Delta - Main cabin

[china mom]

I know this is a question that is probably better suited for the transpiration board but the community board is my home so I thought I would try it here.

My question is for people who fly delta. I will be Delta in the main cabin for an overnight transatlantic flight. Will a pillow and blanket be provided? Is it on request? do they run out?

I don't want to lug travel pillows and blankets for all four of us if it ends up I can get one on the plane but I also know that if I only bring one for myself, I will end up giving it to DH or one of the kids (because I am a giver).

 

[GAN]

Last time I flew they were available upon request -that was a couple years ago. That’s been fairly standard procedure but I’m not sure if it’s changed recently

 

[china mom]

Last time I flew they were available upon request -that was a couple years ago. That’s been fairly standard procedure but I’m not sure if it’s changed recently

Thank you. Should I take my own in case they run out or is that not a concern? I am trying not to carry too much with me.

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

I have flown Delta transatlantic and I fly transatlantic every year. I always fly economy main cabin. The legacy airline such as Delta provide pillows and blankets as standard. Most of the time they are on the seat when you enter the plane. If they are not, just ask a flight attendent.

Main cabin economy will also get food, a main meal and a snack. The main meal is usually served about 2 hours into the flight. After the main meal, the cabin lights will be dimmed, as most transatlantic flights from USA are overnight and you arrive in the morning local time in Europe.

About 2 hours before landing the cabin lights will be turned back on, to wake everyone up and a snack will be served, usually some kind of breakfast sandwich or wrap.

Main cabin economy will have a drinks service, soda, water tea and coffee will be complimentary, alcohol may be an extra charge.

Main cabin economy will also have a complimentary entertainment system on the seat back, usually a selection of films, tv shows and sometimes programs about your destination country and the arriving airport.

 

[china mom]

I have flown Delta transatlantic and I fly transatlantic every year. I always fly economy main cabin. The legacy airline such as Delta provide pillows and blankets as standard. Most of the time they are on the seat when you enter the plane. If they are not, just ask a flight attendent.

Main cabin economy will also get food, a main meal and a snack. The main meal is usually served about 2 hours into the flight. After the main meal, the cabin lights will be dimmed, as most transatlantic flights from USA are overnight and you arrive in the morning local time in Europe.

About 2 hours before landing the cabin lights will be turned back on, to wake everyone up and a snack will be served, usually some kind of breakfast sandwich or wrap.

Main cabin economy will have a drinks service, soda, water tea and coffee will be complimentary, alcohol may be an extra charge.

Main cabin economy will also have a complimentary entertainment system on the seat back, usually a selection of films, tv shows and sometimes programs about your destination country and the arriving airport.

Thank you. That will cut down on my carry on packing a lot. Even travel blankets and pillows add up.

I did order four of the jacks to make it so we can use our blue tooth headphones with the entertainment system. I cannot wear anything in my ears and I knew if I only bought one for myself I would never see it again

 

[rigs32]

Airlines have gotten very strict about carryons. Your pillow will be counted as your personal item until it can fit in one of your 2 bags.

 

[china mom]

Airlines have gotten very strict about carryons. Your pillow will be counted as your personal item until it can fit in one of your 2 bags.

That was my concern with loading us up on pillows and blankets - even if travel sized. So far, the plan is, between the four of us, four personal items and one overhead bin bag which should allow DH to put his personal item in the overhead (he hates anything near his feet). So, if three of us each count our "personal item" as a bin bag, we could count our pillows and blankets as our personal item but who the heck wants to lug that stuff all over airports and Europe?

We typically only fly carry on only but two weeks overseas, we will check a couple of bags this time.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Tagging @fly girl here.

 

[jimmymc]

Yes, Delta will have them available for main cabin transatlantic flights.

 

[china mom]

Tagging @fly girl here.

