Hello everyone and welcome to my second flight report. This one is from a while ago but it covers Delta’s direct service from Nice on the French Riviera to New York JFK. This is a route that's only been covered once on the site (http://flight-report.com/en/report-5446.html) and I feel it's quite a special route. The reason being, is that while Nice Airport (NCE) may be one of the busiest airports in France, it doesn't feature that many long-haul routes/carriers as most of the airport’s traffic is European bound.
The few examples of long haul routes available from NCE are below (and for those that have already been FR'd by fellow members of the community, I'll link them too) :
• Emirates EK78 NCE<->DXB (B77W) http://flight-report.com/en/report-7653.html
• Air Canada Rouge NCE<->YUL (B763)
• Air Transat TS649 NCE<->YUL (A310) http://flight-report.com/en/report-10287.html
• Delta DL206 NCE<->JFK (B764) THIS REPORT
In any case I just thought I’d mention that little tidbit. This will be my first time flying Delta and thanks to some extra savings, my first ever experience of Delta's Comfort+ (Premium Economy) service.
Apologies for the lack of shots in certain areas of the FR as I almost didn't make this and decided to come back to it later. Sorry ! Also FYI, some of the shots are stills pulled from a video I made here :
So the journey began the night before with a lookup on FlightAware to see which aircraft I'll be sitting for 9 hours straight, which ends up with N842MH being my ride across the pond after it's inbound leg from Amsterdam and JFK :
Next morning I arrived at Terminal 2 and head for the Non-Schengen section of the airport. Although while passing through security, I overheard the officer say to his colleague as I pass by (Hey, He's New York !). This ends up causing something interesting later on. So after that I pass through Passport control with no issues and then wait a while for boarding to begin while watching several Easyjet flights being loaded up in the typical EZY let's swarm the gate even though we ought to be sat down manner ;)
Travel Documents :
Then it became our turn to board, in which the priorities were respected ( First Class-SkyPriority-the general Swarm ;) ). Then here's where things got interesting, where I got randomly selected, for secondary swabbing of my entire luggage's contents. Wasn't happy about this because, as a techie, I had to take out all my tech and camera gear out of their place to prove they could be turned on. It ended up making my very nice SkyPriority boarding useless since by the time I got the all clear, pretty much everyone was boarded. Not cool Nice !
A rather blurry view from the jetbridge of our B764 with an EZY A319 behind :
View from my very comfortable seat 18G of the EZY A319 and PGS B737 beside us (sorry but no shot of the seat itself) :
After about 20 mins waiting on stand, we finally pushback and taxi.
View of T2 with an EZY A319, PGS B737, private Learjet and various AF A32x's.
Begin takeoff
V1, rotate ! With Jetstreams ;)
The iconic shot of NCE only found on departures from Runway 4R
Cruising Altitude :
For the IFE, in Comfort+, the selection is quite nice. I mostly enjoyed the HBO content, such as Game of Thrones and Last Week Tonight, but mostly I used it for the airshow :
WiFi is provided by Gogo satellites but it's not useful for anything but the most basic uses and not worth the asking price of $20/hour. I tried skyping back home and it was a garbled mess.
Also in Comfort+, AC power outlets for all ! Which made me a very happy bunny. And the pitch/recline was really nice for my 6ft height
After that I slept for most of the flight until we reached the coast of Canada :
No winglet on the B764, unlike most B763s
Several hours later, we began our descent towards JFK. Except we ended up spending close to 45 mins in a holding pattern over Connecticut then a further 10-15 mins headed over NY state before finally turning round towards Kennedy.
Holding pattern buddies :
Views on the approach :
Final Approach, All green, flaps full :
Touchdown ! Also a BA B744 & IB A436
Another BA 744 along with a JetBlue A320
Aer Lingus A330
A collection of big boys (SQ A380, El Al B744, EK A380 & VS A346)
LX A330
El Al B772, VX A320, LX A330 & DL B763
After a fairly lengthy taxi, we finally park up… on a remote stand. Which means only one thing… paxbuses -_-
After that, it was off to US Immigration which actually went fairly quickly for me during the 1st stage, No Global Entry or anything special, just a regular ESTA user. But then the reality of everyone's horror stories hit during the 2nd and final stage after baggage claim, thanks to over an hour's waiting in line to exit.
Once clear, it was off to the Subway to my hostel.
And there you go guys ! Sorry it's not quite up to standard but I had to make do with whatever shots I could find. I assure you guys that I will get better with future FRs !
Thanks for reading and I look forward to chatting in the comments below !
Thanks for sharing this FR with us! I didn't know DL operated a flight to NCE, is this a seasonal route only?
Screening procedures for flights into the US are always a crap shoot. You never know what they are going to do. At least ex-Japan, I haven't seen any secondary screening yet. ex-China and Hong Kong there is always a carry-on search for liquids, but these are usually as you enter the quarantined gate area so it doesn't interfere with boarding. Just be glad the search was done in NCE and not by TSA :)
What was the catering like on this flight?
Paxbus on international arrivals is always annoying.
Nice aerial pictures at NCE and good spotting at JFK.
El Al B77W
- I'm pretty sure LY only has B772s in its fleet like UA.
Thanks man ! Well this used to be a summer route but as of September 2015, AF and DL decided to make it a year-round route with alternations between a B764 & B763.
As far as catering I think I had coconut chicken and rice. Can't remember the dessert though. Sorry. There was at least 2 or 3 drinks services.
Yeah i can never tell between a B772 and B77W. ;)
I think so yes. Although trying to remember what I ate on a plane 4 months ago is a little tricky lol :)
No worries :) I don't think I could tell a B773 from a B772 from just it's backside either. I just knew LY had no B77Ws in its fleet, so cheating a little bit ;)
Pre-arrival meal was also just a light continental offering?
Thanks Luigi !
I think I got selected cos security saw a lot of tech items in my bag and therefore decided they should see if any of them were dead (tin foil hat on - to see what they could confiscate. - tin foil hat off).
Thanks for this FR.
Nice pics but the ones regarding the snack/meals and the amenity provided in Eco+ are lacking.
Thanks ! Yeah, I know but do bear in mind that at the time I wasn't planning on making a FR since I was already filming the experience for my YT channel. So I am aware it's lacking in certain areas and I did point that out at the beginning.