Review of Delta Air Lines flight from New York to London in Economy

a very nice flight with delta

After a good 10 days in Nyc and Boston, having met amazing people and a lot of fun, I was back to London.

I took the subway train and got a bit confused so I arrived in New York J.F. Kennedy Airport 30 min later than I expected, still on time.

I checked in using Air France app as my booking was with them. However when proceeding through the app, you were taken away to Delta Airlines website at the time… From there you had to do the checking yourself.

I earned miles with Delta, not Flying blue as at the time there was no mile plan agreements amongst skyteam members.

The Delta website is quite generous with details for Avgeek people like me! 

I chose to seat on the 29G seat as it was the closest to the front of the cabin, and of course next to a window!

on board the B767-300

My flight was leaving from Terminal 4, gate B39.

The AvGEEK bit
Although it is "only" the 22nd busiest airport in the world, it is the busiest airport in the USA for international flights, and with 90 airlines operating from the platform, JFK is one of the rare in the world to connect directly the 6 continents of the planet. It is a hub for American Airlines and Delta Airlines, and a focus city for JetBlue too.

-Terminal 1 was opened in 1998 upon request of Air France, Lufthansa, Korean air and Japan airline as they felt back then the international terminal wasn't big enough. Today it is home to these 4 plus some Skyteam members (Alitalia, Chinese carriers) and Star Alliance members.
-Terminal 2 is one of the oldest, opened in the 1960s for Northwest Airlines, now exclusively used by Delta Airlines.
-Terminal 4, later extended over Terminal 3, is mainly used by Delta, and the other Skyteam and Star Alliance members not present at Terminal1. It is also used by affiliated Skyteam members like Virgin Atlantic.
-Terminal 5 is used exclusively by JetBlue and Hawaiian airlines.
-Terminal 7 is owned and used by British Airways and Iberia, with the odd use of LOT and Aerolineas Argentinas.
-Terminal 8 is a hub for OneWorld members, currently used by American Airlines but also Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Latam, Qantas, Qatar and Royal Jordanian.

Boarding went smoothly and I reached my seat with the help of the cabin crew.
Our bird was a B767-300ER, where nowadays Delta uses the A330-300 for this route.

Aircraft: Boeing B767-332ER
Registration: N1609
Engines: 2x GE CF6
Age: 15 Years (in 2015)
Layout: C36 W32 Y143

Delta has a fleet of 58 B767-300ER, 21 B767-400, all of which are equipped with WiFi and just 2 B767-300 (non ER). Delta is the largest operator of the type, however starts to retire its older B767s like this one and replace them with A330neos. Delta is one of the five legacy carrier (airlines founded before WWII) operating 4,500 flights daily, over 319 ddestinations on 54 countries. Atlanta is Delta airline's main hub and with 1000 daily flights, it is the world's largest of any other airline.

After a long taxiing, we took off. The seat pitch was as good as Air France (32in) however the seats felt slightly more stiff.
A sleeping mask was provided, with headsets, a Delta red blanket, Individual IFE on the seat in front of me and the Delta Magazine.

As you can see, the Queen of the Skies (B747) was still in the Delta's fleet.

Home routes are very impressive, and so the routes from Delta's European hubs too

Moments later we were served hot food, which was average, not particularly good or bad, but the disapointment was the wine not being free of charge. Despite me having booked this flight through Air France, i was (naively?) expecting an exception to the rule, and despite my best attempts to convince the crew, i had to get rid of my last dollars to afford to try to get a nice food-wine matching!

The Seats were surprisingly confortable, however food all in all wasn't that good.

  We landed in the morning as expected, at the Terminal 3 of Heathrow. Delta, as a Skyteam member would normally be hosted at Terminal 4 like its Skyteam counterparts, however since the join-venture with Virgin Atlantic, moved its operations to Terminal 3.

This was first experience on a American carrier, and a good one on average (despite the difference of service regarding alcoholic beverages).

And for the stamp collection!