I didn't think of her. Is she Delta?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Personally I would make sure you have tv shows, movies, music, podcast whatever downloaded on your phone or tablet rather than solely rely in the entertainment systems because they can go down, this seat works but not that seat, you also would be interrupted if there are announcements needed (just mentioning that). I usually just track the plane on the entertainment system when I've flown overseas and watch the stuff I've already downloaded onto my phone, my husband usually watches something on the entertainment system but normally has a back up of something just in case.

Keep in mind that the pillows provided are rarely that good but for the limited time you'd be needing a travel pillow (assuming you just use them for flights) it would alleviate lugging your personal one around.

A recommendation I could have would be to bring your own eye mask if you plan on using one. The ones we have are thicker with adjustable straps and have the foam that surrounds your eyes, it really does block all the light so long as you have the strap around your head adjusted according to your own head.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I didn't think of her. Is she Delta?

Yes she is.

And have a great flight and trip.

 

[china mom]

Personally I would make sure you have tv shows, movies, music, podcast whatever downloaded on your phone or tablet rather than solely rely in the entertainment systems because they can go down, this seat works but not that seat, you also would be interrupted if there are announcements needed (just mentioning that). I usually just track the plane on the entertainment system when I've flown overseas and watch the stuff I've already downloaded onto my phone, my husband usually watches something on the entertainment system but normally has a back up of something just in case.

Keep in mind that the pillows provided are rarely that good but for the limited time you'd be needing a travel pillow (assuming you just use them for flights) it would alleviate lugging your personal one around.

A recommendation I could have would be to bring your own eye mask if you plan on using one. The ones we have are thicker with adjustable straps and have the foam that surrounds your eyes, it really does block all the light so long as you have the strap around your head adjusted according to your own head.

Yes. The everyone will have their own entertainment on their phones with an extra battery pack. I plan on sleeping and hope they do to but you never know. I didn't get any sleep on the 15 hour flight from Beijing to the East coast. But that was mostly because I have up my seat so the kids could lay down.

Eye masks that have the gel padding are already purchased and ready to go.

I always travel with my Pashmina even for short flights. It is small enough to carry but large enough to keep me cozy. I plan on taking that either way incase there are chilly moments on the trip.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yes. The everyone will have their own entertainment on their phones with an extra battery pack. I plan on sleeping and hope they do to but you never know. I didn't get any sleep on the 15 hour flight from Beijing to the East coast. But that was mostly because I have up my seat so the kids could lay down.

Eye masks that have the gel padding are already purchased and ready to go.

I always travel with my Pashmina even for short flights. It is small enough to carry but large enough to keep me cozy. I plan on taking that either way incase there are chilly moments on the trip.

It seems to be the case that I sleep better on flights than my husband even when we've had lay flat seats whether it's a red eye or daylight flight. I can typically get several hours of sleep which for me helps pass the time.

I'm forever cold on flights so I'm always wearing a zip up jacket anytime I fly (and then I'm often wearing it in the hotel room if it's gotten too cold) but the pashmina idea is a good one

 

[china mom]

It seems to be the case that I sleep better on flights than my husband even when we've had lay flat seats whether it's a red eye or daylight flight. I can typically get several hours of sleep which for me helps pass the time.

I'm forever cold on flights so I'm always wearing a zip up jacket anytime I fly (and then I'm often wearing it in the hotel room if it's gotten too cold) but the pashmina idea is a good one

DH and DS are usually dead asleep before the safety briefing ends. DD has never slept one a plane. I can sometimes get an hour in but not always.

 

[monsterkitty]

Before we flew to Munich from Denver last fall, I looked for YouTube videos from vloggers for our airline, plane type, and international from US to Europe. There were several vlogs from within the past 6-9 months, and they all showed the cabin and what was provided.

