Review: Delta One Business Class (A330-900neo)

Delta One Suites is one of the most elusive products for points enthusiasts. Delta has notoriously high award prices as they have locked in their points at 1.3 cents USD and rarely offer higher redemption values.

It’s a shame because I sincerely enjoyed this flight and would love to fly the product again. If you have the option to enjoy one of these business class seats, I’ll tell you exactly why you need to jump on the opportunity when it comes to Delta One Business Class. 

Booking Delta One Business Class

This flight was a re-accommodation for an Aeroplan booking I had made from Geneva to Frankfurt, then onto Seattle. The night before departure, we received a cancellation notice, and about 30 minutes later, we received our new itinerary. I was surprised that Delta Air Lines was the chosen re-accommodation airline as they’re a SkyTeam partner rather than Star Alliance. 

My first thought was that these could be cash tickets bought by SWISS Airlines, and I started to scheme out which loyalty program to credit our Delta flights to. After reviewing the data on the wonderful site WhereToCredit, I settled on using Virgin Atlantic for my wife’s ticket, as they award 400% Virgin Points of the miles flown for J-class tickets.

This paid off handily as we indeed received 19,172 Virgin Atlantic Miles for a flight for which we initially redeemed 70,000 Aeroplan points. This situation does not occur every day, but it’s sweet when it does!

I took a chance with my ticket and credited the flight to Delta. Their earnings would be much less, but with Delta’s new MQD (Medallion Qualifying Dollar) Elite Status system, this ticket could have meant instant Delta Gold status and some SkyMiles. Sadly, the flight was recognized in Delta’s system as I paid $0, so I received no SkyMiles or MQDs toward Delta status.

While this may not be the case for everyone, and this is a very niche case, I hope someone finds this data point helpful!

If you want to book this experience using miles and points without paying through the nose (or get lucky on re-accommodation), the best way is through Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic is not a transfer partner from any Canadian financial institution. You’ll need to get started with US credit cards.

Still, the work is worth the reward. This experience can be booked with as little as 52,000 US Membership Rewards if you transfer during their frequent transfer bonuses—a far cry from transferring 400,000 Canadian Membership Rewards to 300,000 Delta SkyMiles for the same flight.

Ground Experience – Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse

I usually wouldn’t write about a lounge that isn’t branded to match the airline in a flight review, but the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse is special. Delta doesn’t have one of their own Delta Sky Clubs at Heathrow, and they don’t need one as the Clubhouse is that good. 

The entrance to the lounge is grand, Peloton bikes are available for a workout next to an Instagramable flower wall, and there’s table delivery food service at almost every seat. The menu has British classics like a curry chicken takeaway, amber ales, and pork pies. It was some of the best lounge food we’ve had. Combine that with rose or traditional champagne, and you have a winning combination.

The rest of the lounge is beautifully designed with conversation pit-style seating, beautiful decor and architecture, and even an open-air patio with tarmac views.

We only had about an hour in the lounge, even though we had a three-hour connection. Heathrow is massive, and getting around on the buses transporting passengers to different terminals is time-consuming.

Cabin Arrangement

Delta One seats are arranged in a rather unique 1-2-1 configuration. Typically, we see “honeymoon” seats that are right next to each other in every other row. But all the seats are the same here, making the window seats extra desirable.

Seat

Even though we only got to select seats less than 24 hours from departure, we could still grab two windows. Sadly, they were on opposite sides of the plane, but the free in-flight texting made communicating easy. My cocoon for the next 10 hours would be 7J.

Welcoming me to my seat was a handwritten postcard decorated with some of London’s most recognizable landmarks. This was a fantastic start to what would be an extremely hospitable flight.

I immediately noticed how large the seat armrest was. While you’re not tucked up right against the windows like rows 2, 4, and 6 are, there is considerably more “counter space.” I don’t usually prefer doing close to the aisle, but I think rows 1, 3, 5, and 7 are the better seats.

The quilted leather resembling Delta Air Lines’ motif was a beautiful touch that few airlines include in their new designs. On first impression, I was smitten with the hard product. 

Inspecting the window side of the seat, we find the seat controls, charging ports, power outlets, headphones, and a water bottle. 

The seat controls had many options and included a control to move the whole seat forward and back. I wasn’t exactly sure where that would come in useful, but it was something different that I hadn’t seen before. The only thing missing from the seat controls was a “firmness” adjustment. After 6 hours of being in the seat, I would have liked to soften it up a bit.

Just below the padded area of the armrest, there was another set of controls with shortcuts to preset positions. I really liked the easy-to-find Do Not Disturb button.

