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I think the only controversy that pops up on the blog more often than the value of $kuRubles (my fake name for SkyMiles or SM as an abbreviation) is the use of abbreviations.
Now for those of you are new, please read the Essentials posts. For those of you who are not new, please read the Essentials posts. 🙂 Listed there in E15 is a very handy Flyertalk page that has just about every frequent flyer abbreviation know to man.
This post was inspired because this morning I used the OFCMB abbreviation for Delta’s new (Dec’14) seat names. By clicking any of the links (especially the 3rd one that comes up or is linked in the first one that comes up) you will find a post with the detailed description of what OFCMB stands for as I think using the longer terms takes up too much space (that is Delta ONE, First Class, Comfort Plus, Main Cabin, Basic Economy).
Plus, the names Delta has come up with are just plain stupid (or should we say “plane” stupid). I think we can ALL agree on that. Delta has no 1st class seats on any jet in it’s fleet. They have Business Elite seats that they call those Delta ONE seats. What most Flyertalker’s are calling this seat is “D1” and I like that very much. It also works well with C+ name shortening! Plus, we all should know all D1 seats are not the same. To me, the best are the B767 (Boeing 767 jet) style followed by the B747, then the A330 (Airbus 330 jet) with new mods (stands for modifications) and then next the B777 and lastly the B757 transcon (trans-continental flight) that I just was on and will have a full review of soon.
So having some fun with these seats we can go even further with naming these seats. How about we consider for:
DeltaONE: D1. Like R2D2-ish. You have to be in a galaxy far far away to consider this a real 1st class experience and making up a fake “ONE” name does not help it. How about the hashtag #DeltaNONE when the service is not where it should be?
First Class: Most of us just call this a “J” seat from the common fare class Delta uses. There is nothing first class about business class. It can be, as we saw this morning, not much wider than a coach seat in fact (even if it has the new special leather coating). On some birds you get power and some you don’t. You can find 1st class even on some CRJ’s (Canada Air Regional Jet) and I have never known anyone other than a PVT (private) jet to have real 1st class seats.
Comfort Plus: C+ works. Delta has warned Delta people NOT to use this abbreviation btw (by the way). I think that is just hysterically funny. There is nothing remotely comfortable about a coach seat, let alone one that is the same size seat as the rest of coach (other than a little more leg room and recline). Sure you get some free goodies so maybe the PLUS works, but not the comfort part.
Main Cabin: Coach. This is coach or just “Y” to most per the fare class code. Coach. Is that so hard? Everyone else in the world just calls it economy but Delta can’t because…
Basic Economy: Yes, it is Economy or “E”. If your economy is so basic you have to buy this seat you should be flying Spirit Air. Sorry, the punishment and restrictions for this economy seat make it a basic choice to AVOID (not be confused with AVOD or IFE that is audio / visual on demand or in flight entertainment). 😉
So there you are and we have D1, J, C+, Y & E (see why I like OFCMB). We now have lots of things to mull over about the “Your Time” seat marketing joy over OFCMB (DeltaONE, First Class, Comfort Plus, Main Cabin, Basic Economy) seats. For me, as I have mentioned before, either business class or exit row works for me. I like leg room and can pay for a drink if I get stuck back in coach. Yes coach as that is what the seat is and should be called. Agree? – René
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One thing I have to admit: Delta offers the best international business class experience among the US airlines. First, they do not try to sell you a first class seat like United and AA that would never be compared to a business class in any decent international airline. Delta just does not offer international first class because they know they cannot compete with international airlines. Shame on you AA and United for insisting in saying you offer first class. Second, Delta One international is miles ahead of United and AA international business class. They offer a refreshed cabin design, full lie-flat seats, nice pillow and comforter, nice amenity kit (at least I can use the Tumi bag for my electronics), good entertainment options, easily accessible electric and USB outlets for electronics, decent wine selection and food. Last, believe or not, if you pay to fly Delta’s international business class the new SkyRubles system works in your favor. Just did a round trip MSP-AMS-MSP and got almost 70,000 miles for that trip. Not bad!!!!
@Santastico – Agree! 100% agree.
The Delta BusinessElite JFK-LAX service is quite good. I had a great experience flying in row 2 with my wife. Great staff, good food, plenty of drinks, and an on time departure and arrival. Can’t ask for much more than that. Did I mention it was part of the Delta glitch so I paid literally a few dollars for it? Yeah, add in the fact it was almost free and it was FANTASTIC!
Have to agree with everything you say Rene. I just flew to Singapore via USAirways east coast to LA first class, (a joke) then DL D1 LA to NRT and D1 NRT to SIN. I really missed being on DL on my cross country flight (no pillow in first, no ife, really really worn seats on US). Anyway, I have flown Virgin Atlantic’s and AirNZ’s business class seats from which DL and some others have adapted theirs and those airlines’ seats are heads above DL’s flat bed. DL has no mattress pad or completely flat surface, and leaves me wondering that laying on the seat itself is giving what germs or manner of grime. It is not very comfortable with all the different seat surfaces and connected parts and the top of the seat does not mesh completely with the back part of the entire pod when it goes flat. But at least they have in seat power and it is your own pod with aisle access. That is the real reason I get that seat.
But what I really wanted to comment on was that the 7 hour flight at 5:30 pm out of NRT to SIN did not have a proper D1 meal on it, even though it is D1 and they gave us a printed menu etc. I had just come off of a proper D1 meal flight from LA with the great ice cream sundae of years gone by. But this long evening flight had nothing more than your basic US cross country first class meal which by any standards is an old economy meal in their heyday. I asked about that and they said it was a “regional flight” or some other term that got them out of serving a proper D1 meal. I said there was a better meal on the 5+ hour transcon flight NY to LAX and the flight attendant agreed, but said that is how it was. No matter, as I was not all that hungry, but as someone who also has flown DL in all shapes and sizes, it still amazes me what they can come up with to not go the extra mile in some deserved areas, and go over the top in others.
BTW, I really like the new transcon seats on the 757, but as a tall person, they do not have enough total recline space for me, and you still have to climb over someone if you are in the window seat. Not something you should have to do if you are paying over 2K for a seat. Good storage space though. They will get it right one day, but I guess it takes baby steps. They are still better than AA and UA by far.