Sealink

So, here goes!

Thanks to some poor customer service from Kuoni, I found myself on the Delta flight to Boston, rather than my first choice, VS.

How did Kuoni make this happen? Well, I had been told that very often, the likes of Kuoni offer great prices for straight forward city breaks. I have previously booked some great European short breaks with BA Holidays and Expedia.

Having found the Virgin Holidays website to be rather, hopeless, I visited Kuoni. Alarm bells should have started ringing when I noticed that they did not do online booking. (Bizarre, in this day and age. Although I note that Trailfinders etc. encourage people to call or visit. ) I can understand that for complex itineraries speaking to someone is better, but this was a really straightforward trip.

From the Kuoni Boston page, I filled in an enquiry form. Nice hotel, Upper flights.

24 hours later (!) a reply. Did I want Las Vegas or New York? Or another city? >-(
Boston. BOSTON!
24 hours later another reply. The quote system wasn't working.
24 hours later a quote. £2525 for four nights with Virgin flights.
Can I just confirm that the flights are in Upper?
12 hours later, a reply. No, they were economy.

My request for an Upper quote as I had originally requested went unanswered.
Two days later, a missed call and a voicemail.
A week later, a survey request based on my experience. Pity the person who had to read that.

So, buyer beware.

At this point, I had spoken with a few V-Flyers who assured me that booking flights + hotel separately was generally better for US cities. By this time, the Virgin flight had increased in price by £2k, leaving me with the (admittedly more convenient 0940hrs DL departure in their DeltaOne cabin.)

My first Virgin long haul flight in three years would have to wait a few more days.

I really can't do the early departures from Heathrow now if travelling from home the same morning, so I booked the Sofitel at T5 for the evening before. It's officially a five-star hotel but it's fair-to-middling if you ask me.
I am now Accor Silver and have received more recognition from the Ibis Styles (also more convenient for T3!)

Now I am not at all precious about 'status' but I really don't like it when a hotel scheme says 'You will get A, B and C' and you don't get anything. Don't make promises you can't keep. Strange that the Ibis staff were more on the ball.

Still, I digress.

Taxi the next morning to T3 and I still get goosebumps when I see the purple lights of the Virgin side of the terminal .
I decided not to book Drive Through Check In this time (but if you can, do! It is amazing). I booked the taxi the night before and couldn't be bothered with phone calls with registration info etc.

I was stopped at a little DL stand and asked a few questions about my flight, then on to the Virgin desks.

Check in was efficient - not overly friendly - but then I was probably mono-syllabic at 6.30am! - and actually, I was offered printed copy copy of my boarding pass without asking which was nice.

Directions for clubhouse were provided, and I entered the Elevator of Dreams.

A few of us missed the glass red door which was access to the private security but within seconds we'd spotted the scanner, and security was friendly and fast. Which these days at Heathrow, seems to be the norm.

The long walk through the Duty Free shops, then to Zone H where the AA Admirals Club and stairway to the Clubhouse are located.

Would the Virgin Clubhouse be mobbed with people like us? (Delta passengers?!).



A nice welcome on arrival, to a very quiet Clubhouse. I ordered breakfast which was lovely. It wouldn't be a Sealink trip report without a pic would it?



I didn't get a picture but the Virgin Clubhouse serves the nicest yogurt I have ever tasted. Oh man I'm booking my next flight in Upper just to get some!


I then found a perch next to the hairdressers to watch the planes come and go where champagne was offered and refilled.



At this point I noticed the big difference between BA Galleries lounges and Virgin's Clubhouses: in the BA lounge, the staff are engaged in a never ending 'topping up shelves' exercise. With Virgin, staff are waiting to serve customers. It makes a huge difference. I still recall getting a look that could kill when I asked a BA lounge member for Champagne, with Virgin, it was offered with a smile and... CONVERSATION!!

The flight was called and I made my way to the gate, where 'priority' boarding was already completed. I picked up a few complimentary magazines (from an Emirates stand!) and boarded.

My first impressions were of a nice-ish cabin which was overlit . It was a 767 with low overhead lockers but high ceilings in the aisle area.
I found the seat actually quite claustrophobic - in the chair was an admittedly lovely Westin Hotels pillow and quilt. Next to it was a bottle of water, a bag of pecans, big headphones and a Tumi amenity kit. Add me and my carry on bag and it was quite a squeeze. The pillows, quilt and bag ended up at my feet (there being no room in the overhead lockers) as of course the middle two seats have no overhead space.



Champagne was offered.







Menus were handed out.



I think Delta are 'feeders' and I was powerless to resist.

The view from the gate, with the knowledge that the weather in Boston was going to be worse....!


A fair bit of taxiing before take off. Up up and away!


And here's the thing about Delta - I think they had the most distant crew I have experienced (no one was rude but just mentally 'out' if that makes sense.)

Not one smile, not one acknowledgement of any thank you... efficient yes but to the point where they've forgotten that we are all people and it left me feeling quite down.

But serving easily the nicest food I have had in the air. It was served from about 1/2 hr after take off, which meant that a full dinner was served at around 1030am. Too much too soon. But with this trip report in mind, I was obliged to try it all.

The titles below are from the menu.

SETTLING IN
Poached shrimp and codfish, with black garlic emulsion, port wine figs and roasted hazelnuts



This was really delicious and the emulsion was really nice. (Urgh, I've just used the word emulsion in a food sentence. Bah.)

STARTERS
Cauliflower 'couscous' with pine nuts, brown butter vinaigrette, caramelised plums and shaved parmesan cheese.
Parsnip cream soup with croutons



This was out of this world tasty. At this point I would happily have gone to desert. But Delta had other ideas.

