I promise to get to my review of my last round trip to Sweden posted soon (including Virgin Atlantic upper class) but for now I wanted to at least give you my thoughts on the new DeltaONE seat pre-flight dining option at the “F” Sky Club in Atlanta.
When you are flying DeltaONE a.k.a. business class or the old business elite seats you are, when you check in at the Sky Club, handed one of these menus you see above with your name and are told to put them BLACK side up when you are ready to order. Sounds great. However, in practice I had a number of Sky Club out sourced people again and again ask me if I was ready to order. Nice, I guess, but not what I was told by the Delta people would happen. More training is clearly needed.
The choices were simple either the meat or vegetarian dining options. Each sounded really impressive but…
As you can see like so many things Delta the build up did not quite meet the expectation. Let me break it down.
- The pulled pork slider was quite good but tiny. I would have loved to have had two.
- The slaw was OK. Again, very tiny portion.
- The watermelon salad was fresh and good for what there was.
- The dessert was “meh” at best. Very under whelming and really a pass.
- The wine. I did not try the white and stuck with the new Sky Club free red choice.
Those are the bullet points of this new offering from DeltaONE. More thoughts. Again, this is a good attempt. The flavors, most of them, were not all bad but just very tiny in amounts. I think they need to work on offerings a bit and if you just want an appetizer before your flight then this is what you want. This is NOT a “light meal” before your flight if you want to go right to sleep.
One of my biggest pet peeves about DeltaONE and Delta business class meals is the horrendously ugly faux wood trays. They remind me of a double wide trailer panel. They are so hideous and most times dirty that they turn my stomach to even see them. Now we have them in Sky Clubs – Joy! Really Delta?
If you are wondering about the plastic cups, compared to the nicer new tallish wine glasses I saw in the MIA club, I was told the dishwashers were broken. If you spend any amount of time in the Sky Clubs in ATL you will see this is not unusual and I seem to find clubs with broken dishwashers at least once a month (if not more). You would think for the $29+1 upcharge Delta has been soaking flyers for over a year now that they would have enough cash to pay for a good commercial dishwasher in the clubs.
I was really excited about this upgrade to DeltaONE service and was hoping it would be more. Yeah, just “more”.
It seems like so much Delta this year (think LAX DeltaONE check-in etc.) that Delta is trying to really make what they have look the best it can and trying to show it all off as a “real” 1st class product. Dearest Delta, you are not Lufthansa. A Sky Club is NOT the 1st class terminal in Frankfurt. A Delta Porsche ride now and then is fun but car service is not a standard part of the journey.
I think they should dump this experiment. They should keep putting the money into better food choices for everyone and the better quality complementary drink choices like you are doing with the local craft beer choices. Either that or, take this concept to the next level, and offer a real meal choice for those who want to dine before a flight and go right to sleep once onboard. – René
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I wasn’t given this because I was flying Virgin business on a Delta ticket. I complained afterward to Delta and wad told I should have been given a menu.
I’d rather they just give me a $25 airport voucher for dining for the $5,000 in airfare I gave them.
@FNT – Yes I have also been told Virgin Upper Class should get one of these and if not to press them or complain to Delta.
Are meals like this complimentary at LAX skyclub for Transcon LAX-JFK Delta ONE passengers? I’ve got the redeye coming up after a longhaul and prefer this “snack” to nothing on board. Cheers!
@Johnny – I believe there is something similar yes but not sure on what times or if at all times it is offered.
I GUESS MY MAY BUSINESS CLASS was too early for this new thing… we went to the Club with priority pass and had a sandwich before boarding –good thing as the in-flight food to EU was not great and the white wine(better than the skyclub selection) was hot!! i sked them to ice it but still remained hot… and no an ice cub should not be put into it..The FREE white wine continues to be bad in the skyclub. they told me tuesday they upgraded to Trinity but it is still not good. The prem $10+ glass of chalone is ok but it is $10 a bottle at the retail stores so they are making a killing on it!!! not nice
delta needs to visit the Frankfurt lufthansa 1st class lounge…. to see what flying is really about
Johnny, I’ve not been offered the pre-flight snack at LAX Sky Club, but have had this at JFK. The portions are similar but food offerings different, and quite good. Service was very fast one time, nonexistent another — and didn’t have time to wait. As for your redeye LAX-JFK, you will get a “snack” in Business, meaning a sandwich or burger (either is excellent) and some side dishes and a dessert, served all at once on a tray Rene hates. (I don’t mind the trays.) You will not be hungry.
Is this at all the ATL Skyclubs or just the F club? I believe my Delta One flight next month is going out of D.
@Pam – I think F only but EZ to get to via plane train. Take elevators top floor from train. Quick and simple.
In 2010, I flew Etihad business class JFK-AUH. The lounge experience impressed. There were multiple meal options, yes, meal. When I landed, the car service would have taken me ANYWHERE in the UAE at no additional charge.
The AUH lounge for the return had mediocre food but I didn’t mind.
Now that the remaining big 3 Legacies have further consolidated their hold, there is little incentive to improve their offerings, and they’d like to keep it that way. I don’t think there has been a more vocal opponent against the big 3 Gulf carriers entering our markets than Richard Anderson himself. Just google “Richard Anderson” and “Open Skies.” That’s what scares Delta, not us peons complaining about meager Sky Club offerings. And why wouldn’t it? Superior product, lower cost. The stripping away of service and benefits could only be done with the elimination of competition.
Delta just can’t compete with the lounge experience of international airlines. You can’t get Americans — especially low-paid airport contract employees — to provide the service that should go with a $10,000 Delta one-class international airfare.