Review of Delta Air Lines flight New York → San Francisco in Business

BACKGROUND

Hi everyone and welcome to this FR mini-series.

Firstly, sorry for being so slow to finish my Thailand series, but I've decided to interrupt that to review my recent trip with VS… in upper class!! I found a very good $2000 RT SFO-MAN fare, which is a great excuse for a trip to Europe! I won't waste time reviewing my internal flights (mostly easyJet and Ryanair), but I wanted to review this very special (and not often reviewed) product! Here is my routing that I will be FRing:

PART I:
SFO-MAN in J on VS ( CLICK HERE)

PART II:
ATH-AMS in Y on KL CLICK HERE

PART III:
MAN-JFK in J on VS CLICK HERE
JFK-SFO in Delta ONE (HERE)

So, lets get down to business (class)

LETS GET FLYING!

After a very inconvenient connection with having to clear security twice, and change terminals landside, we find out that our flight is delayed – which was a blessing because otherwise we wouldn't have made our connection. It also gives us a chance to experience the Delta SkyClub at T4 – which I thought was good for a domestic lounge with decent food and bed, enough seating/reading material and great starbucks coffee.

Lounge:



FIDS:



There were some good enough cold food options, grilled chicken and couscous for me:




Eventually, boarding was called.




My ride this evening:




… And the regular JFK congestion:




Finally, we are on board. Look at that cabin! Flat beds on a transcon is always great!




My seat is 1A, a bulkhead. Bulkheads are good on this config bc you get a bigger footwell.




Good storage: I appreciate the water bottle and amenity kit




IFE:




Footwell:




PDBs were offered, but when I asked for water, the FA said to look in my storage area for the water bottle. I found the to be stingy.


Westin branded bedding, and an amenity kit:




Seat pocket contents:




Finally, we pushed back 1 hour after scheduled.




Plane-spotting: With my A330 from earlier that day making a cameo.




Menu for tonight's flight:




We actually had a pretty short taxi by NYC standards – that was nice. Takeoff:




Hot towel:




Meal service started shortly after takeoff with a selection of starters. Soup was also offered: but I refused. I found the gravlax to be particularly good.




Shortly thereafter, my main course: the beef, was delivered:



I thought that this dish wasn't very inspired. While i appreciate the sauce, the beef was overcooked and the mashed sweet potatoes just seemed cheap. Why cant DL invest in real potatoes?


Dessert was garden variety iced cream. Frozen solid:



Tea after dinner: Not strong enough.




Position after dinner:




The map on the IFE was really great:




Watching some TV. The IFE had a great selection:



Cabin at night:



Soon, I decided to make my bed, and I sleep REALLY well (and I usually cant sleep on planes). The bedding was legendary and the flat bed is an absolute game-changer.

Bed in lie-flat mode:




Bed fully made and lights out:



.. night-night!


I woke up on descent after a really refreshing sleep. Chocolate and water was offered.




Waking up in California:



Landing:



Its good to be home!

CONCLUSION

JFK: I'm outspoken on this: JFK sucks; Outdated terminals, and inconvenient for flight connections. Avoid at all costs and fly out of EWR.
Delta SkyClub I found the lounge to be very good for a USA domestic lounge. Nice enough food and ample room to sit, and many magazines. The Starbucks coffee was a great add-on.
Seat and Bedding These were the two strong points of the Delta One transcon product. The lie flat bed and Westin bedding allowed me to have a very good, sound, quality of sleep. Kudos to Delta!
IFE The Delta Studio IFE is one of the best out there. The interface is great, and the selection of content is excellent. The moving map has lots of cool AvGeek features like the a/c registration.
Food This is an area where Delta might be able to set itself apart from competitors. The starter was good, but the main and dessert fell short of what I'd expect for international J-class, although it was okay for a domestic product. I'd like to see more imaginative and diverse mains and desserts, more generous PDBs, and a pre-arrival snack.
Crew The FAs were good but nothing special. They were efficient, but I found that they were a little stingy at times.
SFO The arrivals were efficient, and the airport is convenient. Good job!