Delta First Class, SFO-BOS

Flight Details:

Flight: DL 322Departure: SFO, 1:17pm (scheduled) 1:52pm (actual)
Arrival: BOS, 10:10pm (scheduled) (actual)

Aircraft: A321Neo
Seat: 4B

This was my first time flying First Class on Delta, and it was on their brand new A321Neo.  The plane was less than 6 weeks old.  This review will contain a number of comparisons with JetBlue Mint, as that is the only way I've flown across the country in the past few years.  Given similar prices and flight times, I'd certainly pick JetBlue over Delta in the future.

Our flight boarded on time, but we spent a very long time at the gate.  Once airborne, it took quite a while to do beverage service, let alone meal service.  Given that it was already a bit late for lunch (1:17pm departure scheduled), the delays turned me into a fairly hangry passenger.  In the future, I'd make sure to have snacks with me, and eat a second breakfast probably to bridge the gap.

Service was reasonable, our cabin of 20 seats worked by two flight attendants.  Not particularly friendly, no attempts to bond with any passengers, but, they did the job, and weren't rude.  In the back it was clear the FA working the PA system was not pleased with passengers, as she was frequently commenting about all the ways people were breaking the rules.  I was glad she was not working our cabin.

Amenities

I was surprised that there were seemingly no amenities.  No amenity kit, no pillow or blanket, not even headphones, even in First.  At our seats, we were provided a mini water bottle, and that was it.

Once the flight had boarded, we were offered a pre-departure beverage, however, it was limited to just orange juice, sparkling wine, or a mimosa.  No sparkling water, nothing else outside those 3 options.  Nearly every person attempted to order sparkling water or beer, and were turned down.

Amenity Kit.

Eventually, while we were still sitting at the gate, a meager amenity kit was provided, with basics.  No fun items like JetBlue, no partnerships, very bare bones.  I asked about headphones, and was provided the same little ear buds as main cabin.  Hmm.

I found it fairly chilly on board, and really missed having a little blanket.

Wifi worked well, and was quite fast.  Modern aircraft with modern wifi, it really showed.

Seat:

The layout is a 2-2, with rows slightly staggered from each other, which does give a small additional amount of privacy from those across the aisle.

The seat was reasonably comfortable, and it was nice being on a new aircraft.  In particular, it was well padded.  

Seats do not fully lay flat, but did recline a bit.  No fancy controls for adjusting anything else though, just a recline button.  No lumbar, no massage, etc.  No leg or foot rest.

Screen.

In flight entertainment screen is located in the seat back in from of you, and tilts back to allow you to position it if your forward neighbor reclines.

Controls are only touch screen, no separate hand held unit, which I found pretty cumbersome, as mine didn't work well.  It also meant the guy behind me was constantly jabbing forcefully at his, particularly as he got more and more drunk, and it kept jarring my entire seat.  I suspect these won't do well with age if they were already not working that great.

Purse / Laptop Slot.

At floor level between the seats is a small slot for holding a laptop/tablet/magazine, and a small compartment that sorta kinda fit my purse, but really couldn't fit much more.  Standard under seat storage was available to fit my backpack, although I found I didn't really want to leave it there, as there wasn't tons of legroom with it down there.

Phone Slot / Power.

In the wing between the seats, there was a remarkably handy sleeve for stashing your phone during flight.  

Regular and USB power was also located along here, another aspect that showed how much thought went into the design of the seats.  No power cords to step over, get tangled up, etc.  A small thing, but, it really made a difference.

Beverage Tray / Water bottle slot.

In the arm of the seat, there was a compartment for water bottles, which was quite handy.  Between the seats was a reasonably large drink tray, which I appreciated for setting my drinks so I could use my tray space for my laptop (during the >1 hour post getting a little placemat and actually getting my meal).

Food & Drink

The food and drink options were what you'd expect from a domestic airline.  Nothing particularly interesting or remarkable, but not horribly offensive.  Not up to par with international business class, and no where near JetBlue quality.

Drinks:

Pre-departure, we were only offered sparkling wine, orange juice, or a mimosa.  No sparkling water, no soft drinks, etc.  No exceptions.

Once underway, the FA came through one by one taking drink orders.  With no menu, this was slow.  It was more than an hour after takeoff, and nearly 3 hours after boarding, before I had a drink in hand, and combined with the inflexible PDP, I was really thirsty.  

For non-alcoholic beverages, standard Coca-Cola soft drinks were available, along with basic juices, Starbucks hot coffee and tea, and Explorer Cold Brew coffee, regular and sparkling water.  I tried to get a cold brew, but alas, it wasn't catered on our flight.  Nor was the Sprite Zero I tried to order.  Two strikes!

Beer drinkers had a few choices, and there was even Vizzly Pineapple Mango Seltzer.  I was interested in the wines, which sadly were just listed as "red", "white", or "sparkling".  No details provided unfortunately.  Finally, basic spirits were there, but also some fun canned cocktails: WhistlePig Old Fashioned, Tip Top™ Old Fashioned Cocktail, Tip Top™ Margarita Cocktail.

"Red Wine".

I opted for red wine, there was one option "a cabernet".  It was ... fine.  Unremarkable.  Definitely not as good as the wines on JetBlue, where JetBlue really excels.  This was very much a table wine, very grapey.  Eh.  ***.

