tryans's Travels

I flew DL220 from Salt Lake City (SLC) to Paris (CDG).

Overall it was a good flight: I slept well, the flight crew were great, the lounge in Los Angeles (LAX) was great, but the price was steep, and I have some minor complaints that feel less minor given the price tag.

Pros

• Delta One Lounge at LAX is great!
• Service on board Delta is a notch above other US carriers.
• Completed a status match with one flight.
• Suite – complete with a sliding door!

Cons

• The seat was quite uncomfortable without the mattress pad.
• Bedding generated a ton of static electricity.
• Super expensive flight cost.

Why did I pay so much?

I ended up paying for the ticket in order to complete the requirements for the status match I did to get Delta Platinum status from my United Platinum status. I actually had to do a bit of searching to find a price that was, well, quite overpriced. Even so, this seems worth it as I’ve already received multiple upgrades on domestic flights with Delta, and used a regional upgrade certificate to get a lay flat seat to Atlanta for Labor Day weekend.

One thing I’ve recently uncovered when it comes to finding deals is that you can often get better deals out of other airports. Whenever I searched for Delta One flights to CDG out of San Francisco (SFO), they were approaching $6000!!! In order to retain Platinum status on Delta via the status match I needed $3,750 MQDs. So I did some searching, and I ended up finding a flight from LAX to CDG via SLC, for $3782. That is probably the most I’ve ever paid for a flight (especially one way, yikes), but it was about the only way for me to achieve the status match and I decided it was worth it for me. After that it was a matter of going from SFO to LAX, which was another $88, also on Delta. I ended up getting a complimentary upgrade, which was nice though not super important, for a 1 hour flight.

Flight Information

• DL 1598 SFO – LAX 6am-7:30am
• DL 1434 LAX – SLC 9:45am-12:43pm
• DL 220 SLC – CDG 3:30pm-9:30am

All of my flights were on June 17th, 2025. I don’t love early morning flights, and I usually end up getting very little sleep before them. But, the next flight on Delta wouldn’t arrive until after my SLC flight left LAX. I could have flown United an hour later, but then I’d have to go all the way from Terminal 7 to Terminal 3, which just didn’t really seem worth it for a flight that’s still earlier than I like to fly.

Airport Experience

SFO

There’s not much for me to write about SFO, as I got to the airport at 4:41am according to my Lyft receipt. I hope terminal 3 will end up being just as nice as terminal 1 when the renovations finish! I didn’t check a bag, so no need to wait at the check-in counter. Terminal 1 at SFO has the main security next to the airline check-in counters, while the TSA Precheck lines are one level up, which is accessible by a bank of elevators and escalators, with signage pointing the way. Terminal 1 at SFO is really nice: it’s newly renovated, and it has museum exhibits, a yoga room, a meditation room, local San Francisco shops, restaurants, coffee shops, and even more! The Delta Sky Club is conveniently located just to the left when entering the C gates from Terminal 1. I chose not to use the lounge as my flight was boarding soon, and since I was flying a separate itinerary, I didn’t want to risk using one of my limited lounge accesses provided my AmEx Platinum for 20 minutes in the lounge.

LAX

My flight arrived at LAX at 6:55am, which was more than 30 minutes early. It wasn’t clear to me if I’d have access to the Delta One lounge since my Delta One flight was actually out of SLC, but given that the Delta site says “Same-day departing or arriving Delta One ticketed passengers…” I figured it didn’t hurt to try. It must be a rare situation, as the agent at the lounge couldn’t get my boarding pass to scan on his end, but he verified that I was flying Delta One on that day, and said he didn’t see why I wouldn’t be given access to the lounge and let me in. I have to say, the lounge was really nice and I appreciated that it was full service anywhere you sit, unlike United’s Polaris lounges. That being said, after I was served a meal, it felt like I was a bit forgotten about if I didn’t try to flag down staff to help me. I ordered avocado toast and an iced latte, and eventually I had a mimosa. The food was good, but the server forgot that I ordered water so I had to ask another server for water as well. I did notice that just like in a Delta Sky Club premium alcohol and some food items have a cost with them, unlike in the United Polaris lounge. Everyone was friendly, but perhaps it was a bit difficult to keep up with each person in the lounge given the open seating arrangement. I think Virgin Atlantic has a better system with QR codes at every table in their Upper Class lounge, and United has a designated full-service restaurant in their Polaris lounges that makes it a bit easier to keep up with who is there for full service dining – the downside being that when the lounge restaurant is busy, there’s often a wait.

SLC

There isn’t a whole lot for me to write about SLC either here. SLC has a Delta Sky Club that is pretty much similar to most Sky Clubs: a little bit crowded, but generally clean and easy to get service. It was so unmemorable that it seems the only photo I took in the airport was of my gate; it was rather neat to see the celebratory atmosphere at the gate, since Delta very recently launched its non-stop service from SLC to Seoul (ICN).

In Flight Experience

And the moment I’m always waiting for in a flight review is here – the experience on my nearly 10 hour flight to Paris.