You didn't ask this, but somethings that helped me with jetlag going to Munich were:

• We ate at the airport before our flight and declined our airline meal. This reduced sodium and foods that are acidic (every entree had a tomato-based sauce). They served the meal about 45 minutes into our flight.
• Our flight left at 8 pm so as soon as I could, I fell asleep. I did take Benadryl, not only to help me sleep, but because I was that person who almost caused an emergency landing due to an allergic reaction when we flew to Hawaii one year.
• I purposefully woke up at around 8 am Munich time, which was about 3 hours before we landed, so my body could start on their time from Day 1. That did only give me about 4 hours of sleep, but it was better than not being able to fall asleep the first nights we were there.
• I did eat the breakfast they served about an hour before we landed.
• After we landed and retrieved our bags, we stopped and got pretzels, water, and a few other snack things for our 90-minute train ride from Munich to Salzburg.

DH slept until about 30 minutes before they served breakfast, and he did have trouble sleeping the first few nights. Yes, before we left DEN, he did tell me I was crazy for not sleeping the entire flight. I did refrain from saying "I told you so" while he suffered from jetlag.

 

[china mom]

Before we flew to Munich from Denver last fall, I looked for YouTube videos from vloggers for our airline, plane type, and international from US to Europe. There were several vlogs from within the past 6-9 months, and they all showed the cabin and what was provided.

You didn't ask this, but somethings that helped me with jetlag going to Munich were:

• We ate at the airport before our flight and declined our airline meal. This reduced sodium and foods that are acidic (every entree had a tomato-based sauce). They served the meal about 45 minutes into our flight.
• Our flight left at 8 pm so as soon as I could, I fell asleep. I did take Benadryl, not only to help me sleep, but because I was that person who almost caused an emergency landing due to an allergic reaction when we flew to Hawaii one year.
• I purposefully woke up at around 8 am Munich time, which was about 3 hours before we landed, so my body could start on their time from Day 1. That did only give me about 4 hours of sleep, but it was better than not being able to fall asleep the first nights we were there.
• I did eat the breakfast they served about an hour before we landed.
• After we landed and retrieved our bags, we stopped and got pretzels, water, and a few other snack things for our 90-minute train ride from Munich to Salzburg.

DH slept until about 30 minutes before they served breakfast, and he did have trouble sleeping the first few nights. Yes, before we left DEN, he did tell me I was crazy for not sleeping the entire flight. I did refrain from saying "I told you so" while he suffered from jetlag.

Great advice. I haven't flow internationally in many, many years but back when I did, I rarely, if ever, felt the effects of jetlag when I got to my destination. But coming home would always kick my rear. I will try the waking up on local time thing though.

 

[monsterkitty]

Great advice. I haven't flow internationally in many, many years but back when I did, I rarely, if ever, felt the effects of jetlag when I got to my destination. But coming home would always kick my rear. I will try the waking up on local time thing though.

For our trip home, we left Munich around 4 pm and arrived in Denver at 6:30 pm. Wasn't really a 2.5 hour flight, haha, but I made sure that I didn't sleep more than a few hours on the flight. I did crash at our regular bedtime that night, but it did take a bit to get back on track.

The lady next to me slept almost the entire flight. When they were serving our "dinner" an hour before we landed, she was really mad that it was dinner food and not eggs. No one could convince her that it was not an overnight flight, not even her family.

My DH had the window seat, I was in the middle seat, and she was on the aisle. She got mad when I asked to get past her so I could use the restroom and then told us not to wake her if we needed to get up again. Well, I woke her halfway through the flight and she was really mad. The flight attendant told her that's going to happen when you sit in an aisle seat on an international flight. DH and I may have gotten up more than a few times just to climb over her and disturb her.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

You didn't ask this, but somethings that helped me with jetlag going to Munich were:

• We ate at the airport before our flight and declined our airline meal. This reduced sodium and foods that are acidic (every entree had a tomato-based sauce). They served the meal about 45 minutes into our flight.
• Our flight left at 8 pm so as soon as I could, I fell asleep. I did take Benadryl, not only to help me sleep, but because I was that person who almost caused an emergency landing due to an allergic reaction when we flew to Hawaii one year.
• I purposefully woke up at around 8 am Munich time, which was about 3 hours before we landed, so my body could start on their time from Day 1. That did only give me about 4 hours of sleep, but it was better than not being able to fall asleep the first nights we were there.
• I did eat the breakfast they served about an hour before we landed.
• After we landed and retrieved our bags, we stopped and got pretzels, water, and a few other snack things for our 90-minute train ride from Munich to Salzburg.

