexit saga in Europe than the Republican and Democratic leadership races. I decided to get the boarding gate early today as I wanted to ensure that my backpack with my camera equipment, laptop and essentials wasn’t put into the hold as it was a full flight. Luckily there was enough room for my bag. On first view, I was quite impressed with the plane, it looked like it had been refurbished in the past few years. There were 3-classes on this flight. First Class, Comfort Plus (aka Premium Economy) and Comfort (aka Economy).

The plane was equipped with Wi-Fi (why haven’t Virgin Atlantic or BA got this yet???), USB ports at every seat and a reasonably sized screen. I set up my GoPro to record the flight in time-lapse mode, before settling in. The plane filled up quite quickly, and we were soon ready to go and in the air. I have to say the Delta In-Flight safety was quite entertaining. I normally don’t pay attention to these but this one certainly grabbed my attention.

Take-off was comfortable and the team soon after started a food and beverage service, I decided to opt for the breakfast which was $8 and surprisingly quite tasty. The team on board were fantastic, and Tim and I had a quick chat with them. It turned out the entire crew on my flight were an ex Pan Am crew.

Despite my lack of sleep, I stayed awake the entire flight. They have a great tie-in with HBO and I spent the entire flight watching HBO show’s one after another, I was so engrossed in the shows that I didn’t realise where the time went. I didn’t get the opportunity to the on-board Wi-Fi as it was too expensive, if I did pay attention to the online check-in, I could have used it on the entire flight for a bargain $14.99. whereas on board it was closer to $40.

Another thing I was impressed by as Delta’s mobile app. I downloaded it for my on-line check-in and not only does it do that, it provides you with the ability to track your luggage and gives you notifications for when check-in is open for your future flights as well as any other notifications to do with the flights.

The flight landed on time, and it was a breeze to get to baggage reclaim where there was a Delta employee handing out bottles of water to passengers (a really nice touch, and much needed after a flight). After my bags were out, the first thing I decided to do was send a tweet to @delta to thank them for such a comfortable flight. What I should be doing is apologising to them, and their entire team – I was pleasantly surprised and I will be giving them a try on my next transatlantic flight, if it’s anything like the flight experience I had from the East Coast to the West Coast of USA, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic need to up their game. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my Delta review, I’d appreciate any feedback or your thoughts on Delta or other airlines.

See my post including pictures and a time-lapse video of the flight at:

http://thetworoads.com/2016/09/02/delta-review/

Thanks for the TR.

As the tie up between VS and DL expands, i would imagine many more of us will be taking Delta flights in the future - so your TR is very useful.

buns

Thanks Buns, I'll be heading to Texas soon so will consider my options with DL/Virgin. Flying on BA in November to Sub Continent, will be interesting to experience both First and Club World, especially comparing the latter to Upper Class.