New Delta A350 Business Class

Just flew from Tokyo (Narita) to DTW on a new (3 week old) Delta A350. This was a 10 1/2 hour flight in Business Class in Delta's new Business Class Suite seats. These are forward facing shell compartments with the typical tunnels for your legs/feet. But the tunnels were large enough to allow comfort...even when turning on one's side. The "suites" are in a 1-2-1 configuration with sliding doors (on the aisles) to enhance privacy. The inside seats have a sliding screen which allows privacy from the passenger in the adjacent seat.

As to the A350....we think that Delta will live to regret the purchase of these aircraft instead of Boeing. Why? Consider that 1 of their new aircraft has been stuck in Korea for a few days for lack of a working hydraulic system (their pilot dead-headed back to the USA on our aircraft). Our particular aircraft also suffered a funny kind of mishap when the crew was unable to dim or turn-off the cabin lighting which remained at full bright for 10 1/2 hours. And the new entertainment system was very finicky with black outs for no reason. The light issue was almost funny as it started soon after takeoff. The Captain called Atlanta to get maintenance instructions and they told him to reset the system....which resulted in losing all ability to dim. The crew apparently discussed pulling the breaker to try another reset...but decided it might be too risky and possibly leave us all in the dark :). The good news is that Delta does include blindfolds in the Business Class individual kits :).

Personally we prefer the 777...but perhaps the A350 will be OK once they work out the bugs (you would think that a $300 million aircraft would not have bugs). A fellow passenger told us he preferred the 787s....and one wonders why Delta decided to use Airbus rather then stick with the US Boeing products.

Hank

As to the A350....we think that Delta will live to regret the purchase of these aircraft instead of Boeing.

 

...

 

... but perhaps the A350 will be OK once they work out the bugs (you would think that a $300 million aircraft would not have bugs). A fellow passenger told us he preferred the 787s....and one wonders why Delta decided to use Airbus rather then stick with the US Boeing products.

Contrast that to the worldwide fleet of delivered Boeing 787s, many of which are currently sitting at various airports around the world in glider mode - ie with no engines on them - forcing numerous long-term cancellations by many airlines. And that's a scenario that's probably going to persist well into 2019.

And let's not forget the 787's problems - on an even grander scale - at a similar time in its service life to the 350's. No bugs? You must be having a laugh.

So tell us, is it Boeing customers or Airbus customers who are truly worse off?

Of course, if you take the view (as your last sentence suggests) that a US product will always be better than something dangerously foreign, then it will always be stupid to buy Airbus. And never mind the fact that DL had a huge amount of embedded experience of Airbus products.

LOL :). Of course we support our own products, but we are usually quite happy in Airbus aircraft which are in very wide use on this side of the pond. But I do seem to recall that most of the 787 Engine problems are with the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines. Turbine blade issues on that engine will likely get even more attention after the recent CFM56 failure on the Southwest 737. In the spirit of International cooperation those CFM' engines are a joint venture between the USA and France.

As a frequent flyer I have never been comfortable when stuck in a seat close to any jet engine. It is sobering when you consider the speed and stress on those turbine blades that can be spinning only a few feet from a passenger in the wrong seat.

Hank

At least 350s are generally flying, subject to the usual vagaries of technical mishaps.

 

Contrast that to the worldwide fleet of delivered Boeing 787s, many of which are currently sitting at various airports around the world in glider mode - ie with no engines on them - forcing numerous long-term cancellations by many airlines. And that's a scenario that's probably going to persist well into 2019.

 

So tell us, is it Boeing customers or Airbus customers who are truly worse off?

You forgot to mention all of the A321NEOs with their engine problems that are still sitting in France. These groundings are not the result of the manufacturer, be it Airbus or Boeing.

You forgot to mention all of the A321NEOs with their engine problems that are still sitting in France. These groundings are not the result of the manufacturer, be it Airbus or Boeing.

