Delta announces new international Y benefits, 777 changes
 

During the investor relations presentation, Delta told analysts it would make the following changes in coach:

A full-size water bottle for every passenger
A snack box upon arrival (I'm unclear if this is instead of the arrival meal...)
A mini-amenity kit with at least eye shades and ear plugs
Better ear buds
Free liquor (we've heard that already)

They also announced a reconfiguration of the 777s, taking out 7 BE seats and adding 30 Y seats. And they said it would be done within eight months.

Fewer FC or fewer BE seats would be scary. Now we'll have fewer seats with more people competing for upgrades since any fare above E is now eligible. I often see BE cabins on the 777 that are full or only have a few empty seats before nonrevs are put on the flight.

That was my understanding too. Losing seven BE seats is pretty significant.

At least they haven't yet announced 10-abreast in the 777. That is MISERABLE!

As they built up to their announcement, I really thought that was where they were going. Minus seven, plus 30 really could be a lot worse. This will make the A333 and B777 much more similar.

Is this for both the 772 and the 77L? I assume it is, to keep the interchangability.

Odd to see 7 seats being pulled out versus 8...

It will make the second BE compartment on the 777 more like the minicabin on the A330-200. I guess this is easy to do as there currently is just a thin wall between BE and EC with no lavatories or galleys in that area.

I'm going to guess that they will remove the lav at row 10 and replace that with a seat. That would leave two lavs for the remaining 38 seats.

David

Wow losing 7 seats in BE? Are those added Y seats going to be Y- or some EC?

So we're going to 38/254 J/Y (292 total pax).
Anyone who thinks they're going to be able to find upgrade inventory for a global cert is smoking something... and this is going to just drive J prices up even higher.

And that's a bad thing for the airline, how?

Also interesting they're adding 30 Y seats, not 27 (which would be 3 full rows of 9 abreast). I wonder if one of the two lavs at doors 3L/3R is coming out as well, replaced with a bank of 3 seats to get to 30 total Y added.

The lav in front of row 10 is the handicapped lavatory. I think wide-bodied aircraft are required to have one. Does anyone know whether there's a second handicapped lav back in coach? However, expecting handicapped BE passengers to go back to a coach lavatory seems unreasonable. Plus, for BE passengers, that larger lavatory is great if you want to change clothes.

Driving optimal revenue is right for the airline, tho the loss of 7-BE seats is lamentable. 45J for these birds seemed too high in the current revenue environment with most airlines optimizing T7s in the 30-40 range it seems.

I had heard a rumor of transitioning the T7 fleet to the 74S seat, but I'm not sure they would do that just yet given the fleet isn't that old.

Hopefully, all remaining inventory in the future will be used toward GUs vs. the current situation.

What does this mean? Why do you think/hope that DL will increase upgrade inventory as it eliminates the requirement of paying a (much) higher fare to be upgrade eligible?

If DL has a better product, optimizing revenue could easily mean flying aircraft with more business class seats than DL's competitors use, especially given that DL doesn't do IFC.