Um, guys, the comparisons with ships and the Spirit of St Louis were deliberate exaggerations to make a point. I'll be sure and flag those next time for the overly literal, perhaps with a series of exclamation points (!!!!).

The plane was Delta metal, with cloth seats; the drop down screens were indeed in keeping with, say, a Lufthansa 747 TATL but - goodness gracious - is that really the standard we all want for TATL flights?

I was surprised by the length of flight, having regularly flown TLV-EWR (5680 miles) in about 9-10 hours in 777s; AMS to JFK is 3630 miles and - maybe some of the posters are right on and my standards are too high - but I'm just not sure why it took Delta the same amount of time to fly 2000 miles less. Perhaps they took the polar route; no way we could tell, given that they were no electronic route maps and the crew had taken away all the sextants (!!!!).

And, on the FAs, just no comparison between Lenny and Squiggy and the KLM pros we had worked with on the previous flight. Summed up for us when we asked for an additional child restraining seat belt loop, forced upon us by the KLM FAs on the previous flight. Squiggy looked at us like we had 3 heads, and explained that "US carriers have different safety standards." Indeed.

This was about my 15 TATL this year - if other posters think an overly long flight on a single aisle, elderly aircraft staffed by folks who probably couldn't get hired at a Denny's is their preferred route over the water, then please book this aircraft. But a big watch out for the rest of us.