And it's not as if Boeing aircraft are 100% or even predominantly American, anyway - the US content of Boeing airliners has long been (very broadly) about half, which is (very broadly) about the US content of Airbus airliners. That was one of the particular idiocies of the legislation that required US airlines to specify the country of final assembly of each airliner.

So to say "you would think that a $300 million aircraft would not have bugs" is as unaware of history as it is unrealistic. The trivia mentioned by the OP is stuff that happens on all new aircraft types, whoever the manufacturer was, and don't even begin to amount to reasons for regretting that choice of type.

Why might Delta have decided to buy Airbus rather Boeing? I don't know, but I suspect that at the moment Delta is currently counting its lucky stars that it eventually cancelled its 787 order after all. It can watch other airlines suffer the pain of having bought that aircraft, which has continually suffered much worse problems than the 350. Being "the US product" didn't protect against any of them. But, of course, perhaps the OP didn't know that before sounding off about Delta's allegedly poor choice of aircraft type.

one wonders why Delta decided to use Airbus rather then stick with the US Boeing product.

As with most things, follow the money trail. Likely either Airbus cut them a deal they couldn't refuse, and/or Delta determined they could make more money in the long run with the A350 vs. the 787.

Contrast that to the worldwide fleet of delivered Boeing 787s, many of which are currently sitting at various airports around the world in glider mode - ie with no engines on them - forcing numerous long-term cancellations by many airlines. And that's a scenario that's probably going to persist well into 2019.

 

And let's not forget the 787's problems - on an even grander scale - at a similar time in its service life to the 350's. No bugs? You must be having a laugh.

Let's go back eve further....before a single airline was flying even a single 787....because Boeing had one delay after another during and if memory serves, delivery of the first 787 was literally YEARS after originally scheduled.

Just flew from Tokyo (Narita) to DTW on a new (3 week old) Delta A350. This was a 10 1/2 hour flight in Business Class in Delta's new Business Class Suite seats. These are forward facing shell compartments with the typical tunnels for your legs/feet. But the tunnels were large enough to allow comfort...even when turning on one's side. The "suites" are in a 1-2-1 configuration with sliding doors (on the aisles) to enhance privacy. The inside seats have a sliding screen which allows privacy from the passenger in the adjacent seat.

 

As to the A350....we think that Delta will live to regret the purchase of these aircraft instead of Boeing. Why? Consider that 1 of their new aircraft has been stuck in Korea for a few days for lack of a working hydraulic system (their pilot dead-headed back to the USA on our aircraft). Our particular aircraft also suffered a funny kind of mishap when the crew was unable to dim or turn-off the cabin lighting which remained at full bright for 10 1/2 hours. And the new entertainment system was very finicky with black outs for no reason. The light issue was almost funny as it started soon after takeoff. The Captain called Atlanta to get maintenance instructions and they told him to reset the system....which resulted in losing all ability to dim. The crew apparently discussed pulling the breaker to try another reset...but decided it might be too risky and possibly leave us all in the dark :). The good news is that Delta does include blindfolds in the Business Class individual kits :).

 

Personally we prefer the 777...but perhaps the A350 will be OK once they work out the bugs (you would think that a $300 million aircraft would not have bugs). A fellow passenger told us he preferred the 787s....and one wonders why Delta decided to use Airbus rather then stick with the US Boeing products.

 

Hank

So America First. It´s how things go as far as global trade is concerned. Europe buys Boeing (and we don´t regret) and America buys Airbus.

Europe buys Boeing (and we don´t regret) ...

The 787 was how many years behind schedule and how much over budget before the first one every went on line? Now, yes they are pumping them out at a pretty good pace in North Charleston (can't remember which version(s) they make here) these days...but lets not forget all the issues they had at the start.

I dislike the partitioned "pods" as I call them, they seem a bit claustrophobic. The other half and I truly LOVED how Air France handles privacy in their first class cabin on their 777, there are no doors or panels, just drapes for each seat. Not sure how they handle business class.