Anyone flown with Delta

[bazzanoid]

Afternoon!!

Having had a discussion yesterday afternoon with one of our travelling companions, i've been in planning mode overdrive for our 2013 trip!!!

Has anyone flown with Delta?

I've seen a flight from Heathrow to Orlando connecting in Atlanta on the way out, JFK on the way back, and wondered if anyone had any experience with them as an airline?

 

[Mrdudecool]

We flew with Delta last year. Honestly one of the best airlines we have been with. The crew were all great, spoke to all of us on the flight and were just generally friendly.

Not a lot else I can really say except that I would definitely book with them again.

 

[Cyrano]

Delta have been our favourite airline for travelling to USA

 

[bazzanoid]

Encouraging replies guys - thanks

I've never flown indirect before, and looking at the flights we would connect in Atlanta. Therefore it brings the luggage question..... as it's booked as a single ticket from london - orlando, and with just the one airline, do they transfer the bags onto the next flight or do we collect them and check them back in? I know we'll clear US interrogation and glumdens in ATL and arrive as 'locals' in orlando, just not sure how our checked baggage is handled!

 

[wayneg]

I wouldn't go as far as Jack or Reid to say they are the one of the best but we mainly use them from Manchester, a route they have been promising new planes/ungrades for years but we still havn't got. We returned with them this morning again, yet again into Manchester. The planes really are in need of attention, inner trim fell off, staff had to repair, no seat back TV's etc.

That's MAN, LON is far better with better IFE.
We have used them for a few years now, in all their classes (Economy numerous times, Business class twice and last night for 1st time in Economy Comfort)
This was a reward flight from TPA to MAN via ATL, cost £3.20 each then paid £38 to upgrade the ATL to MAN leg to Economy Comfort, worth every penny, even Matt at almost 6`3" had plenty of legroom.

Overhead & front TV's

Matt had chicken salad which was good, I had Pasta which was average.

Economy Comfort with Matt's long legs

 

[wayneg]

Encouraging replies guys - thanks

I've never flown indirect before, and looking at the flights we would connect in Atlanta. Therefore it brings the luggage question..... as it's booked as a single ticket from london - orlando, and with just the one airline, do they transfer the bags onto the next flight or do we collect them and check them back in? I know we'll clear US interrogation and glumdens in ATL and arrive as 'locals' in orlando, just not sure how our checked baggage is handled!

You collect luggage going out then re-check, its a very simple process just a few yards from collection to drop.
Coming home they are checked all the way thru to your final airport.

 

[bazzanoid]

Wow that is a lot of legroom!!

Glad to hear the london planes have better IFE, do they have seatback tvs? The delta site implies they have USB ports on all economy seats on this flight for charging ipods etc if they have i might consider investing in an ipad and stacking it with my taste in movies, or maybe an entire season of something to pass the time!!

 

[Netty]

thanks for posting photos of economy comfort, we will be booking these from atl to man

 

[disneyholic family]

when you check in in london make sure they tag your bags all the way through to orlando..

i even make them show me the tags before they put them on my luggage...

then you pick them up in atlanta, go through customs and then drop them off at the connecting desk (since they're already tagged through to orlando)..

so again, make sure they're tagged all the way through so that you can drop them off again at the connecting desk in atlanta (just past customs)..

on the way back to the UK, also make sure they've tagged the bags all the way (and again, make them show you the tags)....you don't have to pick them up at JFK - they go automatically to the next plane to the UK, assuming they've been tagged all the way through..

i say all this, because i've had ground agents who have made mistakes and not tagged them through....but i always check, so i've caught them...

 

[wayneg]

Wow that is a lot of legroom!!

Glad to hear the london planes have better IFE, do they have seatback tvs? The delta site implies they have USB ports on all economy seats on this flight for charging ipods etc if they have i might consider investing in an ipad and stacking it with my taste in movies, or maybe an entire season of something to pass the time!!

As far as I know the Lon planes have seat back TV's, its just the MAN route that needs upgrading.

 

[thestevied]

Before I flew delta to new York this may, my friends said delta stood for Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport.

However, I enjoyed every aspect of the flight, including the seats, and I am a 6'4" male. Also worth noting, the flight arrived ahead of schedule.

 

[disneyholic family]

Before I flew delta to new York this may, my friends said delta stood for Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport.

However, I enjoyed every aspect of the flight, including the seats, and I am a 6'4" male. Also worth noting, the flight arrived ahead of schedule.

i'm probably the one who told you that's what it stands for..

as an example, my mother was held hostage on a delta plane just this past thursday...

the flight was supposed to leave in the evening...

bad weather held it on the ground for hours, but they weren't let off the plane....they were boarded and then left there for hours, without any food or drink...not even a glass of water...for hours and hours...

then the flight crew was past their permitted hours of work, so the passengers were held another few hours on the plane waiting for a new pilot...hostage....no food or drink...not even water the entire time..

so instead of leaving at 8 or so in the evening, they took off at 1:30 in the morning after being held hostage on the plane for 5 hours or so...

Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport...you better believe it...

Delta is not known for customer service....but then again, none of the US based airlines are....at least not the ones that still exist....

but it's no worse than any of the others that cross the atlantic..

i've flown delta zillions upon zillions of times....international and domestic..
they wouldn't be my first choice if my family didn't live in detroit (where there pretty much isn't any other way in or out of the city)...
but then again, it wouldn't be my last choice either...

i wasn't going to mention my personal opinion of Delta, but since you brought up their nickname, i had to chime in.....
and one more thing, delta is even worse than the gone but not forgotten Northworst.....and they did plenty to deserve that name..

and in case you're curious about other affectionate names of airlines.... US Airways, used to be allegheny airlines (that was their name), but those of us who had to fly with them referred to them as All Agony Airways....still not far from the truth...

there are others, but they've slipped my mind...

