Delta Air Lines has confirmed that it will offer more spacious “mini first class” seating in the bulkhead rows of its new Delta One business class cabins, though the news slipped out in an odd manner.
Delta Air Lines Lets Slip Plans For “Mini First Class” Delta One Seats
Joe Espsito, Delta’s Chief Commercial Officer, recently sat down with Business Traveller, as flagged by JonNYC. He was asked about whether Delta would offer a “mini first class” in Delta One:
Would a “mini first class” seat make sense in Delta One?
We’re going to do that! We haven’t announced it yet, but those will be on future airplanes… but we haven’t announced it yet. It’ll be where you get a little bit more space at the front seats. It’s the ones that are in the bulkhead — you’ll get some more space.
I use “mini first class” in my headline because that is what Esposito said “we’re going to do”…but I think it’s clear he means a business class “plus” product, not only due to the hard product limitations, but because bringing back a real international first class might undermine the “premium” image Delta is trying to market its Delta One cabin (i.e., already a “first class” product).
You might recall that last month I argued that Delta was wise not to introduce an enhanced business class product. I stand by that assessment and think there is value in saying that Delta One is first class (sort of like ex-Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker used to insist that Qatar Qsuite Business Class was better than First Class…as politicians teach us, when you repeat lies often enough, people start to believe them).
> Read More: Delta Says No To “Business Class Plus” And That’s A Smart Move
But it seems that my assessment that there would be no business class “plus” product was based on two false premises. First, the cabin renderings Delta released (as you can clearly see) do not have a different product in the bulkhead row. Second, you’d think that when revealing its new cabins, Delta would have mentioned that it was going to add these sorts of seats.
Whatever the reason for that may be, per the COO is appears a more premium product is coming.
I won’t speculate here what that soft product might look like (or note the irony in Delta copying American and United), but as One Mile At A Time points out, it just make sense. The new Thompson Aero VantageNOVA product Delta will use in business class markets a VantageNOVA First product:
This product does not take up much extra space and even if Delta reserves these for its 360 and Diamond members and nothing else, it might as well take advantage of putting in these roomier seats…
For now, we’ll have to wait and see how much Delta will differentiate these bulkhead seats from the rest of its Delta One cabin.
CONCLUSION
Delta appears to be moving ahead with a more spacious bulkhead seat in its new Delta One cabins, even if the details remain unclear and even if the news slipped out in a rather odd way.
I still think Delta has to be careful here. One of the strengths of Delta One, at least from a marketing perspective, is that Delta can present it as its top premium cabin without the awkwardness of telling passengers that some business class seats are more equal than others. A “mini first class” product complicates that message.
But the economics are hard to ignore. If the bulkhead can offer more space without sacrificing cabin density, Delta would be foolish not to monetize it, reward top elites with it, or use it as another premium lever in a cabin that is already becoming more segmented.
For now, we know only what Esposito let slip: future Delta aircraft will have more spacious front-row Delta One seats. Whether Delta sells them as a separate product, reserves them for VIPs and top-tier elites, or quietly treats them as preferred Delta One seats remains to be seen.
You never want to sit in row 1 with Delta One because it’s the last row to be served food on international flights. That means it might be an hour into dinner before you get your food. Plus, Delta seldom uses the forward door for deplaning, which means you won’t be first off the aircraft.