btonkid12345

I did SEA-JFK on the exact same flight in April. The "snack" was called "lemongrass chicken" by the FA and it was a few small sandwiches with pulled chicken on them. And a Dancing Deer dessert on the side.

Full drink service. Snack basket passed around after the food but most people were asleep. I was one of the few who took the meal, and there was no choice; either you were joining in for the chicken or you weren't. Hope this helps.

SamuelS

Most helpful - thanks for this! ^

SamuelS

I misunderstood.

For BF upgrades I would never expect a special meal to be accommodated.

Right at T-24 is tough.

Personally, I'd be happy to see a second meal choice that's a VLML. Veggie food doesn't have to suck, and I don't need to eat meat 3 times a day.

MS02113

Perhaps Delta is "obsessed with meat and fish" because the vast majority of Americans are not vegetarian? In my experience, Delta also offers a vegetarian-friendly option (e.g., pasta, entrée salad with protein on side, etc.). More times than not, the meat option is exhausted first, and the last row of passengers are disappointed to be stuck with whatever's left.

rybolt

I flew DL177 DUB-ATL on Sunday in Delta 1 and requested the Dine and Rest option with the Filet of Beef. It arrived perfectly cooked but the cold bean salad was not good. They also took it upon themselves to serve me the cheese plate for dessert. The Almost There was a French Dip sandwich that had been microwaved too long. The au jus looked diabolical so I didn't try it.
My wife also had the filet but served in courses. Her's was dried out and inedible.

This sounds like a lot of complaints but, honestly, the food didn't ruin the flight. The crew was good, the seats were comfortable and, unfortunately, my wife now refuses to fly in any other class on our once-yearly trip to Ireland.

appleguru

^ +1

bennos

DL used to have a 6 hour SPML request window, except for certain meals (Kosher and one other, maybe AVML?). I'm not sure why that changed, since it's not like the food is prepared 23 hours before the flight. The customer friendly approach would be to restore T-6 (not just for upgraders, but for paid tickets where eg the customer notices at check-in that they forgot to put in the request at booking).

bennos

OMG can we please not have the "whose dietary habits are morally superior" discussion again?

jdrtravel

Agreed. I am sure that at least at more larger airports there are plenty of special meals on hand and that the catering truck is loaded only shortly before departure. And they had the 6 hour rule when they used to serve special meals on most coach domestic flights. Certainly they could handle it now.

N639DL

DL124 BOS-AMS 6/13 in D1 - 764

This went with out with a full 40 passengers in the D1 cabin. Take-off time was 5:14pm and the times I provide with the comments are the approximate time I received the course.

Menus





Orders were taken from the front 1ABC and down that aisle, then back up 10D to 1D. By the time 8C ordered (I was in 8D) they had ran out of the halibut.




I believe the Rioja Reserva was the one that seemed popular, 2/3 of the bottle was gone by the time it got to me (and no I didn't try any of the wine).


5:56pm Appetizer - the ham was great, there wasn't any dressing provided for the lettuce though.


6:32pm The bread was the usual selection, still good. The soup was great - not spicy at all in case you're wondering since it had "green chili" in the title. It was on the thick side (like gravy) with corn and chicken. The FA had heard positive reviews on it too, and I thought it would be better without the sour cream. The salad was alright, not anything too unique, especially since the appetizer had arugula with the same cheese.


6:49pm I went with the chicken and from hearing the orders in the back of the aircraft the chicken was a popular choice. The chicken itself was great - cooked correctly and had good flavor. Wasn't a huge fan of the risotto and the carrots were good too.


7:19pm Standard ice cream - choices for sauce were chocolate or something that looked like caramel.

I missed the snack cart being out during the flight as I was asleep. I woke up about 1.5 hours before arrival to see a few water bottles and a lone bag of smartfood popcorn. This cart was set up near the D1 lavatories by the 2L and 2R doors.


10:49pm (4:49am AMS time) - The eggs were good, had lots of southern spices/flavor. The chicken sausage was good too, coming from a person that doesn't like sausage. Didn't bother with the pico de gallo. Standard bread options for breakfast included the bagel and croissant from what I noticed.

Overall good food and good personable service on this flight too. It was a little slow initially but granted it was a full cabin and there was a problem with the IFE too.

