INTRO
Flight routing
- 1
- 2DL1917 - Domestic First - New York → Santo Domingo - Airbus A321neo
Welcome to the second part of this BWI-JFK-SDQ report. We just landed at JFK T4 Concourse A and are on our way to Concourse B using the Jitney. This is our first time flying on the Delta A321Neo, which features new First Class seats. We have heard mixed reviews, some people like them, but most people hate them, so it was our time to try it ourselves.
Operations today were recovering from the Crowdstrike outage, still some cancelled flights, but most of them delayed due to crew issues or equipment delays.
Transfer to Concourse B
JFK T4 has two concurses, A and B. The main issue is that regional jets arrive and depart at the end of each concourse, and going from one to another involves more than a mile of walk. To solve this issue, Delta has put in place a bus transfer system to take you to several stations in Terminal 4.
Some regional jets in concourse A
Our A321Neo this morning.
Once we made it to the gate, we found out that the flight was delayed as a cascade effect from the IT meltdown that occurred the previous week. Many flights were cancelled, in fact, out of 3 flights to SDQ, ours was the only one that departed.
Made our way to the SkyClub. We got access thanks to our Amex Platinum Card.
The lounge crowd was moderate.
View of the new Terminal One, which is finally taking shape.
Breakfast spread
The bar
Departures. Operations were going back to normal following 5 days of meltdown.
Walking back to the gate
Boarding was very organized and priorities were respected
Down the jetbridge
Boarding door
First glance at the new DL Domestic First Class Seats
Nice ceiling decor
The seat has many compartments for storage, however, they are not very functional
IFE. Loved the size of the screen and the quality of the image
USB and Power Outlet, located in the armrest
Ready for departure
Following American politics closely
Safety video played while pushing back
Push back and taxi
Emirates A380 returning to DXB
Departure from runway 31L
Table was set for breakfast. Normally, Delta gives you the option to pre-select your meal. However, on the A321Neo this cannot be done because the aircraft is equipped with oven capacity for 16 passengers but the first class cabin has 20 seats, which means that 4 passengers will not get hot meals. To avoid a situation where no hot meals were available, I decided to request a special meal, which I do from time to time. This secured me a delicious omelette with potatoes, tomatoes, and green beans.
Snack basket was passed after lunch. My usual selection.
View of the cabin during a rather uneventful flight.
Dominican Republic Northeast coast with a nice view of the Samana Peninsula
Final approach with cloudy skies
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Suddenly got sunny for landing
Taxi to the gate
Parked next to a UA 737 Max, arriving from EWR
Arrival at the terminal, with a short walk to the area where the meet & greet arrival service staff awaits for passengers. This service is very handy because baggage claim could be a nightmare, with no proper air conditioning, hundreds of people waiting for their luggage, and then queuing for customs.
On our way to the arrivals lounge. There's expedite immigration, and then the staff proceeds to claim your luggage, clear it through customs, and then deliver it outside the terminal straight to the vehicle. In the meantime, drinks and snacks are available.
View outside the lounge
Thanks for traveling with us!
Nice report as always! Delta's new narrowbody cabins look great...and the even newer cabins they recently announced look even better...classier with the darker colour palette. The design of the new F seats is really nice---love the look of the nice privacy wings. The pitch seems really tight though---the seats just look too close together.
Whuuuu??? Yikes, that's a fail. Madness
Thanks for sharing!
After flying several times, I actually find these seats harder than the old ones. The pitch is also worse. Something I noticed was that the last row of first class on the right side is virtually in C since the rows are misaligned, and lacks a lot of privacy.
Delta did fix the oven issue, they came up with the idea of using rectangular plates instead of the round ones, so that they can fit 20 meals instead of 16. Since earlier this month, it's possible to preorder meals. I will report back next month.
Interesting, I’ve recently learnt that there have been many complaints about the hardness of the new F seats and Delta are progressively changing out the cushions for better padded ones. I guess they tried to save a little weight with thinner cushions but it backfired on them. Glad they’re correcting this!
I believe that’s upcoming but they have not started yet. I’m glad they did correct the meal issues, although for this route all options, including the cold ones, were good, the worse is the charcuterie plate and it is still ok.