A visual of my itinerary from LAX to HND via SEA which would cover a distance of 5,757mi/9,265km
This trip report will cover the Seattle (SEA) to Tokyo (HND) segment.
Welcome back to another exciting trip report! This was a trip in the works since the start of 2020 which I had to reschedule quite a few times due to obvious circumstances. Nonetheless the day had come to visit one of my favorite countries in the world! To make this even more exciting, this would be my first time flying on DL's A330-900neo aircraft which I've been wanting to fly on first quite some time. This trip starts off in Seattle where I had a tight one hour connection here in Seattle Tacoma international airport. I had arrived from my inbound flight from LAX into terminal A whereas my flight to Tokyo would be departing out of the satellite S gates. As I got off my aircraft and said goodbye to my A321neo I sprinted and took the underground train that connects to the terminal S which was not hard at all to find. By the time I arrived at the gate from my last flight they were already boarding.
After sprinting to the gate, I first wanted to greet my A330-900neo that'll be taking me across the pacific today.
For this flight I was suppose to sitting in an exit row 42A (main cabin) with the unlimited amount of legroom, however I somehow forgot to turn off my upgrade preferences for this flight so I was upgraded to 34A (comfort+) which you'll see in a little bit. Ultimately I would have a seat neighbor next to me for the whole flight which would limit to the number of times I could get up and stretch throughout the flight. Regardless this aircraft is configured in a premium heavy configuration with four cabin types. I do like however that on DL's A330neo's they have 7 rows of Y+ versus 3 rows on all their other A330-200/300 and B767-300/400 aircrafts. Higher chances for us Silver Medallions to get complimentary upgrades on international flights I suppose ?.
Just as I had arrived at the gate area, they were just about to start boarding comfort+ group, talk about great timing ?.
Some information about my plane:
Flight number: DL 167
Aircraft: Airbus A330-941
Registration: N407DX
Delivered: March 3, 2020
Age: 3.8 years
A friendly FA greeted me at the boarding door and directed me down the first aisle towards my seat. Here's my home for the next 10 hours 34A (comfort+). This seat at least had a near perfect window alignment. However, the Y+ section is located directly over the wing which would mean very limited to no site seeing below.
A nice sized PTV which will be of great use during this long haul flight ?. Strangely enough I don't recall the FA's passing out headphones like they usually do once we all boarded. Not an issue though as I had quite a few from past flights.
Legroom is great of course. These seats offer 34" of pitch, 2 more inches then in regular main cabin.
My over the wing view for the next 10.5 hours.
Here were the contents that were found at my seat:
A comfort+ amenity kit which we'll take a look at later on in the flight.
A thank you letter from the purser onboard. I've heard that DL does this quite a lot with their loyal medallion members however this was my first one after being a silver medallion for 5 years.
Inflight slippers.
A plush pillow and a blanket in a sealed bag. This will come to very good use on this long haul flight!
Eventually the FA's passed out these custom forms. I however did mines online which generated 2 barcodes which saved a ton of time when I got to Tokyo.
We pushed back right on time and today's flight load to Tokyo was about 80%.
Delta Boeing 737-900ER
Eventually the safety demostration video was played.
We'd be taking off on runway 16L.
Until next time Seattle!
It's a perfect day to be flying ?.
Cabin lights were dimmed to signal the start of the inflight service.
The first inflight service began quite quick about 30 minutes after takeoff while flying over Vancouver Island.
The FA's first began by handing out the usual wooden utensils and bottles of water to everyone.
I'm not a fan of these at all and I much rather eat with the plastic recycled utensils they provide at the skyclubs then these.
The FA's first passed with the meal cart later followed by the drinks cart. For the meal I can't recall what options they had but I went with the chicken curry with rice which was fantastic! For drinks I went for a coke and bloody marry.
Although the meal was delicious and DL usually tends to have the best food out of the big three in economy class, it still lacks a bread roll to accompany the meal. Not to mention while other airlines offer proper desserts, DL has opted to replace it with a sad prepackaged lemon bar.
Got to take advantage of the alcoholic drinks when they are free on international flights ?.
The meal was great, although I must admit I was left a bit hungry still. A bread roll and a good size dessert would of been perfect.
Before clearing out the trays the FA's passed by the cabin offering more drinks, I went for a tomato juice.
After the meal service, the FA's asked all passengers to close their blinds to make the cabin dark for everyone to get some rest. I usually don't sleep on flights so this was hard to do ?.
Flying over the Bering Sea.
After the meal service I decided to take a trip the Loo. I was quite impressed by how clean it was kept.
I passed by the galley to get some snacks from a self serve snack basket since I was still a bit hungry from lunch.
Bt the time I got back to my seat they had already began the 'mid-flight' service which consisted of a choice of drink and a baked chocolate chip cookie.
These are the handful of snacks that I got from the galley, the first are these crackers.
These tiny bags of SunChips.
Prepackaged chocolate chip cookies.
And lastly these small wedges of cheddar cheese to go with the crackers which were very tasty.
About an hour or so later the FA's did another drink run through the cabin, this time only offering coffee and more freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
Here's a look at DL's fantastic entertainment system which offers a ton of movies, TV shows and live tv channels.
More than enough to keep you entertained on a flight of this length ;).
My absolute favorite part though was DL's fantastic interactive map which I kept on my screen the whole flight ?.
Here's a quick Look at the back seat pocket which contained the safety card and an air sickness bag.
Here's a look at the comfort+ amenity kit that was awaiting at my seat when I boarded. This is quite unique to DL as far as I know, UA and AA don't even offer this unless your seated in premium Y class.
The amenity kit contained an eyeshade, ear plugs, a toothbrush and a tiny tube of tooth paste.
Somewhere over the Pacific.
After watching a few movies, time somehow went by very quick and we were about 1.5hr outside of Tokyo.
The pre-arrival service started not to long after with the FA's passing out the trays followed by the drinks cart.
The tray came with the entree which there was only one choice, an egg and cheese calzone and a small bowl of fruits.
The fruits were a little on the hard side but nonetheless good.
The cheese calzone was surprisingly very tasty! I much prefer these over the egg & cheese breakfast sandwiches DL has been serving as a pre-arrival meal for the longest time.
For drinks I went for an orange juice and a red wine which I made a makeshift mimosa cocktail ?.
Lastly to finish off the service the FA's came around offering chocolates which was a nice touch.
Shortly after the cabin lights were turned on for the FA's to prepare the cabin for landing.
Looks like we'll be landing into a partly cloudy Tokyo this afternoon.
We'll be landing into runway 23 here in Tokyo's Haneda Airport.
Welcome to Tokyo! ??
We arrived at the gate 45 minutes ahead of schedule, good job DL!
Thanks for the safe crossing N407DX!
This concludes the trip report, thanks for reading!
This was a pleasant flight on DL. The economy class product (seats and entertainment) is definitely better compared to that of UA and AA in my opinion. The complimentary upgrade to comfort+ was a great addition and did enhance the experience on this transpacific crossing. Only slight negative would have to be the meal service provided on their international flights. The meals are served in what I can only describe as cardboard containers which gives a cheap feel to the overall experience. On top of that, DL has completely done away with offering a bread roll with the meal and went the cheap route with the desserts by offering some prepackaged brownies. Even UA/AA and almost all other full service international carriers offer better filling meal trays in Y then DL. Lastly, the wooden or bamboo utensils they offer in economy is simply bad to eat with. The fork is literally a straight stick and the spoon as well with the knife being useless to cut into anything. DL's CEO brags about his airline being known as a 'premium product' well they can start by offering perhaps real silverware as real premium airlines do like EK and Qatar.
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