Today I’m excited to share some great news on the flat-bed front! Last week the first of eight Boeing 777-200ERs re-entered service after being reconfigured to match the interior of our 777-200LR fleet. The 777-200ER upgrades include lots of great new features including:
–New flat-bed seats in a herringbone configuration
–New next-generation in-flight entertainment with bigger screens in Economy and BusinessElite
–A greatly expanded library of content, with more than 1,000 entertainment choices (so even on that 17+ hour flight between Atlanta and Johannesburg, you’ll never get bored!)
The remaining seven 777-200ERs will go through the same modification within the next six months. By June, Delta’s entire fleet of 777s and 767-400ERs will feature flat-bed seats. Seven 767-300ERs will also get flat beds, which brings the total flat bed fleet count to 46 for summer 2011 flying.
Chris B.
Sr. Product Manager, Aircraft Experience
December 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Chris B – This is STUNNING news. I’d love to see one of the birds land at SXM!
December 23rd, 2010 at 11:39 pm
That is fantastic news! You have just won me back for my trips to Korea via a Detroit connection. I can’t wait until you upgrade your 747-400 fleet so I can resume flying Delta for my trips to Narita via Minneapolis or Detroit.
December 23rd, 2010 at 11:43 pm
This is great Chris!!!
Kind of an unrelated question, but think we’ll get to see the new Boeing “Sky Interior” retrofit on any Delta birds anytime soon? I was watching the videos on Boeing’s website and it’s really impressive looking! Would be a sweet upgrade to some of the former-NWA 752 dinosaurs.
December 23rd, 2010 at 11:44 pm
Here is an update on my prior comment. I just tried to book a flight to Seoul for June 29/July 5. The DTW–ICN segments use 777 200 ER equipment but the seat map still shows the old configuration. Have the seat maps not yet been updated to reflect the fact that “By June, Delta’s entire fleet of 777s… will feature flat-bed seats.”? Thanks.
December 23rd, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Great news! I would like to know about the A330-300/200 ex NWA. Are they not going to be done as well?
Also, it is extremely maddening to have booked a flight on one of the planes with the new seats only to be “schedule changed” to a partner like KLM who has even WORSE seats than the old DELTA 767 product and the Medallion desk says they can do nothing as this is not a reason to change flights. Ugg! Can that policy please be changed?
December 25th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
About time! Have heard several positive reviews of the new product from fellow flyers…including one recent trip from SFO->NRT where we were commiserating together that DL had swapped out the A330 that used to run that route with a B767 equipped with barely-working old school BusinessElite seats. Not a pleasant experience for such a long flight!
Is Delta still planning on putting up a “progress” web site to tell us what routes the upgraded equipment is flying – like your competitors? The last time this topic was raised on the blog we were lead to believe that this gap would be closed. But as far as I can tell, there is still no up-to-the-minute (or even month) information regarding flat seat installation progress on delta.com.
December 26th, 2010 at 9:13 am
Excellent. I only wish you would introduce a direct flight to CPT, and not have to travel via AMS on KLM. JNB is a total pain so not an option for travel to CPT. Otherwise an excellent airline.
December 27th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Is it still the regular herringbone configuration. I can’t stand that, having to crank your neck to see out the window in a “window” seat or in the middle, your only choice is to look into the seatmate across from you. It would be MUCH better in a reverse herringbone configuration. That way a window seat really is a window seat, and you face inward in the middle seats. Put a divider in-between the middle seats if you have to. But the current configuration is just plain awkward. It makes me wonder if any of the designers/planners ever sat in those seats before deciding to install them in that layout.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
“By June, Delta’s entire fleet of 767-400ERs will feature flat-bed seats.”
Is this really a true statement? Reservations on ATL – GIG would suggest otherwise. As many have said before perhaps Delta can provide a more detailed status of upgrades to planes?
The 767-400ERs in business really need an overhaul. I think people may begin to change alliances if this doesn’t happen soon.