Tip Top Old Fashioned.

Later in the flight I decided to try one of the TipTop pre-made cocktails, and opted for the Old Fashioned.  It was a legit cocktail.  Very boozy.  This was a nice offering for a consistent well made drink that required minimal effort on the part of the flight attendants.  I'd love to try more of their cocktails (on some flights they have a few others too, mine only had the margarita and old fashioned). ***+.

Food:

No welcome snack, not even nuts, was provided.  Meanwhile, in main cabin, they already had the carts go through, with complimentary snacks (chips, nuts, Biscoff) and buy on board options, before we were asked what we wanted for our meal.  I sorta wanted to jump back there and grab some chips or nuts!

No menus were provided.  Technically, we should have been able to order our meals in advance of the flight (7 days to 24 hours before), including choices not available in the standard 3 on board, but, you can only do so through the Delta App (not the website), and it just loaded a blank screen for me.  I tried to contact customer service to select my entree, but they only seemed to know about "special meals", and I was just trying to pre-reserve an entree so I wouldn't get stuck with chicken.

About an hour into our flight, a flight attendant came through to take meal orders, describing the basic entree options as he did so: chilled chicken salad, warm short rib, warm vegetarian Impossible burrito.  No seafood option, and surprisingly no pasta. 

Menu:

• Salad
• Bread: Sourdough Roll with cultured Banner Butter
• Main Entree:
• Braised Beef Short Rib with red wine demi-glace, polenta, asparagus, roasted tomatoes, and shiitake mushrooms
• Green Chili Chicken Salad with arugula, black beans, grilled corn, roasted sweet potato, cojita cheese and cilantro lime vinaigrette
• Impossible Burrito filled with black beans and rice topped with salsa verde, Monterey jack cheese and pico de gallo (vegetarian).
• Desert

They had limited meals available, and the row behind me only had salad or vegetarian option available.  I managed to snag one of the last beef options, which I did mostly because I really wanted the polenta, asparagus, and mushrooms.  I was tempted by the Impossible burrito actually, as I really like Impossible meat, but, it had beans and rice too, and just isn't really my thing.  It came with nothing else.

Meal.

Meals were delivered row by row, fairly quickly once they were ready, but that was pretty far into the flight.  Everything came on one tray - a salad (dressing on side), roll with butter, my entree selection, and a dessert.

Salad.

The salad was decent, seasonal.  

A base of mixed greens, with chopped pecans, strawberries, and I think feta.  The greens were fresh enough, as were the berries.  I liked having the nuts for crunch.  I didn't care for the sweet (strawberry?) vinaigrette on the side, but otherwise, it was a fine salad, although I decided to pull the berries off and use them with the dessert, and add my own additional raw veggies (that I had with me just in case) and my own dressing.  ***.

Roll.

The roll was not warm, and was sourdough, so I didn't have it.  I liked the presentation of the butter.

Entree: Beef.

"Braised Beef Short Rib with red wine demi-glace, polenta, asparagus, roasted tomatoes, and shiitake mushrooms."

My meal was delivered piping hot.  Ridiculously hot.  I was able to eat my salad (including adding my own veggies and dressing) and it still was quite hot.  

This was decent.  Not amazing, not fine dining, but, decent.  

The polenta was a bit thin, but reasonably good.   I think it had a decent amount of cream, perhaps some cheese?  I liked having something other than potatoes as the base.  It was however drowned in the demi-glace, that made it rather greasy.  It also badly needed seasoning - the small packet of salt and pepper wasn't enough, and I was glad I had extra with me.  I definitely prefer airlines that provide individual little shakers.

The veggies were also all decent.  I love asparagus and mushrooms, so I was pretty happy to have those, although the asparagus was quite thin and didn't have much flavor.  There was also a lot of what seemed to be pickled onion, which was rather harsh and dominating, but easily avoided.  Finally, the roasted cherry tomatoes added acidity and I was surprised to find I liked them more than I usually do (I love tomatoes, but just not generally cooked).  

And finally, the beef.  People say that Delta does a good job with the short rib, and they are right.  It was remarkably tender, easily broken apart by a fork, and a large portion.  Slight fattiness, but well rendered fat.  The demi-glace was appropriate with it, although not my thing really, and unfortunately the dish had a lot of it.

So overall, nothing bad, everything reasonably well prepared, and a dish that felt fairly cohesive.  I did find the dish to eat quite heavy though - a large piece of beef, rather greasy demi-glace, and rich polenta, it felt like a bit much for a flight (and strangely timed meal.  It was 3:15pm in San Francisco, although I suppose that was a reasonable dinner time in Boston.

***.

Dessert.

I'm not really sure what the dessert was.  The online menu I saw online had a description that didn't match what we had.  It seemed to be an oatmeal base, with a bit of berry compote, and little pearls on top, along with two blackberries on the side.   Basically a berry oat bar?  Just one that had been frozen and defrosted, and suffered in the process. 

It was quite soggy, the oat layer was really just mush.  The white pearls on top were not crispy.  It was very, very sweet.  It desperately needed either whipped cream or ice cream to balance it out.  I'm glad I saved my strawberries to add to it to balance it out a little and give it a texture other than mush.

This was buffet quality, definitely not very good.   Basically a mushy granola bar kinda, that wanted to be more like a fruit crumble.

**+.