Your thoughts on Delta
 

Now that I've made my ticket purchase I'm ready to hear the lowdown on this airline.:-D

What are your experiences with Delta. Good or bad?

Yes. Depends on the day.

And on you, sometimes.

Their safety record is not as good as Qantas (or is that movie legend/lore? Raymond?)

Best wishes,

Rex

They are all bad !
They are all good !
Tell me the day, the weather, the crew, and your disposition that day.

most of us (I think) make flight decisions based on scheduling and on price. Delta is about the same as other US based airlines. Delta has lousy legroom in coach. Yet, I use them.

If you ask for this, you will find that there are people who love an airline and people who hate the same airline.

I like Delta. International service is generally better then domestic anyway.

Delta to me is equal to HORRIBLE...

I will never fly with this company again..Unless of course, is the only Airline left to fly...Then I will not have any choice...

my only problem with delta (int'l coach) is the cabin service which has been reduced to bare bones: it has particularly lousy food and they charge (a lot) for drinks.

otherwise, as a cattle car, it's comparable to any of the others using an airbus 320 or a boeing 777.

i generally prefer air france with whom i have scads of ff miles to burn on upgrades etc.

I just took them to go to Spain:

DCA-JFK-MAD then BCN-MAD-JFK-DCA

It was fine. The food actually wasn't 1/2 bad. Watched a few movies. They didn't lose my luggage. Flights were early or on time.

One thing I don't like about domestic airlines is they make you buy alcoholic beverages, whereas international airlines don't.

But, I think almost any airline can have good and bad days.

Where are you going?

Karen

Karen,
Flying to Marseille from Philly.

Thanks for your input everyone.

The only thing worse than cattle class in a Delta 777 or an Air France 777 to Paris is coach class in a Delta MD-11. I hope that contraption is no longer in service. The most comfortable position on that airplane was the standing area near the rest room and the galley.

But, none of them are very good.

US Airways coach class seating on the 767s is, to put it bluntly, butt sprung. The Airbus planes are new enough to be ok. Foot rest space seems less confining for some reason although I am not sure the pitch is any longer.

I don't think KLM - Northwest coach on the 767s is any better than US Airways unless there has been maintenance in the last 3 years that I have not sampled.

I have not flown Air Canada in a while, but my 4 flights with it were decent.

Of the domestics, which was not excluded from this thread by the question, Air Tran is the only one I find to be tolerable. The new 717s are fair in coach. I don't know of any I would rate as good.

Coach class on Aer Lingus and Finnaire are the two best air lines on the continent I have used.

Lufthansa, ugh! And I was in business class because of a schedule mishap.

DL doesn't fly PHL-CDG. If your flight number is 8749 non-stop from Philly to Paris, you're flying Air France metal in an Airbus 330-200.

DL does fly to CDG from JFK and CVG (Cincinatti/Northern Kentucky), both using 767-300. DL's 763 has no private video monitor in Y-class, only in Business Elite. Not sure about AF's 332.

What does "flying Air France metal" mean?

It means the flight is codeshare. It may be marketed and sold with a DL flight number but the actual aircraft is operated by Air France.

Thx.

yes. Those code shares can be tricky.
I know I once thought I was flying Air France to Paris from Atlanta and ended up on Delta equipment, with a Delta crew of course.
I thought I had made a valid seat assignment through Air France when I bought the tickets, but the Delta counter agent had no record of in her system when I checked in. So my carefully chosen seat assignment was no good and I ended up in a less desirable seat.

I always fly Delta and the only problem I have experienced are delays, weather in Atlanta and equipment in NY.

Delta's okay as long as you tip the pilot correctly; see the thread on this topic.

I think it is very popular to denigrate airlines these days. I also think if one seriously considers what you're paying for and what you're getting in return, in general, I think airline travel is good value for the money. Seat pitch, seat width, passenger density, flight attendant service, quality of food and beverage service, location of TV screens, aircraft performance, and flight crew capability are all relatively the same, regardless of airline. It doesn't hurt to be a saavy traveler, pick your season, plan your travel days and times, and shop for bargins as one does in making any other purchase. I think air travelers need to have more realistic expectations of the airline transportation system. I have never had a bad experience with Delta that I would attribute to Delta as the cause factor, nor generally with any other airline. I have had good days and bad days related to travel, but I think it is unfair to dump the whole cause on being the fault of the airline. I personally prefer Delta as my airline of choice.

If riding miserable, stuffed in a B777 coach seat, is a good value, then I would hate to experience a poor value. A poor value must include sitting on upright nails for a cushion.

I am about 6' and 180 pounds, which does not make me huge by today;s standards where 6'1" and 250 is more the norm. But the pitch of the seat, that is back of my seat to the back of the seat in front of me, is so short I have to ride with my legs spread awkwardly.
The seat is bare widely enough to accept my sitting apparatus. I don't know how a person less than 6' and weighing 240 or more could squeeze into it.
So if 8 hours of that kind of misery is a good value, I don't want it or need it. Let me out of there.

Yes, Rkkwan you are right about it being a codeshare. We are indeed scheduled with Air France .
That being said with whom do we make our seat selections?