NY9

Hi Guys,

I have a flight booked in D1 the week of April 18 on a B763, round trip from JFK-LAX. I just noticed that Delta is flying the route in both directions with B767-400s a couple of times a day thru April 11. Obviously this would be a more desirable option considering the vastly upgraded D1 cabins. Does anyone have any idea if Delta will extend their B764 service past April 11? It was my understanding they discontinued this aircraft for this route in favor of all B763s a while back. I only noticed it by chance. My dates are inflexible, unfortunately. Would love the chance to get a domestic D1 experience on this route.

jrl767

welcome to FT

D1 TCON is currently nothing special or remarkable

NY9

Thanks for the welcome! Yeah have flown on the B763s in D1 round trip about 6 times and from ATL-HNL and it was nothing great. The question is just whether DL will extend the B764s into April and beyond for the JFK to LAX route. I realize there’s no way to actual tell so the question may not be realistic, I admit.

Mountain Explorer

ummm, OP clearly asked about aircraft cabins, not service
No one really knows. In a normal year, DL would probably keep the 764s for TATL summer service. But this is clearly not a normal year. Just got to wait and see unfortunately.

NY9

Okay fair enough. I appreciate the welcomes and replies, guys. Travel safely.

jrl767

Quote:

Originally Posted by NY9

... Would love the chance to get a domestic D1 experience on this route.

ummm, this sure looks like an inquiry about service as well as cabins
regardless of how one comes down wrt the above, this is certainly the truth

PurdueFlyer

TBH, for that particular fleet, which isn't huge to begin with ... its probably going to depend more on what Network *thinks* the INTL footprint might look like ex. JFK in April and then making adjustments domestically when the actual INTL plan comes together. Those 764s only have 2 pilot bases, ATL & JFK, and you have to keep them flying somewhere. So if (example) JFK-LHR is targeted for 2x a day in April but ends up only being once a day, I could see an airplane being remanded for a west coast out-and-back. Its crew-friendly to build a pairing like that and you have MTC bases on both ends that are familiar with the airplane.

Then again, there's currently a 764 going DTW-RSW-DTW and MSP-RSW-MSP, with little opportunities for swap-outs when one of those breaks, and no crews in MSP or DTW either. So these are not hard and fast rules which cities will see which EQP at the end of the day. Network will put them where they can make money (or lose less of it )

Mountain Explorer

Not so sure about the "you have to keep them flying somewhere". DL has significantly more planes than it needs atm. Lots of planes are doing a lot of nothing.

ClipperDelta

As kjnangre mentioned above, the 764s have been scheduled for TATL and some South America services for spring/summer 2021. However, some of the TATL flights scheduled to restart on 4/1 using the 764s (JFK-FRA/BRU/ZRH, BOS-LHR) have just been pushed back another month so far (to restart 5/1 instead) so there is a good chance that JFK-LAX will retain the 764s through April.

Note however that there is currently one unrefurbished 764 (N832MH) that is flying (and two more in storage that may return to service at some point if they are not sent to CAN for refurbishment first) and that ship has popped up on JFK-LAX from time to time (you can identify it if it has 10 rows of Delta One instead of 9 on the refurbished ones).

Brandinho1

I can tell you that in my opinion the D1 seat in the 764 sits too close to the IFE screen for my liking. It’s a beautiful cabin but that is my only gripe with D1 on this bird.

tardyturtle

It's schedule change Saturday, and schedule changes through at least April 18th are being pushed out over the weekend. Check on Monday after the dust settles to see if the 764 service is listed. Not that they can't change aircraft again, but this should give a better sense of the chance they'll still run the 764 past April 11.

cmd320

Personally I don’t think any aircraft in the Delta fleet is good enough to justify the complete lack of service on a premium transcon. Especially when the hard products being offered by AA and B6 are also better.

NY9

Yeah my outbound flight just got changed to the B764 but not the inbound on the 20th just yet. Happy medium. Thanks for all the great info, guys.

ijgordon

Objectively you’re not wrong but if I can have a nice meal and a few cocktails at the JFK Centurion lounge and then spend $5 to bring a couple bottles of Diet Coke on board, i’ll still come out ahead if my goal includes accruing SkyMiles or DL status.

flyerCO

It's not just the planes, but pilots. They need to offer 764 pilots X number hours flying. If they don't they still have to pay them as if they did and could be required to offer them other aircraft. Thus routes like ATL/LAS that have lots of 764s even though half empty.