Review of Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Barcelona in Economy

Introduction

Welcome to another trip report! Today I'll be reporting on my last leg of this long journey that started all the way in Salt Lake City, Utah and finishing up in Barcelona Spain! I'm Excited as this time instead of another typical domestic flight as my previous two flights it will be on a transatlantic one. I've been eager to take flight for some months now and the day has finally come. After taking 2 flights already in one day I must admit that I was quite tired and almost a bit unmotivated to do a trip report on this one. However, I went to Dunkin' (located at gate B33) only a few gates down where I grabbed a large coffee and that seemed to fix the issue ?.     

This will be the routing for this evening flight to Barcelona which will take 6h 55m at a distance of 3,831mi/6,166km

Plane spotting

After chugging the coffee I was wide awake and ready for this transatlantic flight. Since I had a few hours until boarding, I headed to the A gates in terminal 4 to do some plane spotting where a lot of international flights depart from. By the time I got here it was very busy and almost hard to find a comfortable spot to plane spot out of. Here's a Latam Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner being towed to its departure gate for its 7:30pm departure for Santiago, Chile. Flight time: 9h 29m 

Here's a up close view of an EL Al Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner preparing for its 8pm departure for Tel Aviv, Israel.  Flight time : 9h 50m 

Another cool looking Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 being towed to a gate. 

A Virgin Atlantic Airbus A350-1000 getting towed to its departure gate for its transatlantic flight to London Heathrow as VS46. Flight time is 6h 5m

After spending an hour or so plane spotting and wondering around the international terminal, I headed back to the B gates to check the status on my flight. Up to this point everything seemed well and it was about an hour before we started boarding so I headed to gate B35 where I wanted to get a chance to see my plane pull up.

our aircraft

After waiting for some time I finally get to see my B767-300 (N174DZ) pull up arriving from the hanger. 

Despite its age the 767 is one of my favorite aircraft for its unique 2-3-2 economy configuration. Unlike most widebody jets that have a 3-3-3 or even a terrible 3-4-3 abreast seating in economy, the 767 has a more spacious cabin with only one middle seat per row. Since I have a main cabin ticket I reserved a window seat. Unfortunately though after checking the seat map on my phone, this was a completely full flight. But since I'm sitting in the window seat I'll only have one person sitting next to me so it won't be too bad.   

It's unfortunate that Delta announced that they will be retiring these jets some time next year in 2024 (if I'm not mistaken). I will surely miss them but I began to wonder what will replace these aircraft? maybe the A332? It's quite hard to see a good replacement for the B763 since they are the smallest widebody jet flying in north america and the A330 jets are still a bit larger in capacity to be a good replacement. 

boarding

Not long after our plane's arrival we began boarding on time. I boarded with Main 1 group.

Some information about my plane:
Flight number: DL168
Aircraft: Boeing 767-332ER
Registration: N174DZ
Delivered: November 2, 1998
Age: 23 years

As we boarding, a friendly FA greeted me at the door and made a sharp right down the aisle to my seat. We first passed by Delta One cabin, then Premium Select, later Comfort+ and finally Main Cabin. Here's a look at Delta One seat. One day hopefully I'll save up and have enough points to enjoy this seat ?. 

Finally arrived in Main Cabin section which looked very modern and clean. You would never think that this aircraft was over 23 years old.  

Seat 51A

Finally arrived at my seat where there was plush pillow and a sealed blanket at each seat for use in flight.

First impressions are great with this seat offering 31" of pitch (I'm 5'9" or 176cm for reference). 

Once boarding was completed the FA's passed out amenity kits & complimentary headphones for the flight. The contents of the amenity kit were only earplugs & an eye mask. I like that Delta even on international economy class you get these because other airlines such as AA or UA don't do this.

My view for the next 7 hours ?.

DL Airbus A333 pushing back just before us heading for Paris (CDG).

Boarding is complete and it is a completely full flight.

Not long after the safety video began playing.

pushback/takeoff

We pushed back on time and taxied toward the runway.

Until next time NY!

Already after takeoff I can't start to smell the food being prepared in the galley.

ife system

Before the meal service I decided to explore the IFE system which had a great amount of content to definitely keep you entertained for a flight of this length.

Here's a look at the tray table.

dinner service

About 40 minutes into flight the FA's began distributing full size water bottles and cutlery.

Then followed by the drink cart which I opted for a coke. Lastly the meal cart came by and options for dinner tonight were chicken & rice or 4 cheese ravioli. It seems that whenever I fly on international flights I always seem to opt for the pastas so this time I went for the chicken to try something new ?. 

This is the chicken & rice meal. It came with a side of chickpea salad and a lemon brownie. I have noticed that DL has completely moved away from providing a bread roll like they used to. And the size of their meals seem very small even compared sadly to UA & AA whereas they seem to give you more in a meal tray. 

The meal was good although the rice was a bit on the overcooked side but the taste of the meal overall was great. I didn't eat the salad because I'm not very fond of chickpeas.

After the meal trays were collected, there was another drink service where I opted for tomato juice & water. 

mid-flight

I decided to pay a visit to the loo and found it to be quite spacious and clean.

After the service the cabin lights were turned off for everyone to get some rest. I decided that it was best for me to get some rest as well as there isn't much to do while it's completely dark like this. 

After getting a solid 3-3.5 hr nap I woke up as we were crossing into Spain. 

The sun started to rise gradually.

Cabin lights are set for the breakfast service.

breakfast service

For breakfast there was only one choice and that was an egg & cheese sandwich.

I've noticed that this seems to be the standard on all DL transatlantic flights. 

The sandwich was quite good though. 

After almost finishing up my sandwich was when the FA's came by with the drink cart which I asked for a coffee. It would of made more sense had the FA's done the drinks first and then serve the meals, that's just my opinion.

Breakfast was great and as soon as I finished my sandwich we began our initial descent into Barcelona. 

initial descent

You can checkout the entire scenic descent and landing into Barcelona in the video below:

As we were descending the FA's came by one last time giving out these chocolates.

Flying over El Masnou

Landing/taxi

Lining up on runway 25R for landing.

Welcome to Barcelona ??!

We arrived at the gate 45 minutes ahead of schedule. 

deplaning

One last look at N174DZ, thanks for the safe flight!

This concludes the trip report. Thanks for reading!