It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair for all who booked business class seats on a Delta Air Lines Airbus A350.
A Tale Of Two Delta A350 Jets
Delta will shortly acquire nine A350-900 aircraft from its LATAM partner, which is retiring that Airbus jet type from its fleet as it emerges from bankruptcy. Delta also markets its A350-900 as its “flagship” aircraft, boasting Delta One suites in business class with doors that close, direct aisle access, and plenty of room to stretch out.
Indeed, I flew one of Delta’s legacy A350s last month from Detroit to Amsterdam and found it a very pleasant flight.
But the nine A350s coming from LATAM are different.
To get technical, Delta’s existing A350s are configured with 306 seats, including:
- 32 business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration (each seat has direct aisle access)
- 48 premium economy class seats in a 2-4-2 configuration
- 226 economy class seats in a 3-3-3 configuration
The “new” A350s from LATAM feature 339 seats, including:
- 30 business class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration (window seats do not have direct aisle access)
- 309 economy class seats in a 3-3-3 configuration
- 63 seats have extra legroom, but there is no premium economy on this aircraft
For business class passengers, this represents a huge downgrade.
While Delta has said these seats are temporary, it has not offered a timeline for when they will be retrofitted with Delta’s “signature” cabin. A spokesperson told Zach Griff of The Points Guy,
“The aircraft feature a temporary seating configuration pending further modification to one consistent with the A350 aircraft currently in our fleet. The integration of these aircraft into our fleet will allow for an important increase to our flying capacity to help get our customers where they want to go this summer and beyond.”
You can expect these aircraft on the following routes starting this summer:
- Atlanta (ATL) – Santiago (SCL)
- Atlanta (ATL) – Dublin (DUB)
Further routes have not been announced.
To see if your A350 will have the old or new configuration, check the business class seat map. If you see 2-2-2 seating it means you have the old configuration. I hope Delta will make very clear that its new A350s will likely not be what consumers are expecting, particularly if they are regular Delta business class passengers. Disturbingly, Delta is still marketing these seats as “Delta One Suites.”
CONCLUSION
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done, it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known….said no one traveling on the LATAM-configured Delta A350s. Be aware that these aircraft will pop-up on ATL-SCL and ATL-DUB routes this summer and may be swapped in at the last minute on other routes. Should that happen, I expect you’ll have a dickens of a time trying to convince Delta that you have been short-changed.
This sort of thing is certainly not new. In 2004 I bought an Upper Class ticket on Virgin Atlantic, from San Francisco to London. The 747 was supposed to have brand-new, lie-flat seats. It didn’t. There had been an aircraft swap, which I only learned about while checking-in at SFO. No compensation – nor any kind of sincere apology, really – was offered. I sat-up, all the way to Heathrow, feeling decidedly burned.
ATL-Dublin and ATL-Santiago have historically been operated by non-retrofitted A330s without Premium Select. Those are 1-2-1 in business and 2-4-2 in C+/Y, but it’s not a great product.
It’s not like Delta is running these on routes where normal A350s would be operating, and I don’t see it as an incredible downgrade because of that.
As an addendum, Delta’s website is showing 2-2-2 on these routes, but a picture of the regular suites on the seat map with the description “Spacious 180-Degree Flat-Bed Seat with Full-Height Privacy Door” – that’s absolutely misleading and wrong marketing. The marketing more than the product itself is the issue here.
Those LATAM seats and configuration look a lot like the existing seats as Turkish 777 2-3-2 configuration. The window seats have a ton of space and a nice ottoman so should not be too bad to step over the aisle seat.
They are very similar to the TK seats on the 777. The issue is that if the cabin is full it is far from feeling private like a 1-2-1 config will provide. I flew this cabin a lot on LATAM over the years and it’s horrible when it’s at full capacity (which you will more than expect on DL). If you luck out and get the seat next to you empty it’s tolerable and actually very nice. But that’s really going to be rare.
“A Dickens of a time…” Bravo, Mr. Klint!