Just above these quick controls was the tray table release. I thought this was one of the best features of the seat. Often, tray table release buttons can be far from the seat, causing passengers to reach awkwardly in the seat. That is not the case with Delta!

The tray table swings out from the armrest and has an ergonomic design. The table has a reasonable amount of adjustment, sliding forward and backward, but not enough to get out of the seat with the tray table extended.

Underneath the tray table is an excellent storage area and a shoe compartment. Every inch of the seat has been designed with use in mind. I am really impressed with the seat’s functionality.

Directly in front of you is a large entertainment screen with excellent definition and many languages to choose from. Next to that, on the aisle side, is the coat hook.

The door on this suite is what makes the experience extra unique. While I liked the door on Etihad’s A350 business class, Delta puts that door to shame. The door was extremely high, and I didn’t notice any cabin crew or passengers walking by my suite. I haven’t flown Qatar Airways QSuites, but I think the hard products are similar. 

Bed

The bedding was placed on the seat as we boarded and branded with Delta’s logo. It was cozy, and the duvet seemed larger than average.

I was expecting the lie flat sleeping experience to be among the best, and in terms of privacy, it was!

After settling in, I was even more impressed with the door and how much privacy it provided. But the door also contributed to a major downfall of the seat. For a side sleeper, there is literally no room to put your knees with the door on the left and the extra large side table to the right.

The footwell had some decent space, at least, and felt larger than some reverse herringbone products.

Amenity Kit

The amenity kit was made from natural and recycled materials in Mexico, which is a nice initiative on Delta’s part. The bag is wrapped in a small piece of cardboard with more information about the producer and a discount code to purchase their products. 

Inside was a dental kit, eyemask, ear plugs, pen, and some cream and lip balm by Grown Alchemist.

Dining

Upon boarding, we were offered a welcome drink of champagne, mimosa, orange juice, or a Heineken. I opted for the champagne, which was delicious as always but a step down from what we had in the lounge pre-flight. The glassware was branded Delta, but it’s subtle, and you can only see it at the end of your drink!

Hot towel service was started about an hour after pre-departure beverages were served. 

During this time, the menus were also handed out.

A white tablecloth was laid out before any cocktails or appetizers were served. While Delta has an ergonomic design for their tray table, the napkin table covering needed to be a size or two larger.

After perusing the menu, I noticed there were no less than six whisky or bourbon options available from which to choose. To see if they would, I asked for three of them to make myself a tasting flight. The rest is history!

The selection of starters was served first. Not only was the presentation more appealing than Lufthansa’s Business class, but I also rated the flavors higher. The cured ham and pickled veggies were a particular highlight.

Dinner service was rapid-fire. The main course was served only 15 minutes after the appetizers. My wife and I chose the beef and would highly recommend it, and the fondant potatoes were perfect. 

The grand finale for dinner service was the ice cream cart, quickly becoming a staple for US carriers! United Polaris offers a sundae cart as well.

Midway through the flight, I was offered a warm chocolate chip cookie, and later, I found some chips and the like in the galley. 

About 2 hours before landing, a spread that resembled high tea was served. The tea biscuits were quite dry, but the clotted cream, sweets, and finger sandwiches were excellent. 

Entertainment

Entertainment Console

The entertainment screens were sharp, crisp, and perfectly sized for the suites. 

The controls for the screen are located in the armrest. The buttons are crisp and easy to use. The controller seems well built, and I don’t think they’ll get worn out quickly like we’ve seen with JetBlue Mint Business Class. Also in the compartment is an interestingly shaped vanity mirror.

The In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) interface was probably the best design I’ve ever experienced. There are only three main menus to choose from, making it highly intuitive.

As for entertainment options, we had a standard selection of movies, TV shows, audio provided by Spotify, and games.

The moving map didn’t include tail cameras or unique designs but was a generic setup.

While this won’t count as entertainment for everyone, I was entertained by the color-changing ambient light in the cabin! It reminded me of Air France business class, as they display the French Blue/White/Red in ambient light during mealtime.

WiFi

WiFi was available at different speeds whether you wanted to browse or stream. I opted for a full flight browse package as it was only $4 more than the 3-hour option, and I wanted to get some work done. 

The WiFi speed was excellent. I was super impressed!

Conclusion

Delta One Suites offers an excellent product that I hope I have another chance to experience! It’s often overlooked as points prices are prohibitively high directly with Delta, and partner awards are few and far between. 

While Star Alliance awards are more straightforward to book, I might make more of an effort to redeem on SkyTeam partners. So far, I have loved my experiences with Air France and Delta, and I am looking forward to experiencing KLM!