Delta In-Flight Meal/Food Service: The Definitive Thread — 2020 Edition
 

As requested, the 2020 thread here

Click here for the 2017 version of this thread.

Click here for the 2018/2019 version of this thread.

I will start with something that has already happened but which applies to 2020: I have a booking on Friday in domestic F. On Sunday I was able to select a meal in the Fly Delta app - choices were chicken salad and honey ginger salmon. I was surprised to see it come up that early, or at all, since I have never been able to pre-select an F meal before except through a request on Twitter.

Pre-order in the app starts 21 days out since Novemberish depending when 5.1 was rolled out to your phone.

Timimng of pre-arrival breakfast on eastbound trans-Atlantic flights
 

I fly SEA-AMS or SEA-CDG on Delta metal about 3 times a year on average. I have noted that the pre-arrival breakfast in Economy class is often served very late. It seems the FAs are usually stressed out as they hurriedly distribute the pre-arrival meal, and then they are really stressing out as they collect the rubbish from that meal seemingly just moments before the landing gear goes down. The other day on SEA-AMS, a flight attendant was hurriedly running a trash cart down the aisle (to get it stowed) about 60 seconds before touchdown. It all begs the question, why not just start the pre-arrival service a half hour or so earlier and save the stress and drama?

By the way, while the Economy class dinner service on trans-Atlantic has been up-leveled, the pre-arrival breakfast seems to have been down-leveled; a few days ago on SEA-AMS, it was a small lightweight sweet roll and a few chunks of unripe crunchy melon. I'd like for it to be a little more substantial, maybe even a warm pre-fab "omelet" like I think they once did. It would also be nice if they could offer diet Coke as an option for the pre-arrival beverage instead of constraining the choice to water or coffee.

I haven't had last minute trash collection to Europe, but I do PDX-AMS-PDX pretty often and upon arriving at PDX it's the same rush down the aisle with the cart, with what seems to be half the back of the plane not having their breakfast trash picked up (I fly this for business with about 10-15 coworkers on the plane behind me and multiples come off the plane holding their rubbish).

I agree with the pre-arrival breakfast being down leveled. They used to do a warm breakfast sandwich with yogurt or warm pizza roll with for some reason a pot of ice cream (a strange combo, but edible), but the stale swirl bun with unripe cantelope isn't quite edible (for nonstop PDX-AMS-PDX both flights arrive in the morning, so each has a breakfast service).

I have the same on LGA-MCO next week. Been a while since I’ve flown DL on a service with meals.

Any guidance as to whether one will be much better than the other? I’m used to AA domestically and would generally avoid chicken with them.

In my (limited) experience, the FAs only offer water or coffee but have the full beverage cart available. I've asked for and received booze without issue multiple times when FAs come through for the pre-arrival beverage service.

I flew F PHX-SEA-PHX last week. On the way, we had the Meatball entree. It came with a small green salad and a packaged stale-tasting cookie. It was pretty good -- the meatballs were tasty. On the return flight, it either a garden salad or rock shrimp and lobster ravioli. I had the ravioli, but it was frankly awful and tasteless with the same stale packaged cookie.

I honestly hadn't flown Delta F in years, but found the meal a bit lacking when compared to AA on the same route. AS has downgraded their service in F to sandwich/chips/better or protein plate, but I would have preferred either of those to what DL served on the return flight.

I generally categorize DL's chicken as slightly higher quality than AA's rubber based chik'n, certainly not great by any means. The salmon can be hit or miss depending on how it's heated. If heated for the correct amount of time I think it's pretty solid but if it gets overcooked and dried out it's inedible.

For my mainline domestic FC lunch midcon flight, the choices are as follows:

Korean-style meatballs, mild pepper glazed, over mango garlic fried rice with baby bell peppers

Buffalo chicken salad, romaine tossed with black beans, tomatoes, corn, scallions, and Gorgonzola cheese

ADDED: The chicken salad was served with a plastic envelope of ranch dressing and a packet of thin tortilla strips for crunch, plus a small slice of pretty good chocolate cake. No bread and no chips.

Flying from ATL to SAN earlier this week was offered the 'Spanish Scramble' as an option. Pretty much looked like a quiche. New dish I hadn't tried before and was decent for a breakfast option. Came with potatoes, fruit, and a warm bagel.

I have the option to preorder breakfast or my LGA-MCO flight in three weeks.

Scrambled Egg Breakfast Burrito: with cheddar cheese, chicken sausage and served with salsa
Corn Chex Cereal: with chobani greek yogurt, fresh fruit and croissant

Most likely going burrito unless reviews are bad.

I really like the DL breakfast burrito

Has anyone seen the calzone for lunch recently on a domestic flight in F? That was one of my favorites.

Thanks @AANYC1981 Much appreciated.