DH slept until about 30 minutes before they served breakfast, and he did have trouble sleeping the first few nights. Yes, before we left DEN, he did tell me I was crazy for not sleeping the entire flight. I did refrain from saying "I told you so" while he suffered from jetlag.

Some of it I think it really does depend on the person and their personal sleeping habits and the destination as well as whether it's a red eye flight and what you have planned for that day as well as if you're trying to adjust your sleep ahead of time and how comfortable you can be on a plane as well as where your seat is (are you close to the bathroom or galley) or do you have noisy or disruptive seatmates, etc.

I've used a jet lag calculator for overseas travel the last several years (which is the bulk of our travel) and it does help to a degree however it can't account for the differences between my husband and I. The jet lag calculator that I use does allow you to adjust X number of days ahead. I've been doing 2 days ahead which allows you adjust your sleep schedule so when you land you're more in tune with the destination.

Going to Europe (which has been 3 times since 2023 most recently a few weeks ago) my husband gets the jet lag the most when we're there however I get it when I get home, it has taken me 3 to 4 days each time to get back onto my normal schedule once we get back home whereas my husband is fine. He doesn't seem as affected by jet lag as me but still. And part of the issue is that we can't follow the jet lag calculator much when we're coming back since we're usually busy with sight seeing.

Going to Japan (which was this past October) it was the opposite where I was slammed with jet lag when we got there taking 2-3 days to get back onto a better sleep schedule where I was going to sleep more at my normal time (around 10pm) but my husband was mostly fine. However, once we got home it hit my husband like a mack truck whereas I was mostly fine even though we couldn't do the jet lag calculator as good.

So we've just learned that our bodies handle the large shifts in time differently and seemingly going west is better for me than east for the start of the vacation but for my husband going east is better for him than me this is even with me being able to sleep more on the plane. We both do not take naps when we arrive and try to stay up as late as we can and normally hit the ground running on our destination.

When they were serving our "dinner" an hour before we landed, she was really mad that it was dinner food and not eggs. No one could convince her that it was not an overnight flight, not even her family.

That one seems like it's more understandable and might depend on the airline as far as how they serve their food. I haven't flown Delta since 2016 and it was to Hawaii (from LAX) so I wouldn't know how they do it.

You probably wouldn't get breakfast food if you left towards lunchtime but if you leave in the early evening that would seem dependent on the airline more.

To give an example that is more like what you mentioned as in coming back into the U.S. around the time you did from Munich our British Airways flight from London to Chicago in 2023 left London at 3:30 or so pm landed in Chicago about 6:15pm and we were served both dinner and breakfast with the breakfast (meal was breakfast items). That was economy.

In 2025 on Iberia their meals are based on length of flight and a flight of more than 4 1/2 hours gets breakfast and lunch (or dinner whichever on that part is more applicable). If you're in business class like we were if your flight is more than 2 1/2 hours you lunch or dinner regardless of course the meal options are more upperscale the higher seat options. So to match your example on our return to the U.S. our flight leaving Madrid around 4:30pm arriving at JFK around 7pm included both a dinner and a breakfast (which would have been available for everyone). And the breakfast items were breakfast items.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

Airlines have gotten very strict about carryons. Your pillow will be counted as your personal item until it can fit in one of your 2 bags.

Nope. Delta does not count pillows, coats, cell phones, iPads, or headphones as personal items. Laptops must be put in your carry on or personal item to board, but not those others previously mentioned