We’ve almost reached the end of the 2025 flights. We’ve only got 3 more to do, and, interestingly, they’re all Delta flights. I’m not sure exactly how that happened, but they were three separate trips where Delta flights made the most sense (especially in the context of me still having Delta Platinum status). In November, a few friends invited me to attend the PAX Unplugged convention. PAX Unplugged is a gaming convention for all type of non-video games at the Philadelphia convention center.
To head home after the convention, I found a great-priced night time flight from JFK to SFO on Delta on which I was reasonably confident I could clear a complimentary upgrade to DeltaOne.
So I took a little side trip to New York and then headed to JFK for a nighttime flight back to San Francisco. I’ve previously had decent luck clearing upgrades on this route using regional upgrade certificates, but this would be my first time waiting for a complimentary upgrade. The 767-300 that operated the flight that night was equipped with both a DeltaOne and a PremiumPlus cabin. The PremiumPlus cabin is sold as international Premium Economy, but in practice is very similar to a standard domestic first class experience. The way the upgrades work on these types of aircraft is that at the standard upgrade window (5 days out for Delta Platinum Medallion members), upgrades to PremiumPlus begin clearing. Mine cleared exactly at 5 days out. Then (further) upgrades to DeltaOne can begin clearing 24 hours in advance (“same day”). It’s my understanding that the way this actually works in practice is that at >24 hours (i.e. before check-in opens), upgrades are handled by an automated system. At the 24-hour mark, the task gets pushed to the gate agents for the flight, which means that in practice, same day upgrades only clear shortly before boarding. In my case, that unfortunately meant that when I arrived at the airport, I didn’t have access to the DeltaOne check-in area or the lounge.
I then took the opportunity to check out the buffet offering, which was quite substantial:
The buffet on offer was relatively standard for a SkyClub: there were sandwiches, a variety of generic hot options (e.g. chicken, rice, soup), a salad bar, and a small dessert area. It’s always nice to get consistency, but I sometimes prefer a bit more of a regional flair. The offering here, however, is a huge downgrade compared to the DeltaOne lounge, which has a full restaurant-style dining room and a made-to-order buffet.
I decided to depart the lounge a bit early in the hopes that the upgrade might clear around when I’d be walking past the DeltaOne Lounge just so I could stop in for some pictures. Alas, it was not to be, and the upgrade cleared only about 2 minutes before pre-boarding began. But that did mean that I was first in line to get on the plane!
I was in fact so early on the plane that the catering door was still open, which was fun!
The 767-300 boards from the forward door, so I had to turn right to get to my seat just like everyone else. Luckily the flight was not very full (which is why the free upgrade cleared), so there weren’t tons of people streaming past me in seat 3C.
Despite the old seats, the cabin does actually look like spiffy, even if it’s not private in the slightest.
In isolation, the seat isn’t too bad, especially when it’s compared to literally any non-lie-flat seat. It’s also arguably more spacious than American Airlines’ Flagship Business on the A321. But compared to the Polaris seat on United’s 767s, this seat is a huge downgrade.
It’s also potentially worth noting that it’s often cheaper to fly Flagship First on this route than DeltaOne, and the Flagship First seat is definitely better!
But I was, of course, very happy to be there!
I will also note, as I always do, that I much prefer this seat to the similar seat on Aer Lingus specifically because the seat reclines into a lie-flat position normally, rather than first pushing you out and then moving you and then pushing you out and then moving you, which I really hate.
For whatever reason, this flight didn’t have menus provided (and the flight attendants didn’t have them either), but luckily the full menu was available through Delta’s app. Since I hadn’t cleared an upgrade in advance, I wasn’t able to pre-select, so I don’t know if there were any special pre-order options. Given that this was a late night flight (9 pm), the dinner service was a bit more abbreviated than I’ve seen on other flights.
Since there were no menus and only two options, I was simply offered a choice of the chicken or the pasta. I selected the Chicken Tikka Masala because I’ve previously had good luck with the dish in the air! It was served with a burrata salad and a dinner roll.
The main dish was not particularly good. It was dry and didn’t have a particularly good spice mix. The side dishes it was served with, however, were excellent. The dessert was listed on the menu as tiramisu. It was not tiramisu; it was instead some type of rich chocolate cake and was also excellent.
After dinner, I put the bed into its fully flat position and slept for the second half of the flight (about 3 hours) before it was time to finally arrive into San Francisco nearly 7 hours after we had initially boarded at the crisp time of 1 am. But hey, that’s why I was able to get a free upgrade.
In summary, it’s really hard to beat a free upgrade to a lie-flat seat. It’s a bit hard to judge the pre-upgrade ground experience fairly because I know how much I was missing out on from the full DeltaOne experience. The premium check-in was unmemorable, but the SkyClub was very nice and not too busy (4/5), but still falls well short of the DeltaOne lounge experience. The 767-300 middle seats are fine overall for a domestic flight of this length (3/5). The food was, unfortunately, only just fine, and I’m glad I skipped the meal on previous late-night flights (3/5). The service was also perfectly good, but there wasn’t anything special (4/5). Finally, the small entertainment screen is a bit of a joke, but I didn’t really need it that much on such a late flight (3/5). Overall, the flight gets a lackluster 17/25 in the context of it being a transcontinental business class flight, but given the price I had paid for it, I really can’t complain (and it definitely beats being in coach or Premium Plus).
I paid $208 for the economy ticket and received a free upgrade to DeltaOne shortly before boarding. I paid using a Delta gift card that I had bought during a 10x points promotion through my Delta Reserve card. I earned around 1 600 SkyMiles from flying the ticket and an additional 2 100 miles from the promotion, for a total return of around 20% in points, which is a great return off a Delta flight!
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