Grogs

It's not a lack of ability to understand, but rather lack of a point of reference. Several years ago, when I needed to fly somewhere I just picked a route and schedule I liked and booked it. I never thought about what type of airplane it was or which seats were the best. Nowadays I'll avoid certain routes because of the planes they fly, have my favorite seats on different types of plane, etc. in the same vein, most of us board the big planes, turn right at 2L, and never think about the seats up front. When someone does finally get that one chance to book business seats for their honeymoon and see "recliner seats" listed in the description, they're probably thinking it's like a lazy boy. If they looked at a few different options and compared the pictures I'm sure they would pick the lie flats, but they might have just picked the flights that best fit their schedule and assumed that since they were buying business class they were getting the best possible seat.

flyerCO

Domestic do have business. However in N. America for some reason we call it First Class. One of the reasons AA changed to JCDIZ for domestic fare classes was to make this clear. Rest of the world the front cabin is called business on short haul flights.

Lomapaseo

So do you still get lounge privileges if your fare class is now first instead of business for these overseas local routes?

gooselee

Flew ATL-SJO recently. It's about a 4 hour flight.

Honeymooning couple in FC/J/whatever was incredulous that it looked just "like bigger coach seats" (equip was a 757). Sounds like they paid up for this special trip.

From hearing their conversation with the FA, it seems they had done their research and were expecting the 757 lie flats since it was an international business flight, and DL promises lie flats on all "long haul" international.

Moral of the story...anything an airline can reasonably do to reduce confusion, they should.

ijgordon

Yes, it's completely out-of-touch to think that the flying public doesn't often get confused about first vs. business. "Delta One", "Economy Comfort" and "Premium Select" don't do much to help, as they're specific to the Delta world. No, it's not that difficult to understand the differences, but most normal people just don't put in that kind of effort. If you don't think this is true, you must not get out much.

It comes up in FT a lot also, how for nearly every foreign airline "First Class" is exclusively reserved for the premium long-haul widebody product. (I think one of the ME3 might be an exception on regional routes). So they laugh about US domestic first class, which is just the legacy term (we did invent commercial air travel...) from when there were only two classes of travel and there were no flat beds, nor even cradle seats.

jdrtravel

I don't know about the Caribbean , but my DL operated flight LAX-MEX just a couple of months ago was listed as business when I purchased it, and it is not being sold as F. So that change was very recent.

flyerCO

You've never gotten lounge access on the Caribbean overseas routes. Mexico/ CANADA get access with DL, but that's route specific, not name of cabin.

pbarnette

DCAproducer

So one place where this change is big is pets in the cabin. (Under seat pets, not service animals)
DL doesn't allow pets in International Business or Delta One cabin and this used to apply to the Caribbean.
https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...l-options.html

I travel once a year to Turks and Caicos and I've been stopped by DL flying rescue dogs back in cabin only because I was in the front. If in coach, they are allowed. I've had the Medallion line confirm the pet booking and tell me it's ok only to have the airport staff deny the pet in cabin solely on how Delta codes the flight.