charnees

We are soon going to buy tickets to Italy and upgrade to Bus. Class on Delta. We would be flying out of SFO to JFK and then about 6 pm to Milan. I see that some of Delta's planes have been converted to the flat sleepers in Business Class. Can anyone tell me if these flights are converted, or will be by September? If not, is there some other itinerary from SFO that would be?

I also see that there are two choices out of JFK, and one of them is actually operated by Alitalia, which we will avoid like the plague unless someone can tell me that Alitalia's flight is OK.

rkkwan

I see 767-300ERs on the JFK-MXP flights in Sep, 2010. As far as I know, DL hasn't started putting flat beds on the 763s, only their 767-400ERs and 777s.

travelgourmet

I wouldn't want to answer this one way or the other. I believe that they bounce this particular flight around quite a bit between an A330, a 767-300, and a 767-400.

The only way to guarantee a flat bed is to fly through London. If you could get it ticketed, flying SFO-MSP/DTW-LHR-Milan would not be a terrible choice, but I would just fly through JFK.

DRJ

A few 767-400s have been converted. All go to LHR to match the competion. IMO, JFK is a mess late afternoon early evening. I do anything to avoid JFK.

ladylawyer42

We're flying through JFK to Venice on Saturday. From what I can tell from the Delta website, our plane (767-300ER) won't be one of the converted ones.

We've also flown Alitalia Business Class, and it was not bad -- not nearly as good as Delta, but reasonably comfortable. The plane we were on was quite old, and the seats were worn. The attendants were pretty good, but, again not as good as Delta.

CarolA

To the OP. I assume you know that that you have to buy a Y, B, M ticket to upgrade.

Be sure to check the Delta Business Fares. Often they are just a tiny bit more then the M fares and you are guranteed the seat. Personally I have done the upgrade and I call Delta and pay the online booking fee to make SURE the plane and fare I get are "upgraded" I don't want to pay that much and wind up sitting in coach

I would not plan on lie flat. They seem to be VERY slow on the roll out!

charnees

CarolA, would you explain your comment about calling Delta and paying the booking fee to be sure to get the upgrade? Do we have to do that if we book through the customer rep. on the SkyMiles number? We have upgraded before that way, and have not been bumped down. (Come to think of it, once we got booted to coach on the JFK/SFO leg on the way home, with the agent saying our upgrade did not guarantee anything except the overseas leg, which pissed me off considerably.)

taconictraveler

bookmarking

travelgourmet

CarolA was just saying that you should make sure the upgrade is available before you book. Since you have to pay for a more expensive fare in order to upgrade, it is no fun to do so and then sit in coach.

CarolA

Travelgourmet is correct. If you book on line and then call to process the upgrade you may easily be told "no upgrades available" Now the process then is that if you do the call right after the booking you can cancel the booking and start over. (Delta gives you that one business day to cancel)

However, that's just a pain to me. So I would just book over the phone to make sure that my M fare was purchased and the upgrade processed at the time I booked.

I have never been "downgraded" so I don't think that's a big concern UNLESS you miss the flight. (Not sure what happens then)

charnees

thanks, everyone. There is an $800 difference between the upgradable fare the the bus. class fare, so it's well worth using the miles. And we will, as before, call Delta direct to make the reservations.