MAIN COURSE

Four choices were offered - Chicken Tikka Masala, Grilled Tenderloin Beef, Roasted Cod or Wheatberry (no, I don't know either) and Mushroom Risotto.

This made me chuckle but its so true:



I had the beef.

Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Port Wine Butter, barley and kale pilau, roasted butternut squash and artichokes



DESSERTS
Three choices - an Ice Cream sundae, Chocolate Pecan cake and a cheeseboard. I had the ice cream.
I loved the little ceremony of them making it at the seat, where you could tailor it to, er, taste.

Vanilla Ice Cream Sundae, with your choice of sauces, nuts, wafer cooked and whipped cream



Then coffee and tea was served.

I then went through the inflight entertainment and didn't really find anything I liked, so thought I'd try watching the pilot of Lucifer. I'm hooked

Later on I jumped a few seasons to see Parks & Recreation which I adore, I'm not even on Season 4 in the UK so interesting to see all their amazing hair.

I dozed off, and missed the "Skybreak" where even more food is served. This time sweets and snacks. Really Delta?
THEN a mid flight snack - a warm chocolate chip cookie. Oh go on then.



Nearly everyone in the cabin had bedded down for the, er, night, with all the blinds down.

I dared to open the window once and was rewarded with this:



There was a drinks run and I had great amusement making my drink look, er, red.



Then, believe it or not, more food. Honestly. I would have refused except I had a trip report to think about, and how could I do Delta justice without trying (Almost) everything?

There was a choice of a cuban pork sandwich, or chicken satay.

Cuban Pork Sandwich - pork loin, smoked ham, swiss cheese and dill pickles served oil a baguette offered with a mixed green salad




Here's the full menu with all the choices.



The food on the flight was the nicest I have had, ever. In fact I'd say that if the appetiser and starter were served in a restaurant I'd be more than happy.

Boston Customs was a dream, I was the first to reach them and was served by a lady who was just delightful.

I waited a few moments for the free Silverline bus to the city, but opted to get a taxi as the bus was packed.


In summary:
Really lovely food, but the crew were just so odd. There was little to no engagement with any passengers, this was made all the worse as they were laughing and chatting with each other in the galley. I actually felt that they didn't really want to be cabin crew. It left me cold, so that's my newly formed opinion of Delta based on this one flight. I will be trying them domestically in April next year... I would fly them again if Virgin were not available, but would also give United and American a go too.

The contrast between DL and the VS flight home is so stark. Virgin had an inferior entertainment system, pretty awful food but amazing crew. More on that later!

CHOPCHOP767

I've taken this flight many times in D1 and am surprised about your observations re the crew; usually the D1 BOS-based crews are excellent and very engaging although we do see DTW-based and NYC-based crews sometimes. I also much prefer DL's seat, even on the 767, to VS' cramped seat which faces towards the aisle rather than the window which affords little to no privacy.

Also, J flights for BOS-Europe, especially LHR are always around $6K r/t. Add in 'luxury' hotels in BOS (FS, RC, Langham, Mandarin, TAJ), which typically go for around $500 to $900 a night for a standard room and its kind of hard to find a 'deal'.

Thanks for sharing.

Welcome to BOS

Sealink

I have edited my report to remove the 'worst crew ever' comment as they were not at all bad.

I ended up staying at The Boxer, which was an interesting hotel.

757

Thank you for sharing this report. Delta One looks like a great product, and I would like to try them sometime. I fly a lot on Delta, and I'm always impressed by their level of service. All the food served on your flight looks really good, but the soup and the beef both look really tasty!

All the best,

Matthew

WidgetKid

Great trip report! The food looks particularly tasty!

Regarding the crew, whenever returning from Europe on a US carrier, I always try to remember that these people have flown all night with effectively no sleep, spent 1 night in a timezone 5 or more hours away from their home, and then are flying back. They're tired. Now that's not to say that is ever an excuse for poor or rude service, but it just sounds like what you experienced with the crew - they were jet-lagged!

FlightNurse

I know Trip Reports are subjective, however, to call D1 seats Claustrophobic next to VA seats is a stretch. D1 is a much newer product then what VA has and it's time that VA do something about it's very old cabin/seats.

bgriff

Sorry to hear you had an off crew, but glad the food was good at least. Many of the DL crews that fly to and from LHR are great, as good as a 75th percentile VS crew anyway, and it obviously makes for a much better experience.

There actually are overhead bins above the middle seats (unlike on VS), though the middle overhead bins on the 767 are smaller than those on the outside. But yes, the big fluffy pillow and blanket do tend to get in the way during takeoff. Personally I'll take the tradeoff for the comfortable sleep once up in the air though. VS's system of hiding them behind the seats works well though most seat designs don't have that sliver of otherwise wasted space.

Duke787

Thanks for the TR! Flying D1 on the 763 to LHR (only been on D1 on the 757 tcon) for the first time next Spring so appreciate the perspective

offerendum

Your drink looks "dangerous"

oneworld82

The cabin's color scheme looks so depressing. That's all I can focus on...!

NoY

Interesting to see a Delta Business Class report - thanks for posting.

The food does sound and (kinda) look tasty but what are they thinking with that crockery? Makes the whole thing look decidedly coach class. Not stylish at all, IMHO.

JamieABZ

Love your TR's Sealink and this is no exception!
Strangely I can now hear you talking as I read them, so strange, but it helps in my enjoyment.
Looking forward to the rest, well done.

Sealink

Just flown to Atlanta and the main courses were identical... One year on!