 

[beth01dog]

We have just got back flying indirect with Delta and I had no problems at all- everything was smooth and very pleasant. We even made our connecting flight with a 48 min connection time at JFK without problems and even though I was convinced our bags wouldn't be on the conveyor belt at Heathrow they made it fine!
Heathrow to Boston and back JFK to Heathrow both had seatback TVs with a range of movies to select from (must have been abour 40 at least).

 

[sam_rogers]

We have just got back flying indirect with Delta and I had no problems at all- everything was smooth and very pleasant. We even made our connecting flight with a 48 min connection time at JFK without problems and even though I was convinced our bags wouldn't be on the conveyor belt at Heathrow they made it fine!
Heathrow to Boston and back JFK to Heathrow both had seatback TVs with a range of movies to select from (must have been abour 40 at least).

glad to know you made that connection in JFK! we've got about 90 minutes to make our connection next month and I'm a bit worried but thats put my mind at ease a bit

I would recommend delta too! I flew with them to New York in February and I was a bit apprehensive after some of the things I'd heard about them but I had no problems and I actually found them better than when we flew to Orlando with Virgin last year.

 

[disneyholic family]

glad to know you made that connection in JFK! we've got about 90 minutes to make our connection next month and I'm a bit worried but thats put my mind at ease a bit

I would recommend delta too! I flew with them to New York in February and I was a bit apprehensive after some of the things I'd heard about them but I had no problems and I actually found them better than when we flew to Orlando with Virgin last year.

90 minutes entering the US or leaving the US?

if entering the US, that's very tight...
however, know that in JFK they have immigration fastpasses if you have less than 2 hours to your next flight...
there is a special fastpass line...but i don't know if you can just get into it without a fastpass..
when our flight was late, there was an immigration officer at the door of the plane who handed out the FPs to anyone with less than 2 hours to their next flight...
the line was super speedy - we only had one family in front of us...
and it's a uni-line for both americans and aliens....when you get to the front of the fastpass line you tell the guy if you're an american or an alien....
since we had 1 alien in our midst, we all went over to the alien line..
again, we only had to wait for one person in front of us...
super super speedy...

 

[sam_rogers]

90 minutes entering the US or leaving the US?

if entering the US, that's very tight...
however, know that in JFK they have immigration fastpasses if you have less than 2 hours to your next flight...
there is a special fastpass line...but i don't know if you can just get into it without a fastpass..
when our flight was late, there was an immigration officer at the door of the plane who handed out the FPs to anyone with less than 2 hours to their next flight...
the line was super speedy - we only had one family in front of us...
and it's a uni-line for both americans and aliens....when you get to the front of the fastpass line you tell the guy if you're an american or an alien....
since we had 1 alien in our midst, we all went over to the alien line..
again, we only had to wait for one person in front of us...
super super speedy...

its leaving the us so less of a panic involved lol. we've got about 3 hours in detroit on the way there so plenty of time to make the connection

 

[disneyholic family]

its leaving the us so less of a panic involved lol. we've got about 3 hours in detroit on the way there so plenty of time to make the connection

3 hours in detroit is tons of time.
you'll have no problem at all and detroit is one of the easiest terminals to negotiate. Very straightforward.

Regarding my mom and being held hostage - she wrote a complaint letter to delta and was given 15,000 frequent flyer miles in compensation.

 

[disneyholic family]

ok - so guess who's flying delta this time?

i'll give you 3 guesses, but you're only going to need one

yup....after all my complaining it's going to be delta....
i'm flying with my mom and she needs the FF points to maintain her delta platinum status, so she's going back to delta for this flight (she'd been flying US Airways the last few flights as they have those nice suites in business class)..

Delta has upgraded their planes on the JFK-TLV route to suites in business and reinstated the nice northwest A330 aircraft on the amsterdam-DTW route, so she's willing to go back to delta now...(they had been flying a very old 767 on the ams-DTW route and she refused to fly that way)..

anyway, she'll be in business and i'll be back in economy....i got a really good fare for economy....i was going to go for economy comfort, but it was so much extra, i said forget it...so it's economy for me..

the flights are roundtrip Detroit (where my family lives), so once i have the transatlantic finalized (it's reserved now, but we're still trying to get the week earlier - but the rates are twice the price for the earlier week ) then i'll buy a one way ticket from DTW to MCO (i already have the flight from orlando to detroit as i was flying back with them after the cruise - so that flight was already purchased a long time ago)...

anyway...it's delta....hopefully they won't live up to their nickname...

actually it's KLM to amsterdam and then delta from ams to dtw (you know the route - of underwear bomber fame)...
and then returning delta DTW to JFK , then delta JFK to TLV (that's the super nice upgraded 747)...

oh and of course delta from dtw to mco and back - delta owns detroit...it has the vast majority of all flights into and out of that city...

 

[marcgiu]

We flew Delta via Atlanta about 9 years ago and while the plane was OK the connection was awful - 8 hour delay coming back and 5 hours going out. Not Delta's fault but annoying none the less

Plane was no thrills as I remember but economy is much a muchness on these flights.

 

[merlin307]

There seems to be a difference depending on the route.

Anyone used the Dublin route?

We are booked from Dub to Jfk then Mco in October.... Prices were too good to pass up