I had a very pleasant flight on Delta from Los Angeles to Atlanta on a refurbished A350-900, now a “Delta One” branded flight that included many of the amenities onboard you would expect on a longhaul business class flight.
My Return To Delta One On The A350
I was traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago and did a same-day change from a connection in Minneapolis to one in Atlanta, noticing that the A350 flight to Atlanta departed around the same time as my A321 flight to Minneapolis.
What I didn’t know at the time was that Delta is now branding its flights between Los Angeles and Atlanta that operate on a widebody jet as Delta One, similar to the way American Airlines brands its widebody service only between Los Angeles and Miami as Flagship.
So when I checked in and saw I had a Delta One purple boarding pass instead of the standard red first class boarding pass, I was double-excited, not just to fly on the A350 (it has been some years), but to use the Delta One Lounge at LAX before departure.
For that reason, I arrived at the airport 2.5 hours before my flight (typically I cut it very close and arrive about 45-60 minutes prior to departure), utilizing the posh Delta One check-in facility on the arrivals level of Terminal 3. The Delta One Lounge has aged well and I enjoyed a delicious breakfast as well as great coffee and 30 minutes in a massage chair that was almost as good as the real thing.
This flight departed from the Tom Bradley International Terminal, which was about a 10-minute walk from the lounge.
Onboard, I found a refurbished cabin reflecting Delta’s latest color palette. The seats are darker, the blues are gone, but the cabin looks refined (it would have looked even more refined if the mood lights had been turned on).
The seat is very comfortable and now features a wireless charging port for your mobile device, though like so many such devices, I could not get it to charge…
The cabin remained dark for the entire flight:
(I don’t know why people shut their blinds on daytime flights, but that’s another issue for another day…)
Like an international flight, flight attendants offered printed menus, Missoni-branded amenity kits, and slippers.
Breakfast was served after takeoff and was served on a single tray with a yogurt appetizer, salmon side dish, main course (I chose eggs with sausage), and a mini-scone (other choices were French Toast or a breakfast burrito). A very nice breakfast overall that began with mixed nuts (a bit odd for a breakfast flight, but I’m not complaining).
Later in the the flight a snack basket was offered and a warm chocolate chip cookies followed by a piece of chocolate were distributed before landing.
You never know about Wi-Fi and so I managed to complete all my essential work before the flight (at the expense of my sleep), but the Wi-Fi worked well and was free for SkyMiles members. I watched a sci-fi movie I very much enjoyed on the interaction between AI and the way called Mercy.
I’ll share more about this in my full review, but the bottom line is that I always try to get on a domestic widebody when I can and was very happy to fly through Atlanta…
Oh, speaking of that…I had quite a connection there thanks to a late-arriving flight…Air Traffic Control slowed inbound traffic and we landed quite late.
Nice job, Delta.
Paragraph one, expect from long haul, not except.
So, DL,I flying you to Europe year. How about 350s even 339s?
So, from the ole homeport, you connect via JFK, DTW, BOS, or ATL?
Be informed that DL frequently uses A330-900 (A339/A330neo) aircraft for its transatlantic flights to Europe. The company operates the world’s largest fleet of A330neos and deploys them on many of its long-haul international routes across the Atlantic. On the flip side, while the A350-900 is primarily used for DL’s ultra long-haul flights to Asia, South America, and Africa, it is consistently deployed to a few key European hubs and popular seasonal vacation destinations.
You got a good (Delta) one, Matt! Took Delta’s LATAM hand-me-down on ATL-SEA a little while back. Nice, because still lie-flat, but it was 2-2-2. You got the real deal! With doors! And how epic that this qualified for D1 lounge at LAX!
I thought those were all converted? How long ago was it?
That particular trip was in late-2022; they hopefully did convert them.
This is far superior to sitting up on a narrow body, but a dark cabin the whole way on a domestic breakfast flight? Ugh…
At least the option to open the shades is there, and not locked like on the 787
At least you can always see out the window even if locked on a 787, but you can’t do that on an a350 if the window shade is down. Regardless, Delta continues to spend tens of millions of dollars on anti-union propaganda to ensure their employees have no contract. Why in the world would anybody want to fly in an airline like that?
A word to the wise – 99.9% of travellers do not care.
One tray meal, what a joke Delta ONE is – this isn’t an overnight redeye.
It’s breakfast, even the second service (often breakfast) on international Delta One flights to Europe is on one tray. No one wants to spend 2 hours wining and dining with courses for breakfast.
The DL difference. Once again.
The difference is is that Delta is non-union. They spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-labor propaganda to ensure their airline employees have no contract. With a difference like that, who the hell needs Delta? Not me!
For aviation enthusiasts → The DL aircraft featured in the article is an A350-900 (age: 1 year). The company currently has 41 A350-900s in its fleet.
It looks like DL A359’s used between LAX and ATL are typically routed ATL-LAX-SYD and SYD-LAX-ATL.
great review, Matt. thanks!