Today I’m flying Delta Premium Select from London Heathrow to New York JFK.
At just over £2k the return flight costs double the price of an economy ticket.
But does the enhanced service justify the expense?
Delta flights depart from Heathrow Terminal 3
where they share check-in zone A with partner Virgin Atlantic.
Premium Select passengers can use the Sky Priority check-in desks,
alongside business class passengers and people with Delta SkyMiles status.
However there were pretty long queues here and I waited about thirty minutes.
The queue at the neighbouring Virgin Premium Economy desks move far faster.
After check-in it was straight up an escalator to security.
Priority security wasn’t available for Premium Select passengers.
From security you then walked through duty free to wait in the
main departure lounge before a gate was announced.
It was busy with queues for all the restaurants and cafes.
The gate was announced ninety minutes before departure. It was an eight minute walk away.
Unfortunately there wasn’t a great view of the aircraft on the stand.
It was a twenty two year old Boeing 767-400 aircraft registration N827MH.
Boarding was called in groups,
with business class and those with status ahead of Premium Select passengers.
The cabin had twenty seats in a 2-2-2 configuration. I was in seat 21F.
There was a bit more space around the seat compared to economy which was in a 2-3-2 configuration.
There was a power socket at every seat. A blanket and pillow and decent headphones were provided.
We pushed back a few minutes behind schedule to taxi across the airfield to runway 09 Right.
After takeoff we turned right providing a great aerial view of the airfield.
The flight time to New York was scheduled to be eight hours fifteen minutes,
but with a good routing today it would take about seven hours.
Very quickly after takeoff the meal service started.
There was a choice of a chicken or vegetarian main course, with a small salad and ice cream.
I opted for the Thai green curry with chicken which tasted better than it looked.
Drinks were also offered.
The meal service appeared to be the same as that in economy.
The seat had a large entertainment screen with offered a good range of movies and TV shows.
This included a number of classic films, such as Gandhi.
However the system stalled a number of times during playback making it frustrating to watch.
WiFi was also available at $29 for the whole flight.
Premium Select shared bathrooms with the main economy cabin.
There were two bathroom further down the plane.
Juice and water were offered throughout the flight
and a snack service of a pizza wrap was offered about ninety minutes before landing.
We came in over Long Island to land on runway 22 Right, followed by a short taxi to the gate.
Given this was pretty much the economy service but with a bigger seat,
I don’t think it really provided value for money.
Although we arrived seventy minutes ahead of schedule.