NotHamSarnie

Unfortunately I opted out of dinner in favor of sleep, but here are excerpts. I can report on breakfast though.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...mmer_menu.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe..._starters.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...mer_mains.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...r_dessert.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...er_booze1.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...mer_booze.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...r_brekkie.html

I opted for the hot one. The sandwich doesn't look so appetizing but was ok. No idea what the stuff in the pot is - didn't taste of much, a bit acrid actually. The fruit was ok. The thing by itself tastes like a fig roll. Underwhelmed in any case.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...4-brekkie.html

N639DL

DL59 LHR-BOS 6/16 in D1 - 76L

21 of the 36 D1 seats were occupied on this flight and most of them had window seats so the service went through quickly. Take-off time was 10:19am and again times are approximate as to when I got each course. Orders were taken 1ABC down the aisle and then 9D to 1D.

Menu








10:41am I'm not a seafood person but actually enjoyed the scallops. The corn puree wasn't that appetizing to me though and the summer melon salad there was alright.


10:57am Bread options on this flight as described by the FA were onion, seeded, or pretzel. Pictured is onion and it was good. The salad was good but did not like those brown croutons, they tasted more like chocolate. I tried the thai coconut soup just for the fun of it - hated it. It was a little spicy and really dense for me, and that was on a menu last year too.


11:13am I went with beef this time as I had chicken on the flight before. I took the tomatoes off of the beef right away, but they still actually left a good flavor with the beef. The bean salad was chilled and was really good. The greens there weren't anything special but were good.


11:33am Again, standard ice cream with choices of strawberry or chocolate sauce.

I slept for a while and missed the snack cart and mid-flight snack chocolate chip cookie service.

One thing to note - flew this route last year and the same pre-arrival meals were served on this flight. Last year it was called "French Dip Sandwich" but this year "roast beef" was added into the name.



4:15pm (11:15am BOS time, about 45 minutes before landing) What was different this time around was that the sandwich has better quality roast beef - not that the one last year was bad, but this one was a step up in quality. I still wish they had different options for salad dressings, as the salad here could go well with any dressing.

Good food and good service again.

jrkmsp

I'll post a pic later, but it's surprising to me how much variability there is between the "dinner" served BOS-MSP vs. BOS-ATL. Both flights are over 900, but less than 1500, miles. Both left between 4 and 8 p.m. Minneapolis is longer, and my comparison is from a 6:30 departure, while my ATL departure was at 4. But on the ATL flight, I was offered a ham sandwich (yes, really, giggle) or a cold shrimp salad. On the MSP flight, I was offered a warm crab cake with soup and sides or a salad with soup and sides.

What gives? These should be essentially the same, no?

FlightNurse

I think the ATL is at 4P which might be a little early for a "full" dinner, like the 630pm departure is more like a typical dinner meal.

jrkmsp

I booked a last minute trip for work with very confined schedule choices and wound up routing via DTW on the outbound and ATL on the way back. Because it was last minute, the fare class was high. And because of the timing, both the BOS-ATL and ATL-MSP flights were meal flights. So I decided to apply a SkyBonus upgrade certificate. The discrepancies in the meals (and as compared to a semi-recent BOS-MSP flight) really made me wonder what Delta's meal standards are. Anyway:

DL2398: BOS-ATL
Equipment: MD-90
Meal: "Dinner"
Distance: 946 miles, block time: 2h57


I would not call this dinner. And I giggled when I got a ham sandwich from Delta. I didn't eat the chips, but the fruit was good. The service was perfunctory as well. "Do you want the meal" — as opposed to "Will you be dining with us tonight? Our options are..." — which is what I heard on my second flight. The other option was the cold shrimp salad.

Entree: A ham sandwich
Side: Fruit dish
Dessert: Dancing Deer molasses and clove cookie
Drink: Woodford



Flight two:

DL2827: ATL-MSP
Equipment: 767-300(Domestic)
Meal: Dinner
Distance: 906 miles, block time: 2h44


This meal still wasn't as nice as the BOS-MSP dinner, but it was at least hot. And it was good. The other option on this flight was the cold shrimp salad as well. The service was outstanding, with the two F flight attendants really going out of their way to be helpful and attentive. All-in-all, the two meals together were probably a bit more food than I needed, but the first meal definitely wasn't enough.

Entree: Chicken with cheese ravioli and veggies
Side: Fruit dish
Dessert: Dancing Deer lemon cake
Drink: red wine



All-in-all, as a GM with upgrade lists over 40 in both cases, and with about seven hours on the plane, including boarding, I consider this a good use of a SkyBonus certificate. The meals were actually a touch disappointing, given my other recent Delta experiences, but not bad. I have a breakfast flight to LAX tomorrow that I'll post about later.