Delta upgrades business class on Los Angeles-New York flights

Virgin Australia’s Stateside partner Delta Air Lines is boosting its business class experience to become the only US carrier offering both a fully-flat bed and direct aisle access on every Los Angeles-New York flight.

As of November 4 2019, Delta’s flights between the Home of Hollywood and The Big Apple will change from the current mix of Airbus A330, Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 jets to be served exclusively by the airline’s Boeing 767 aircraft, on which ‘Delta One’ business class comes in a passenger-pleasing 1-2-1 layout:

That’s a noticeable upgrade particularly for those flights currently served by Delta’s smaller Boeing 757s, which do offer flatbed seating in business class but in a single-aisle 2-2 layout, whereby passengers seated next to the window must step past or over their seatmate to access the aisle.

Delta’s Boeing 757s will continue to serve on other cross-country flights, such as between Los Angeles and Washington D.C., but for passengers jetting from Australia to New York via LAX, having the business traveller benchmarks of a fully-flat bed plus direct aisle access for the entire journey is sure to be appreciated, especially when catching up on much-needed sleep.

With daily non-stop flights from Sydney to Los Angeles, business class passengers can also enjoy Delta’s new Delta One Suites on their transpacific journeys – these being private suites with closing doors – which the airline began flying Down Under in April 2019:

Read: Sydney-Los Angeles gains Delta One business class suites

In addition, Delta also codeshares on Virgin Australia’s flights from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Los Angeles, which are all timed to enable connections to and from popular onward destinations like New York, with the US domestic leg of the journey served by Delta.

Rival American Airlines instead flies Airbus A321T aircraft between LA and New York, placing business class in a 2-2 configuration, albeit with a separate first class cabin further forward in a 1-1 layout.

Meanwhile, the bulk of United's LA-NYC flights are also served by single-aisle Boeing 757s with flatbed business class again in a 2-2 layout, and the seating pattern in JetBlue's Mint business class alternates between 2-2 and 1-1, with some flyers still stepping over their seatmate.

Rounding out the transcon wars, Alaska Airlines instead provides reclining seats in business class on these fligths – as opposed to beds as the competition provides – and although Qantas offers a daily return Boeing 787 flight equipped with Business Suites, it can only be booked in conjunction with a Qantas flight from Australia.

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.