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

A visual of my entire journey from ATH to SLC via JFK & LAX which would cover a distance of 8,006mi/12,883km

introduction

Welcome to another trip report series!
I'm currently arriving into Athens from Istanbul on TK and only transiting here to catch my flight all the way back to the US. This journey back home was a rather long one and there was no way around it, but for someone who always loves being on a plane like me it was no problem 😉. My first flight with TK was on a completely separate reservation so it was imperative that everything went to plan to make sure I would make my 11a flight on DL. Luckily everything went smoothly and I arrived right on time into Athens. All that was left to do was to go through passport control, collect our bags, re-check them with DL and re-clear security all within 3 hours.

check-in

From the arrival hall we just took an escalator up one more level and we were at the check-in hall.

My flight is DL203 with a scheduled departure time of 11:45a.

I located the DL check-in counters with ease and there even was a dedicated line for my flight to JFK. At this time there were two DL operated flights to the US from Athens, my flight to JFK and another to BOS. There's an additional flight to ATL but is only seasonal during the summer months.  

The agent was very friendly when requesting a reprint of my boarding pass and checking my bags. She noted to me me departure gate and that my flight was on time and wished me a pleasant trip. All in all it took no longer then 5 minutes before heading to security control.

Clearing security was a lot better today then my last time going through here just a week prior. I was airside in just 15 minutes. As with most airport around the world, we had to get through an extensive duty free zone before arriving to the boarding gates.

On the FID my flight had no gate info but thanks to the agent earlier she noted to me that me departure gate would be A12.

Finally made it to the gate area with still an hour to go before boarding, not to bad 😏.

Eventually the gate area filled up to the brim with people anxious to board the flight. I could already tell this was going to be a very full flight.

Here's my A330-900neo that'll be taking me across the pond today.

Some information about my plane:
Flight number: DL 203
Aircraft: Airbus A330-941
Registration: N416DX
Delivered: March 31, 2022
Age: 1.6 years (at time of flight)

This aircraft is configured in a premium heavy 4 class configuration with 29 Delta One suites, 28 Premium Select, 56 Comfort+ and 168 main cabin seats with a total capacity of 281 seats. For this flight me and my mom will be sitting on the starboard side at 41H & J. Seat map courtesy of aerolopa.

BOARDING

Boarding began promptly and I boarded with Main cabin 1 group.

At the boarding door a friendly FA warmly greeted me and directed me across to the second aisle.

My home for the next 11 hours (41J).

The seat includes an adjustable headrest.

Waiting at each seat was a plastic sealed pillow and blanket which would definitely come to good use on this long haul flight 😉.

Each seat has a nice sized PTV. 

Legroom is very good for economy class standard, these seats offer 32" pitch and 3" of recline. I'm 5'9" or 176cm for reference.

Love the view that comes with this seat, not too far back and not directly over the wing (so I can see below), just perfect 😉.

We are parked next to a Qatar Airways B777-200ER that will be departing shortly for Doha.

In addition to the individual usb port under the PTV, there's a universal power port and additional usb port below the seat. 

Boarding is complete and as expected today's load across the Atlantic will be nearly full at 95%.

Shortly after boarding was completed the FA's passed through the cabin handing out amenity kits and complimentary headphones.

Not long after the safety video began playing.

pushback / takeoff

You can check out the full pushback, engine start up and takeoff on the video below:

We pushed back right on time.

The FA's prepared the cabin for takeoff.

Today we'll be taking off on runway 03L.

Until next time Athens!

We eventually broke through the thick cloud layer and out to the beautiful blue sky.

The cabin lights were turned on for the start of the lunch service.

The FA's first began the service by handing everyone a cutlery sleeve and a full size bottle of water.

Flying over the mountains of northern Albania.

lunch service

About 35 minutes into flight we got our meal trays.

Options for lunch were pasta or chicken.

The tray came with the main entree which consisted of chicken marinated in basil cream sauce, gnocchi and steamed spinach. 

As a side there was a chickpea salad.

And for desert there was chocolate ice cream.

The entree was simply fantastic! The chicken was cooked perfectly and the basil sauce was very delicious. The gnocchi was also cooked perfect as well the spinach.   

Shortly the drinks cart came by and I went for a coke.

The chickpea was very good and came with cucumber, tomato, olives and feta cheese. 

The chocolate ice cream was delicious and decadent. A great was to finish the meal! 

Overall this meal was very delicious and one of the best economy class meals I've has thus far.

The FA's came by once again offering more drinks, I went for a bloody mary.

By the time the service was officially over we were flying above Scotland. 

Cabin lights were turned off for the next few hours so everyone could get some rest.

Mid-flight snack

Later in the flight I went to the galley to see what snacks were on stock. 

There was a variety of snacks available in addition to water bottles.

mid-flight service

At the halfway point through the flight there was another service.

This service consisted of a choice of drink and a fresh baked cookie. For my drink I opted for a coffee.

The cookie was very warm and fresh out of the oven.

The chocolate chip cookie was very delicious but could of easily eaten 3 or 4 of them 😅.

Inflight entertainment

let's take a look at DL's fantastic IFE system. 

There were plenty of movies, tv shows and music to keep you entertained for a long flight as this one.

Aircraft info.

But my absolute favorite part was the interactive map which was my main form of entertainment on this flight.

Somewhere in the distance is the southern tip of Greenland.

Later on I went back to the galley to get some more snacks and to my surprise there were left over cookies. So I happily helped myself to them 😅.

The loo

Here's a quick tour of the loo.

To my surprise it was kept relatively clean which was nice to see.

After crossing the ocean for some time, we finally began flying over mainland Canada.

Unfortunately not much to see outside below though.

amenity kit

Let's take a look at the contents of the Main Cabin amenity kit that was provided to everyone at the beginning of the flight.

There were only two items in them which included a pair of ear plugs and a fairly good quality eye mask. 

Though the contents were basic it was still greatly appreciated considering DL is the only US carrier to offer any sort of amenity kits to it's economy class passengers.

Just about 2 hours from arrival at JFK.

The cabin lights were turned on once again for the start of the pre-arrival service.

pre-arrival service

The pre-arrival service began an hour and a half before arrival. Choices were chicken or mushroom pastry. The tray also came with another utensil sleeve and a chocolate moose for dessert.

The chicken pastry dish definitely tasted a lot better then it looked.

Shortly after the drinks came came by and I went for a coke as my drink of choice. 

The star of the show would definitely be the double chocolate mousse for me 😉.

Overall the meal was very delicious!

In the distance I noticed that we were racing with a Virgin Atlantic B787-9 Dreamliner that started it's journey in London (LHR) bound for Atlanta (ATL). Was able to look up this info thanks to Delta's free wifi and flightradar24.

We eventually began flying directly over Boston but unfortunately the city was shrouded in thick cloud layer so no views from above. 

As we reached the northern tip of Long Island, we began our initial descent into JFK.

The FA's began preparing cabin for landing.

Flying over Islip Long Island MacArthur airport (ISP)

landing

You can check out the entire descent and landing down in the video below:

This afternoon we'll be landing on runway 22L.

Welcome to JFK 🇺🇸!

arrival at gate

We arrived at the gate 20 minutes ahead of schedule, well done Delta.

Walking pass the premium select cabin, DL's version of premium economy. 

One last look at my Airbus A330-900neo that brought me all the way from Greece, thanks for the very fun and safe journey!

This concludes the trip report, thanks for reading!