Review of Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Los Angeles in Business

The Delta One Check In Experience at JFK

I arrived at JFK’s Terminal 4 at 6:45 a.m., about two and half hours ahead of my scheduled departure time of 9:55 a.m.

This is because I was staying the night at the nearby Fairfield Inn JFK airport and their shuttle only departs from the hotel on the hour, every hour, and their 7:00 a.m. shuttle was full already when I checked in yesterday.

I was actually quite glad that I was on the 6:00 am shuttle. It took us 40 minutes to get to Terminal 4 despite the airport only being 2 miles away. The traffic was horrendous. I was also lucky that everyone on my shuttle was also going to Terminal 4, meaning that we didn’t have to stop at any other terminals. Plan ahead if you’re departing from JFK. There’s a lot of construction and lane closures that make it take so long to get to where you need to be.

Delta One passengers have access to the private Delta One Check In area at JFK.

If you present your boarding pass to the agent at the entrance, you’ll be granted access.

You then proceed down a hallway that’s nicely decorated.

When you get towards the end of that hallway, you’ll find a lounge area with coffee station to your left, and the check in area to your right.

You then get to proceed directly through a private security checkpoint. At this checkpoint, no passenger has to remove electronics or liquids. Regardless of whether you have PreCheck or not. I was handed a small card that indicated that I had PreCheck and meant that my belt and shoes didn’t need to be taken off.

I was the only one there and it only took a matter of seconds!

The Delta One Lounge JFK

Once through security, you keep walking, and you’ll find the entrance to the Delta One Lounge.

As soon as I walked in, there was a lounge staff member there who welcomed me in. “Is it your first time here?” When I said yes, he said, “Welcome to Delta One!” He then gave me a very brief rundown of the lounge. He told me where the bathrooms were and to come to him if I needed to request a shower or massage chair, and he would do that for me. He then said that I can go to the market for food and that the bar was open!

I walked around to explore the lounge a bit before settling in. There’s a few seating areas in the center of the lounge, near the bar.

You’ll notice these tablets throughout the lounge where you can request services like massages/ shoe shines/ showers/ and even request assistance with your flight.

There’s a hallway leading back towards the bathrooms with more seating options and a coffee station.

On the other side of the lounge is the market and another seating area with plush armchairs and individual tables. As soon as I sat down, another staff member came up to me and asked me if It was my first time in the lounge. She gave me another introduction to the lounge. Though, more in detail. She explained that at 11:00, the brasserie would open and that at 12:00, they had a massage therapist that comes in at 12:00.

She then asked me if there was anything that she could get me to drink and I asked for a coffee with some cream.

I then went to check out the market. The market is sort of like a buffet, but not like a buffet. They have different stations with different menus. The lounge staff at each station will plate and prepare what you need. Here are the menus:

I went to the oven and ordered a waffle. I also got some chicken apple sausage and some home fries.

When I returned to my seat, my cup of coffee was waiting for me!

It got cold in this area, so I decided to switch to the terrace.
The terrace that is super nice with plants and other things. It feels really nice. The other thing is that the terrace is indoors, so on a cold day like this, it was very comfortable!

Delta chose to not go with individual all gender restrooms, and instead opted for “normal” public restrooms. Personally, I prefer the feel of what United has in their Polaris lounges imwith the all gender restrooms because the space is your own and feels much more private. But, at the end of the day…. As long as a lounge restroom is clean, that’s good right?

The stalls for the toilets have green and red lights above them to indicate if they are vacant or not.

I decided to go to the bar and get a mimosa. I also took a picture of the drink menu.

While I was sitting in the terrace, I saw my inbound aircraft arrive in from LAX.

I chose to move from the terrace because there were some lights flickering and it was becoming bothersome. So I chose to sit in the seating area past the market, which was extremely quiet because I believe nobody goes that far back into the lounge!

I also decided to go back to the market and get the breakfast burrito, which was tasty.

Note that if you want a soda, you have to go to the bar to get it. I did find that the bar wasn’t always staffed. They had mimosa stations set up throughout the lounge, though. So, I couldn’t get a soda. At least in the United Polaris Lounges and the AA flagship lounges, sodas and other non alcoholic beverages are available at self serve stations.Additionally, water was only available at the mimosa stations. Which is also a bummer that you can’t even get your own water. It is really nice that they have staff serving you m, almost hand and foot, but it’s also nice to have your own level of self sufficiency too for simple things.

On my way out of the lounge, I took a picture of the brasserie, the sit down dining room, that was closed, as well as the menu.

In order to get to the gate level, you have to take an elevator downstairs.