One small thing first…

Let me rewind real quick to give a couple of notes about my two short flights prior. One thing I really liked was that on my 6am flight they still gave you the option of anything you wanted for a pre-departure beverage. I am usually of the mindset that you can drink alcohol at any time when you’re flying, (it doesn’t really count…) but it turns out that a 6am flight is too early (even for me), so I ordered a tea. But another passenger asked what they had for a pre-departure beverage and the flight attendant said, “Pretty much anything you want, coffee, tea, soda, juice, liquor, beer, wine.” After years of flying United I got used to early morning flights having either no pre-departure beverage or just orange juice in the morning. It was basically the same situation on the second flight of any pre-departure beverage and a decent selection of snacks. All this to say, I appreciated the service offered on Delta’s short domestic flights compared to what I’ve been used to in the past.

Okay now the full review!

Now onto the main event, the flight to Paris. I was happy to find out that my flight was properly in the newest Delta One product. I’m a real sucker for a sliding door in business class. I’d say that one of the things Delta One lacks right now is consistency across the fleet. Luckily Delta’s search makes it quite easy to see if the aircraft has the suite product or not, by putting a handy little icon on the itinerary for those planes with the suites product. If you’ve already booked your flight you can simply look at the seat map and if the seat has a black square around it, then it’s the suite product. Typically you’ll find the suites on A330neo and the A350 aircraft, but it’s best to be sure by either looking for the suite icon at booking or seeing the square around each seat.

The Suite

I chose suite 6A. I like to use Aerolopa to look at seat maps and help me determine which seat I want when I’m flying. A lot of airlines have staggered seating arrangements, and I like to be closer to the window (it tends to be more private that way too), and the seat maps on Aerolopa help you see those.

I have to say, and maybe I’m just a sucker, but there’s something really nice about having a sliding door for your seat on a plane, and the Delta One suite was no exception for me. The flight crew will keep the doors locked so you can’t shut them during take-off or landing, and on this flight, they ended up closing the door after the meal service.

The Seat

I didn’t really have a flight review in mind when I was taking these pictures, so I waited until the end of the flight to take the photo, and it isn’t the best shot, but you do get to see the fun colors of my backpack. I actually dislike that so many airlines seem to be moving to a very sterile aesthetic of lots of black and white; it reminds me of a medical clinic. When I initially boarded the mattress pad was kept in a nice container, and I have to say, the mattress pad was absolutely necessary for this seat. The seat was quite uncomfortable for me; it felt quite hard and the material the seat is made of is not very breathable. I think the flight crew would’ve helped me with the mattress pad if I’d asked, but I tend to avoid bothering them for things I can easily accomplish on my own. Once the mattress pad was in place, the seat was much more comfortable, both in the seated position and the lie-flat position. The seat controls felt intuitive to me (this is not my first business class flight), though I did find that I had to push quite hard for the controls to recognize what I wanted the seat to do. I think I prefer physical buttons over a touchscreen style when it comes to seat controls; they always seem to work better and more easily.

The Amenities

Delta has partnered with Missoni for its amenity kit. In my opinion, it’s a pretty standard affair with socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, hand lotion, face lotion, eye mask, and ear plugs. I do like the amenity kit itself though; I kept it and use it to store things I want to easily access during flights like electronic cords & power adapters and medications I might use during a flight, like ibuprofen.

Missoni also provides the bedding for the flight, which included a mattress pad, a pillow, and a duvet. As I said above, the mattress pad was an absolute must for me to be able to get comfortable enough to sleep for a bit on the flight. The pillow was decent, but the duvet seemed to generate a ton of static electricity. I really noticed the static electricity when I had to get up to use the restroom; the cabin lights were dimmed and I could see little flashes as I moved the blanket around to get up. I wish I could’ve caught it on video, it was crazy how much static electricity it built up! That being said, I was still able to lay down and sleep underneath it; it was only when I moved around a lot that the static electricity was quite visible.

The Entertainment

I can’t decide if I should just include this under the information about the Suite itself or dedicate a section to the in-flight entertainment system (IFE) for future reviews. There were lots of movies to choose from, and the screen was quite large. My biggest complaint here is that I didn’t see a remote anywhere to control the IFE, and the touch screen wasn’t very responsive; during the end credits of something I watched I tried to exit and it warned me that I was going to exit the movie and despite tapping “proceed” over and over and over, it never let me exit the screen. I guess this ticks another box for me in the “I like physical buttons” category.

Another slight issue I’d mention is that on other airlines I usually end up making a list of movies I’m interested in watching on the flight so that if/when I finish one movie, I can easily sort through a few options I know I’m interested in; I didn’t see anyway to do this on Delta. That being said, I typically don’t spend too much time watching movies on flights; I usually watch one, maybe two if the flight is super long.

