Could do better (Delta)

Member Name: ahenry

Product:	Delta
Date:	02/07/01 (454 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, On time

Disadvantages: Poor decor, No freebies, No seat back TV

I've just returned from my first flight on Delta airlines. It was from Gatwick to Boston, which is a fairly new route for them. Their competition on this route is from British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, American and United.
First impressions at Gatwick weren't great. Two hours before the departure time, there was a long queue at the check in desk. I was able to bypass this and check in at the business class desk as the company I work for spends a lot of money on London/Boston flights and has negotiated a special deal. This meant I was also allowed to use the Crown room lounge. The atmosphere in there was very peaceful. There were free drinks and snacks on offer and I was able to get an hours work done as well as charging the battery on computer. With about an hour to go, I set off for the gate. The departures screens near the actual departure gate weren't listing my flight so I had to walk back to the bit near the shops to find which one to go for. It was quite a long walk to the gate, which wasn't a problem, except that I didn't know for sure that I was heading in the right direction and hadn't misread the gate number until I got there as none of the other departure screens listed my flight even then.
When I got to the gate, I found that I was on the right flight. There wasn't any air conditioning at this gate and it was pretty stuffy. They hadn't assigned a seat to me and it was then that I found that I had been upgraded from Economy to the "Business Elite" seats.
The plane was a Boeing 767. This has two engines, and in theory one should be enough to get you to safety if the other was to fail. Flying over the sea near Greenland, I wouldn't mind having a 4-engined plane for a bigger margin of error.
Onboard there was lots of legroom - so much that it was a real stretch to reach things in the pocket on the back of the seat in front without unbuckling the seat belt. The seats were covered in shiny blue l
eather which felt a bit dated. They adjusted electrically and reclined quite a long way back but I still didn't find them that comfortable to sit on and I still had to wander around with a numb bum after a few hours. There were fold out LCD screens for the TV. These used the same system that you get on Virgin Atlantic flights. You can switch between 10 channels, a sky map which has a constantly updated position, altitude and air speed, and a few basic Nintendo games. There was a nice tin of freebies with some small tubes of nice cosmetics from L'Occitaine, which saved me from buying a present for my wife! There was a reasonable selection of food, although the steak for my main course arrived too cold. There were also some free newspapers and magazines on offer. I picked up a copy of Car magazine for reading whilst I was away.
The flight left and arrived on time and was pleasantly uneventful. On arrival at Logan airport, there were hardly any queues to get through immigration. Obviously it helped being in the business class seats, but there weren't any people from other flights in front of us. Similarly when we got to the taxi rank, there was no one else waiting for a cab. This was probably because the Delta flight arrives at 3.30pm instead of 5.30 for the Virgin flight that I am more used to at which time everything is a lot busier.
For the return journey, I didn't get upgraded. It departs at 6.10 which means that you have to check in for 4.10 - a couple of hours earlier than for Virgin. However, this means that you miss the worst of the Boston traffic as well. The economy seats were OK, although anyone with long legs might find them a bit of a squeeze. The downsides are that its pretty spartan compared to a Virgin flight. You have to peer across at shared TV screens for the movies instead of having your own, and so this means theres a lot less choice. The seats were covered in a dull blue fabric which felt like British Rail circa 1964. I sle
pt most of the way, so I only got to try the breakfast, which was uninspiring, with noone offering refills of tea or coffee. The only freebie was a sick bag. In contrast with Virgin, you get a plastic bag thats useful for carrying dirty washing or wet clothes, ear plugs, eye covers, a pen, toothbrush, some vouchers etc. To make up for this omission, I made sure I picked up one of the leftover tins from the Business Class seats on the way out.

Delta are offering double Skymiles on their London-Boston economy flights until the end of August 2001. That would get you about 13000 straight off. When you get 20,000 of these points, you can get a free one way upgrade to Business class. However to get a free transatlantic flight takes 50,000 which makes it take quite a few more flights than Virgin, where it only takes 30,000.

If I was paying with my own money, then I'd pay £50 extra for an economy seat on Virgin than Delta. You get the same room, but a much nicer ambience. On a corporate deal, then its a closer call, and the fact that Delta are a fair bit cheaper is the reason why they were chosen. They could really do with sorting out the organisation at Gatwick, and updating the interiors of their planes ASAP.

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