Boarding, Cabin, and Seat:

Concourse B at JFK’s terminal 4 is a long concourse and typically has TONS of people. It can take a long time to get to your gate. Even with my fast walking pace, it took me about 15 minutes to get to gate B37.

I arrived at the gate just as boarding was starting. Delta One passengers are invited to board in Zone 1. Though, boarding was disorganized. People from zones 2 and 3 were blocking the aisle way even after the agents said “if you’re not in zone 1, please step back.”

On the 767-300, there’s only one boarding door, despite it being a widebody aircraft.

My first impression of this cabin? Horrible. It’s so dated and old. It’s laughable because I honestly find the Business Class cabin in United ‘s 757-200 to be nicer.

The Delta One cabin on the 767-300 is arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration. The seats have no privacy. You can see everyone in the cabin, and everyone can see you.

The seat had bedding on the seat already as well as a water bottle, headsets, and a printed menu. There was also an amenity kit.

The seat is 20 inches wide and has 77 inches in lie flat mode.

To the left is the seat controls and tray table as well as your console countertop. There is a reading light and also the universal power outlet (which wasn’t working) and a USB power port (which wasn’t working), as well as an Ethernet port?

The right armrest is just an armrest.

The seat itself felt very narrow. And it also isn’t well padded. It’s very uncomfortable.

The seat has two windows, and has individual air vents and overhead lights.

Pre-Departure

At 9:24, a flight attendant came by to offer a pre-departure beverage of either sparkling wine or orange juice. I went with a sparkling wine.

I decided to look at the printed menu. Delta allows you to preorder meals on select routes starting 7 days prior to departure and ending 24 hours prior to departure. I had chosen the Chicken. Here’s what the menu looks like:

At some point during boarding, someone’s bag accidentally knocked over my sparkling wine. This wouldn’t have happened in a Polaris seat on United because the seats have privacy dividers between you and the aisle. Here, that protection wasn’t offered. It spilled all over the console and even into me. Luckily, a flight attendant helped me clean up a bit.

At 9:37, the captain came to everyone in the Delta One cabin to welcome us each on board and to thank us for flying Delta today. It was a really nice touch.

At 9:47, the captain came on to announce our flight time of 5 hours 25 minutes.

Departure and Climb Out

We pushed back at 9:54, 1 minute ahead of schedule, and the safety video began.

Once the safety video finished and we were ready to go at 10:05, we began our taxi. I don’t fly out of JFK often, but every time I do, I have always had at a minimum a 45 minute taxi time due to the congestion of the airspace and the layout of the airport.

At 10:13, we took runway 31L for departure.

During takeoff, This hazmat cabinet had opened up. Our takeoff wasn’t rough or anything… it was probably just not latched properly.

We also got a view of Manhattan on the out.

At 10:19, we reached 10,000 feet, meaning that we were well on our way to Los Angeles.

While we were climbing out, I decided to check out the amenity kit. It contained socks, eyeshades, earplugs. A toothbrush, toothpaste, hand cream, a pen, and lip balm.

At 10:29, the first officer came on to announce that we were climbing through FL240 making our way up to FL340. He said we had some smooth air and would be turning off the fasten seatbelt sign.

WiFi and Entertainment

Just in front of your seat is the IFE screen which is TINY. It’s also not even remotely at eye level it’s more like at abdomen level, seriously… you have to crane your head down to even see it. The resolution is awful, and the brightness was so bad that it was just hard to see… it’s actually funny because the quality of the screens in Economy and Premium Plus are better than those in Delta One on this aircraft.

So, although Delta has a great IFE selection, it’s easy to dismiss this because of this awful quality.

The headsets provided are not good. The sound quality is bad and they aren’t noise canceling. I used my own Bose Quiet Comforts.

The one thing Delta has going for it is that on select flights, they offer free WiFi to skymiles members- all you have to do is log in. It worked gate to gate and was quite good.

Cruise

At 10:39, the purser came around to confirm meal orders. He didn’t say much. He just kind of said, “I see you preordered the chicken. Thank you.” And moved on. It was weird. I mean I did preorder that, but he didn’t even give me the chance to respond.

At 10:48, a hot towel was distributed. It smelled really nice!

At 10:53, a table cloth and the drink cart came around. I ordered the Vina Real Barrel Fermented Rioja Blanco, which was from Spain. It tasted nice but I’m no wine connoisseur…

At 10:57, my meal was brought out. All on one tray.

The chicken and bread pudding was good and flavorful. Though, the chicken was overcooked and tough to eat. It was even hard to cut into.

The deviled eggs were watery and gross and they lacked flavor.

The salad was ok. The dressing was just red wine vinegar. No real flavor other than vinegar.

