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Home » Delta Air Lines » Delta Exchanges Blocked Seats For In-Flight Meals
Delta Air Lines

Delta Exchanges Blocked Seats For In-Flight Meals

Matthew Klint Posted onApril 1, 2021November 14, 2023 6 Comments

the inside of an airplane with seats and a tv

Delta Air Lines will re-introduce more in-flight service like meals and drinks, but will end seat blocking effective May 1, 2021.

On Delta, Seating Blocking Is Out, Meals Are In

Delta has taken a different approach than its peers during the pandemic. Food and beverages onboard have been drastically reduced, to the point that even today first class passengers cannot request coffee or tea and economy class passengers can drink whatever they want, as long as it’s water.

But in exchange, Delta has blocked middle seats in economy class and adjacent seats in first class long after other carriers stopped doing so.

Blocking middle seats when flights are mostly empty is more a marketing gimmick than anything else. However, as more American are vaccinated and domestic travel rebounds rapidly, the cost for Delta to leave middle seats blocked is growing.

As a result, Delta will stop seat blocking on May 1, 2021, which Delta spins as offering “more available seats to choose from.”

Right…

Food and beverage will be returning, though. Effective April 14, 2021, Delta is making a number of changes to its onboard service offerings:

  • Beverage service will return in both cabins
  • Select drinks will be available in 7.5 oz cans and served sealed
    • Coca-Cola
    • Diet Coke
    • Sprite
    • Ginger ale
  • Coffee and tea will return
  • Cocktails, beer, and wine will be sold in economy class
  • Alcoholic drinks will cost $1 more than pre-pandemic levels
  • Ice and cups will only be available upon request
  • Two snacks will be offered
    • Goldfish
    • Biscoff cookies
    • Almonds
    • Clif Bars

By June, hot meals in first class will be return to “select domestic and coast-to-coast flights” while passengers on “other key U.S. routes” can expect “fresh boxed meals” by early July.

That’s all the info we have…so mark that as developing.

Delta SkyClubs, Delta’s airport lounge network, will also restore more hot and cold food options starting in May.

CONCLUSION

Whether blocked seats or onboard food or drink is more important is a matter of personal taste. As for me, I’m happy to see that Delta is beginning to restore service onboard and have long felt Delta’s push to block seats was unnecessary if airplanes are as safe as airlines–including Delta–have promised us.


> Read More: Delta Air Lines Ready To Reclaim In-Flight Service On Its Terms


As Delta ends seat blocking, do you prefer a far more limited food and drink menu in exchange for an open seat next to you or do you welcome this change?

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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6 Comments

  1. Donald Reply
    April 1, 2021 at 7:59 am

    Many international carriers reintroduced full meal service months ago. The US airlines are still using COVID-19 as an excuse to cheap out and save money. It’s about time full, hot meal and beverage service was resumed.

  2. DCA Will Always Be "National" Reply
    April 1, 2021 at 8:37 am

    I love Delta but let’s call a spade a spade. They’ve realized flights on many other carriers are going out full and this Covid virtue signaling of blocking middle seats no longer makes fiduciary sense for them so they no longer care. And this meal thing? JFC. As Donald said, other carriers have managed hot meals for weeks/months now. To praise Delta for “going rogue” and continuing unnecessary Draconian “safety measures” that forsake comfort for faux health concerns is simply still cost-cutting still marching under the banner of “Covid Safety”. No amount of PR is going to cover up the smell of that load of BS. C’mon, Delta…get your sh*t together already and just go back to normal but with masks until we’re completely in the all clear. Quit being douchebags about this already.

  3. DCA Will Always Be "National" Reply
    April 1, 2021 at 8:39 am

    6th sentence should say: “It’s silly to praise Delta for ‘going rogue’…”

  4. KK Reply
    April 1, 2021 at 9:16 am

    I’ve been fully supportive the blocked seating policy. Sure, it’s a bit more expensive to fly DL, but I felt safer knowing I can plop down belongings on one seat while I wipe down my actual seat. In doing so, I don’t block the aisle while other passengers board. Sure, it’s a bit cost prohibitive for cheapskate flyers who cannot afford manners. I don’t want to fly with argumentative travellers.

    Call me an elitist, but I’m sad to see the blocked middle seat policy end.

  5. JGRL Reply
    April 1, 2021 at 3:22 pm

    Why does the price of an alcoholic drink k need to increase? Why not extend the olive “branch” of welcoming passengers back with no finger Jan in the wallet?

  6. Stephanie Reply
    April 3, 2021 at 10:22 pm

    The more people that are eating and drinking means more masks will be taken off . This to me, is not safe yet . I understand we as paying customers want to have service on flights that are longer but is it truly time yet to have so many customers without masks on as the pandemic is not over ?

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