Actually, if you look at the flight/price options for those segments ATL-SCL and DUB, the little flag “Flagship” is not included. That’s the most simple way to determine if it’s a Delta ‘Flagship’ or a LATAM hand-me-down. Given Delta’s history of quickly retrofitting aircraft (like the 777 update to suites), I doubt this ‘situation’ will last very long. They need the seats for the Summer peak; I’m confident these LATAM aircraft willl be retro-fitted by the Summer of 2023.
So should we hold our breath for the “Tale of two UA 787s” post?
When DL sees some slack in this fleet, they will be reconfigured (perhaps even faster than all of UA’s fleet…).
UA doesn’t market its 787 as flagship and is very clear what configuration you will have when booking. That said, if UA had all Polaris-equipped Dreamliners and then started adding 787s with the old B/E Diamond seats, you can bet that I’d do a post on it.
And UA’s 787 retrofit is ongoing, not paused. They only have 6 787-9s left and 0 787-8s left with the old interior.
by this point, there are 4 787-9… and keep in mind, these retrofits are done in HKG or China, I know some tend to think a retrofit takes a month… smh
It takes about 45 days to complete. They have 3 mod lines open in XMN, so there are always 3 being done at a time. One 787-9 is on its way back to the US now and another is on its way out to XMN. All 787-9s will be retrofitted within the next 2 months.
So wrong Jason! Nice try, Delta fan! United only has 4 787-9s with the old seats flying around, and all will be completed within the next 60 days. UA has actually updated all planes unlike Delta.
That means a consistent Polaris across:
767-300ER
777-200ER
777-300ER
787-8
787-9
787-10
Delta doesn’t even come close! Inconsistent product all across the board! Nice try trying to roast United!
Lol. Was that written in crayon?
Spoiler alert, anyone who has to suffer the indignity of having no isle access while flying on these planes will survive.
I feel like at times some of you come across as way too elite and out of touch with the rest of society.
As opposed to someone like me who comes off as an ahole to others often. At least I see it.
I’d say those seats are an upgrade in a way. No constraining footwells. Makes for easier sleeping
I’d gladly give up all aisle access to be able to sleep better
The lack of PE is no loss, since Delta now only provides standard economy service in their PE cabin anyways
@ Matthew — If Delta actually offers confirmable upgrade space on these routes, then this seat will have one HUGE upside — upgrades will go directly from economy to business. The LATAM business class seats are vastly superior to Delta’s Premiums Select (ie, economy with lipstick).
Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope -into a better shape.
Now that I am retired and travel only with my wife, I find that we much prefer the older style United 787 business seats and would actually prefer to fly in the “horrible” seats on Delta’s transferred A350s. All you business folks traveling on OPM will just have to suck it up and deal with the huge injustice of maybe not having direct aisles access.
I chose the Qantas j seat to Sydney by the window as everyone recommends. It was far tighter (albeit more private) than the aisle option. I think I actually prefer the old United too. Much bigger footwell!!
I had a plane change on japan airlines. I was connecting in NRT. One of the staff met me at the plane door, this was last year during their wave of covid in japan, gave me a voucher from which to choose from as compensation for plane change.
The plane change was fine, no big deal. Plane was empty and I had great sleep. I also dropped off the voucher with the front desk of the lounge. i was supposed to mail it, but they took care of it.
Amazing, the level of care.
Also, it should be mentioned why Delta is at this place in the first place. And that is because their incompetent management team retired their beautiful fully retrofitted 777 fleet.
I don’t know why everyone tries to give them a pass on that. They made a huge mistake.
United management deserves huge props for keeping the entire widebody fleet in tact. It wasn’t looking so good in May 2020, but UA saw the future better than anyone else.
OMG Jared. We get it. You’re on United’s payroll. Either that or you’re a twelve year old.
What should be done is just use the 9 used a350’s as transcontinental wide bodies for high demand heavy routes (jfk-lax, atl-lax, etc) just as AA & UA use some dense configured 777’s for heavy transcontinental routes during peak hours. In this way, Delta won’t have to reduce the luxury on international routes until the used a350’s get refurbished later down the road.