D1 Elevated Experience
 

No menus, no addressing pax by name, 3 beverages on a 10 hour flight (and nearly five minutes to bring the beverage once ordered), single tray meal service. inconsistent timing between left aisle and right aisle (person in my row on left aisle got food nearly 10 minutes before I did).

also there appeared to be someone on the crew that wasn't a FA. I think they said a customer experience person, but he was helping with service. and he was terrible. he was also wearing a pink dri-fit polo and not a standard uniform. it was NOT a good look for a premium cabin

I'm normally pretty picky about my in flight experience so I obviously had some gripes. my husband is far less picky about service on a plane and even he said it was garbage.

is this the new normal, or is this another case of "every flight gets a different level of service so just roll the dice and hope for the best"

also, kind of an elitist sounding complaint, but why doesnt DL hold the main cabin people from exiting the plane until all of D1 is out? VS does this for UC and it makes complete sense as just one more tiny. perk for dropping a few grand. would be really nice to see DL provide the service they are marketing

This is TNN!

That’s something you’ll see on a lot of Asian carriers, some European carriers, and definitely never on any US airline.

Was SOP on NW

I’ve experienced that on Delta D1 a few times even recently, but it does seem to depend on the crew. Aeromexico seems to do that consistently.

DL131 last Tuesday by chance?

Nevermind, same flight as the one with no drinks they actually did this during deboarding at ATL.

I've been on 757 flights on DL where crew blocked Y from departing until D1/F had deplaned.

I think it just varies by flight / station, and Delta is still bringing back some aspects. I was on a D1 flight today, eight hours, and the meal service was three courses, multiple pass throughs for drinks, cookie and pre arrival meal both offered, etc. Eight hours. No pre-printed menu though - passengers were addressed by name and when asked about their dinner order (most passengers ordered meals before the flight).

D1, however, has never been an “elevated” experience like some foreign carriers - it is a comfortable way to fly long distances while also earning MQM / burning SkyPesos. It is what it is.

Route? Domestic D1 is likely to have the meal served all at once, with fewer wine choices.

OP mentions a ten hour flight, but doesn't say anything about a second meal service (aka pre-arrival snack or breakfast).

If it was a ten hour flight, could it have been marketed as FC rather than D1, but flown on an aircraft having a D1 cabin with flat beds?

Ten hours is making me guess ATL-HNL, which is marketed as domestic D1.

This is a weak excuse. Simple matters of service shouldn’t require any sort of “phased approach” they should just be put in place.

Anyway, on my last TATL flight (mid-August) my meal was served in one course, even though I had requested through the pre-order to have multiple courses. There was also no printed menu. They really just don’t seem to care anymore.

Is a preprinted menu that big of a deal, especially when most are preordering? I’ve preordered on all my by D1 flights this year.

It’s not super refined service but it’s not something that would make me book away from D1 when the price/route is right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zorak (Post 34652590)

I've been on 757 flights on DL where crew blocked Y from departing until D1/F had deplaned.

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had this happen yesterday (Sun 2 Oct) on DL452 JFK-SEA
if I had to guess, around half of the pax on 452 had actually pre-ordered

selecting “Food and Drink” on the IFE menu brought up a QR code and a message to scan the code when connected to the wifi; the QR in turn brought up the full menu (this is how I learned about the “salad”)

Also, if you preorder, you get additional choices that are not available to order on the plane. Reasonable trade for not needing that menu…

I wonder if blocking is less likely when they know a high percentage of passengers have tight connections at the destination.

I wouldn’t generalize on the basis of one flight, but we arrived close to 20 min early