The Meal

I was really looking forward to eating the crab cakes after people on reddit threads just seemed to absolutely rave about them. They were one of 2 exclusive pre-order options available for the route. Delta lets you pre-order your meal 7 days out, up to 24 hours from departure. After experiencing years of United catering, an airline that has acknowledged that it needs to step up its catering, I was really looking forward to seeing what people were so excited about. Maybe I built it up a bit too much in my head for my own good. The appetizer was a pretty delicious tomato bisque soup though I didn’t care for the salad or smoked salmon.

For the main course there were 5 options, though 2 of them had to be pre-ordered. The pre-order exclusives were crab cakes or meatballs (I’ve had the meatballs since then, and would absolutely choose them over the crab cakes). You could also pre-order the other options that were available on the flight: beef short rib, roasted chicken breast, or spinach cannelloni (a vegetarian option). If you are vegetarian I’d recommend pre-ordering the vegetarian option to avoid them running out. Personally, I tend to avoid chicken on flights as I find it is often dry.

I was really trying to decide between the crab cakes, meatballs, and short rib, as a Google and Reddit search found that all of them seemed to have really good reviews. I wish I could say the same about the crab cakes. They tasted rather bland to me, and I only had a few bites before deciding I was done. As mentioned earlier, I’ve had the meatballs since then, and they were pretty good.

To be totally frank about finding good food on a plane – you should avoid any US based airline. Every meal I’ve had on a foreign carrier’s business class or first class product has far outshone the US airlines’ catering.

For dessert there were a few options: some kind of cake (carrot maybe?), a cheese plate, or an ice cream sundae. I ended up choosing the ice cream and had them put the cherries and the Biscoff cookie crumble on it, and it was delicious, by far the best part of the meal. I have a bit of a sweet tooth though, so it’s hard to disappoint me with dessert!

The Service

I have to say, both on domestic flights and this one international flight, Delta’s flight crew have been the most consistently good compared with other US carriers. It’s easiest for me to compare with United as that’s who I’ve flown most often the past few years, and while I’ve had some excellent service, I’ve also had flight attendants who seemed to do their best to avoid eye contact and have as little interaction as possible. Just remember this is comparing 1 Delta One flight that had good service compared to many United Polaris flights over the last few years (again, some of which had excellent service).

I was greeted as I boarded, the flight attendant who came to my seat to ensure my meal order was correct greeted me by name and also chatted with me for a short time which I appreciated. I ended up telling her how this Delta flight was going to let me keep the Platinum status after doing the status match, which she even remembered at the end of the flight telling me how she hoped my experience would help them steal my loyalty away from United. I also noticed that even when the cabin lights were dimmed and most passengers were asleep, the flight attendants still seemed to roam through the aisles fairly regularly; I was awake for maybe 10 minutes when a flight attendant came by and saw me and asked if I needed anything. I never felt the need to hit the call button to ask for something because they were so attentive.

Conclusion

Overall it was a good flight! The staff at Delta from the ground to the air were all really nice anytime I interacted with them.

• The Delta One lounges are quite nice, even if they are a bit late to the game with creating a lounge only for business class passengers.
• The Delta One seats can be inconsistent and depend quite a bit on plane type, but it’s easy enough to use their search to find out if it’s a suite or not, though personally I think the seats are a bit uncomfortable compared to other business class products.
• The soft product is decent – a nice amenity kit, bedding, good selection of movies.
• The food was mediocre at best, but I have had some other very good food on some domestic routes with meal service on Delta so maybe it was just the meal on this one flight.

I would absolutely fly Delta One again, but probably not for the price I paid for a one way ticket. For comparison, next month I’m flying back to Paris on Air France and it was 60,000 points + $244. Citi had a transfer bonus to Flying Blue of 20% so I actually only used 50,000 points for it.

Tell me your thoughts!

I can’t decide if I like conclusion or maybe summary better for the end of a flight review. Let me know what you think!

Being my very first flight review, I’m sure things will change in the future. Does this format work? Should I add more information or condense things down a bit? Should I add more photos/videos next time?

If you read this whole thing, wow, thank you! I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and have had multiple people tell me I should write or vlog about my travels. My coworkers and friends often come to me for advice on finding flights, so I figured maybe I should share with the rest of the world. I really want to know if people are interested in this so please let me know your thoughts.

Ryan’s Rankings

My personal ranking system as someone who can’t stand a numerical system goes like this, from best to worst:

Overall

• Already trying to book another!
• With enthusiasm!
• Sure, why not?
• If there’s nothing better…
• Never again!

Seats & Suites

• Sleeping like a baby!
• Super comfy!
• At least I could fall asleep…
• Not so nice
• A bed of nails might be nicer

Amenities

• Yay fun presents!
• Nicely done!
• Hey, at least there was an amenity kit.
• A blanket and pillow will do…
• I paid this much to get these amenities??

Entertainment

• Oooooh shiny with all the new movies too!
• Wow, so many options!
• Well, at least there’s a screen.
• Good thing I brought my phone.
• Hopefully you like meditating.

Food

• Felt like I was in a nice restaurant!
• Delicious!
• Well, it’s plane food after all…
• Not very tasty
• Wanted to spit it out!