Over the long weekend in August this year, I went to New York and experienced Delta Airlines’ Boeing 757-200‘s Delta One, their transcontinental business class. The original plan was to transfer in Los Angeles, but for some unknown reason, Delta canceled many flights that night, and my flight was one of them. Delta changed my itinerary, put me on a plane to San Francisco Airport, then transfer to JFK. When I arrived at San Francisco Airport, it was already later than 10 pm. The next flight was delayed to 11:45 pm, so I still have plenty of time to check out Delta Skyclub lounge. At this point, I was the 4th on the upgrade list, and according to the Detla app, there were five seats available for upgrade.
Delta Skyclub Lounge at SFO
At 10 pm, there were not many people in the lounge. I wanted to book a shower room, but it was all booked. Since I had to wait for a while, I walked around and explore the lounge for a bit.
The Sky Club also offers some cold food, very typical Delta Sky club food.
The shower room was soon ready. It is very spacious, and the toiletries are all Westin branded.
It was already 11:45 pm after the shower, but the boarding was delayed again until 12:15 am. At this time, I’m exhausted that I just wanted to get on the plane and sleep.
Boarding
Finally, it’s time to board. When I arrived at the boarding gate, my name for some reason is longer in the upgrade list, but I was not too conerned. At this late, who would push me out of the eligible upgrade list? Finally, I could see my name is showing on the list again, but it was down to the fifth. At first, the monitor displayed only four people who have gotten the upgrade, so it looks like I was the unlucky one. But at the last minute, the monitor showed my name as I got the very last upgrade! The gate agent then called my name and printed a new boarding pass with a reassigned seat number: 1D, that’s a window seat!
Entering the Delta One cabin, you will see the business in Boeing 757 has a 2-2 configuration.
After all, Boeing 757-200 is a narrow-body jet; the 2-2 configuration makes it crowded.
Delta Boeing 757-200 Delta One Cabin
Walking to the first row, this is my seat tonight.
Every seat has a pillow and a comforter. There is one bottle of water on the drink table, as well as the space behind the seat.
Delta One cabin uses Westin brand beddings. The comforter feels okay, but the pillows are soft and fluffy, and it’s very comfortable. After sitting down, I realized this seat is simply a mini version of the KLM’s business class seat. The drawback of this seat is that it doesn’t have any useful storage space.
The footrest space is quite generous. The modern business class seat designs, like the reverse herringbone seats, have added more privacy but sacrificed the footrest space. When that space is limited, it makes sleep less comfortable. I’m glad to see the seat for Delta One on Boeing 757s has not limited the footrest space.
Although Boeing 757 is an old aircraft, the seats here looked new and well maintained. The IFE screen is also high-definition. It looks like Delta will continue to fly its Boeing 757 fleet for a while.
After sitting down, the flight attendant brought the welcome drink: Mimosa.
There is only one flight attendant to serve the business class tonight, and for some reason, she looked annoyed. She stopped by and passed the hot tower, and it was too hot to touch it! I was just about to leave it on the table to cool down for a little while, then the flight attendant had already walked back and took it away. It’s already past midnight, and everyone is tired, so I didn’t say much to her. Soon the plane took off.
Delta One In-Flight Meal
Shortly after the plane took off, the flight attendant came over and asked if I wanted a meal. For this review, I decided to order a meal despite the time is already very late. The flight attendant didn’t hand out the menu; instead, she just showed me the two options for tonight: steak or BBQ Chicken. I chose chicken, and then she came over to set up the table, and served everything at once: Fruit and vegetable salad, quinoa + pancakes, BBQ chicken.
I heard that the meals for the Red Eye flight were very simple, so I didn’t expect this meal to be quite good. After eating, I put the bed in the sleep mode, and get ready to sleep. With the seat lies flat, the divider between the seats gives good privacy:
There is a small control on the right side of the seat, which makes it easy to readjust the seat position when in the sleep mode.
The Delta One seat on the Delta Boeing 757 feels a bit short for me as I’m 6 ft tall. Regardless, I could sleep on the side very comfortably. The fluffy pillow provided was very helpful too. Tonight’s flight had gong through quite a few turbulence, and it was a bumpy ride, but I was so tired that I fell asleep very quickly.
The flight time is less than 5 hours, so the time to sleep on such a red-eye flight is not enough. I didn’t feel I slept for long, but the captain had already announced we were about to land soon.
Before landing, here is the Delta’s TUMI amenity kit for the Delta One passengers. For those transcontinental flights, Delta provides amenity kits only for the flights with Delta One cabin.
因为时间不够，没有打开来拍。 里面好像有袜子之类的必用品。 美国的三大传统航司受到捷蓝的竞争影响，把跨北美航线作为精品航线，所以它的商务舱和国际商务舱几乎是一样的，国内航班居然也提供洗漱包。
Soon the plane landed at JFK International Airport. After such delayed boarding, the arrival time is only one hour later than the original schedule; no wonder the Delta captain said he had tried to fly this flight at full speed!
Overall Impression
Although I slept very well on this flight, the sleep time was just not enough. Overall, I’m impressed by the Delta Boeing 757-200’s business class, and it was better than what I expected. If the flight attendant could be a little friendlier, the trip would be perfect.