It was served with a bread roll, which was cold. It was served separately so I thought they’d at least heat it… but no.

At 11:12, my tray was cleared. And I was offered dessert. There was no option, despite what they said on the menu. I was brought out a cheesecake a minute later.

The cheesecake tasted good!

When I finished my cheesecake, a flight attendant came to clear the plate, the tablecloth, and even took my wine, which I wasn’t even finished with. They didn’t ask if I wanted anything else.

After that, I decided to open up the bedding. Inside was one pillow and one blanket. American and United offer more on their flights. The bedding was also not all that great. The blanket, was not that thick. I wonder if the bedding was better when Delta had Westin Heavenly bedding…

I had settled in to watch a movie and ended up falling asleep for a bit. About an hour later, I woke up to us hitting some rough air.

I also needed to use the restroom, so the fasten seat belt sign came on and I got up to use the lavatory. No sooner than I got up out of my seat did the captain flip it back on again, and came on and said “Seat belts!” And we hit more rough air.

When it was safe to do so again, I got up to use the lavatory. There are two lavatories on Delta’s 767-300 in Delta One, both just ahead of the cabin. The lavaotory has a fold down seat above the toilet where you can either sit down on… or I’m thinking more likely put something on like if you needed change clothes or something.

At this point, we had about 3 hours left in flight, and I decided since I was up, I would check out the galley to see if any snacks were set up, like was stated on the menu.

Nothing was set up. Oh well. I asked the flight attendant for a Coke Zero instead.

At 1:41 pm local time in New York, I decided to change my clock to the local time in Los Angeles, making it 10:41 am in LA.

I settled in to finish the movie I was watching earlier.

About one hour prior to landing, a warm cookie was offered. It’s a nice gesture but honestly disappointing because most flights in business class like this have more substantial pre-arrival meals or snacks.

The cookie was not that good. It was hard as a rock. Also, the fact that it was served in a paper pouch is just cheap.

Descent and Arrival

At 12:01, the first officer came on to announce that we would be beginning our descent soon and touching down at LAX in about 30 minutes.

At 12:26, we reached 10,000 feet, and were on our approach into LAX.

We touched down on runway 24R at 12:34 pm, and began our taxi into the gate.

We arrived at gate 31A at 12:45 pm. We had to wait a few minutes for our tampers to come and marshal us in.

Delta One Lounge LAX

Passengers traveling in Delta One have access to the Delta One Lounge at their departure, arrival, and connecting airports along their eligible same day itinerary. So, of course I was going to check out the LAX lounge and review it.

The Delta One Lounge at LAX is located in the hallway between Terminals 2 and 3 at LAX, it’s closer to the T3 side. There’s an agent at the entrance who will scan your boarding pass, and once admitted in, you take the elevator to the 4th floor.

Once outside of the elevator, you enter the lounge.upon entering the lounge, I was greeted by a friendly lounge staff member who gave me an amenity card.

She told me that in this lounge, you sit wherever you like, and a server will come and take care of you. There’s no buffet. Everything is a la carte.

There’s a “dining room” area with tables.

There’s also the bar and other seating areas in the center of the lounge.

There’s also a terrace. Unlike the JFK lounge, the terrace is outdoors. I went out there and you could smell the jet fuel! Which is fun for about 5 minutes, but as my experience in the Sky Club at LAX tells me, I wouldn’t want to spend more than that out there.

There’s an inside area though, with the same views of the ramp and it has these private pods. This is where I sat for my visit.

As soon as I sat down, I was greeted my my server who immediately asked me if I wanted still or sparkling water. When she brought it out, she brought me a menu. Here’s the menu:

It’s interesting that Delta has some drinks that are complimentary and some that they still charge for. Yes, these drinks are more premium, but United and AA pride themselves on the fact that everything in their lounges are complimentary, and honestly, it feels like a cash grab to ask anyone to pay for anything in a business class lounge- sorry.

I ordered The Little Gem Salad and the AMS cocktail to start. Both were good!

When I finished my salad and my cocktail, my server came by to tell me that she was going on break until 2:30 pm, but another server would take care of me. The other server came and asked me if he could get me another drink. This time I went with a Hendricks and tonic.

After I finished my Hendrick’s and Tonic. My server came back and offered me another one. He also asked me If I wanted something to eat. I ordered the Steak Frites.

The steak was cooked perfectly. Additionally, the cognac-peppercorn sauce was amazing. It was so good!

U decided to check out the bathrooms. Unlike the JFK Lounge, the LAX lounge had private all gender bathrooms.

The Lounge also has showers, which I didn’t visit today. The showers are also located in the Sky Club, so someone had to escort you to and from where the shwoer