Kindly
January 21st, 2011 at 10:52 am
I am scheduled to fly to ATL-EZE in September 2011. What are the chances that 767s with lie falt seats will be introduced to that route by then?
January 24th, 2011 at 1:23 am
I have flown the 777-200LR on six segments during the last three months (all in or out of Atlanta). It is great! I do not understand the complaints about the herringbone arrangement unless they are being made by people who have not flown it. I grant the small point that the window seats point the wrong way but I have not had trouble looking out the window in the current configuration. I do also see that it is a bit difficult to talk to a traveling companion in the center seats but it is not really that difficult.
Here is my concern–In the last two years, I have made six trips to Asia on Korean Air that I would have preferred to have made on Delta. Why did I use Korean Air? Because they have flat bed seats now on many more of their routes than Delta. I am preparing to book June and July flights to Tokyo and to Seoul. Despite the promise at the start of this blog that all 777s will have the flat beds by June, none of the flights that I could find between late June and early August that have 777s scheduled show flat bed seating configurations when I look at reservations. The only 777s I can find to Tokyo with flat bed seats showing in the seat map are the flight once a day from Atlanta. When I call the Diamond Line, they tell me the old equipment is still scheduled but, if I buy a ticket and new equipment is used, I will be reseated accordingly. I do not want to buy a ticket without knowing the promise at the top of this blog will be kept.
Delta, can you please give us specific information about when flat bed seats will be available on which routes? The upgrading work you are doing is wonderful but would be much more useful for us (for booking) and for Delta (to sell Biz class tickets) if you could give us more information. I think that information sharing is a strength of Delta in general and am surprised that Delta has not matched the competition with specific information on their reconfiguration schedule.
Thanks!
January 24th, 2011 at 6:05 pm
Delta is definitely losing business from me due to the absence of information. I can tolerate the lie-flat-at-an-angle seats on the old NWA fleet on my trips to Asia, but I’ve been booking my flights to Germany/Europe on Lufthansa…so much that I have Senator status in addition to my Diamond Medallion. I generally go to work when I arrive so I need to get some sleep on the overnight flight. Which is very difficult in the old-school cradle-style Business Elite seats (which are not being very well maintained BTW. I took a few trips last year in the old seats and inevitably one or more things wasn’t working properly.) I don’t understand why it is so difficult to inform us about the progress of the fleet upgrades and routes where the new product is available.
January 24th, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Badger_Prof – very well stated. Information is the key and it would be really nice if we knew the status of aircraft conversions and which flights they will be flying so we can make international plans for the next 6 months.
I agree that I would only book Delta in the flat bed seats would be available
February 9th, 2011 at 10:15 pm
Here is GREAT news. I just checked flights from DTW to ICN for late June and found that the seat map for the 777-200ER now shows flat bed seats! I immediately booked the flight rather than purchase from Korean Air to get access to their flat bed Prestige class seats. It is nice to be able to stay with Delta without having to forego flat bed seats. Thanks, Delta!
February 15th, 2011 at 8:48 am
Does anyone know if JFK-VCE in July 2011 will have the lie-flat seats in business first.
February 17th, 2011 at 8:48 pm
Good stuff here. May I suggest some sort of real-time (or “near” real time) update site on the progress? United had a good site that tracked the progress of their biz class improvements. I think it would be great for Delta to have something similar, especially since there is still a ways to go (767-3, A330, 747…)
March 14th, 2011 at 7:45 am
Hi Chris,
Could you please inform me when you expect these new flat beds to be available on the routes Amsterdam-New York and Amsterdam-Seattle?
Thank you!
March 30th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
I’m flying to Seoul this June and it’s disappointing that all flights out of the West Coast (LAX, SFO, PDX, SEA, SLC, HNL) still do not have the lie-flat-seats. It would really be nice if Delta gives an up-to-date news about these and other upgrades.
I just saw Cathay Pacific’s new Business Class seats and they are truly an eye candy. Better than Korean Air’s.
Chris, please update us.