Originally Posted by ND76

I never flew internationally on DL on a three class plane in F. However, I did get to sample their F service on a three class plane once.

I needed to go from BWI to LAS on relatively short notice (I think the year was 1992) where I was actually doing some work on a case, rather than attending a craps table; I was short on money at the time but long on DL miles, and I was able to walk up to the counter at BWI, pay $60 and cash in the required number of miles (50k possibly) to obtain a RT F ticket. My outbound routing was BWI-JFK-LAX-LAS. The first leg was a DASH-8 commuter plane (possibly Business Express, DL's commuter partner in the northeast at the time). The next leg was an ex-PA A310; I think the plane originated at TXL, flew nonstop to JFK, and then continued on to LAX. The final leg to LAS was on an ex-Western 727.

The plane was configured with 3 classes; F had 2-1-2 seating, J had 2-2-2 seating, and I think Y was 2-3-2 (possibly 2-4-2). I remember sitting in the single seat in the first row of F. F was full (I can't remember whether it was 10 or 15 seats total); J was close to empty; and Y was close to full.

My recollection of the flight was that they had a premium champagne up front (possibly Taittinger's) and drinkable reds and whites; they had a large selection of European beers in cans; dinner service with at least three entree choices and several courses taking a couple of hours to complete; and, after the ice cream sundaes were cleared away, chocolate covered strawberries and cappuccino were offered. The F seats were unremarkable--they were like the F seats on the domestic L-1011s (which were wide by today's standards and overall pretty good BTW).

One nice touch on the flight was, during the stopover at JFK, a VHS of that evening's ABC Evening News with Peter Jennings was delivered to the FAs who played it immediately after takeoff.

I remember telling one of the FAs how great the service was, and her rejoinder was--"It should be, you paid for it". If she only knew.

I remember that DL had tried to emulate the TATL service on the transcontinental portion of the flight.

Happy memories.