A Look Inside Delta’s First Refitted Boeing 777-200

a plane on the runway

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Delta showed us that it has stepped up its game when it unveiled the new Delta One Suites which are fitted to the airline’s new Airbus A350 aircraft. Sadly, with just 11 A350s in the Delta fleet, the opportunities to try out the great-looking product have been few and far between….but now they’re about to become a little more common.

Delta is in the process of refitting all 18 of its 777 aircraft with the same interior as found on the Airbus A350 and the airline recently unveiled the first refitted aircraft in Atlanta.

Delta’s refitted 777s will all have Delta One (Business Class), Premium Select (Premium Economy) and Economy Class cabins and Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) was at the unveiling.
The good news starts in the rearmost cabin where Delta has elected to keep 9 seats across the aircraft….and I’m genuinely shocked by this.

a collage of rows of seats

As Jason points out, the legroom will still be as limited as 31″ but in an era when most other airlines are refitting their 777s with 10-across seating and giving passengers less and less lateral room (British Airways is the latest to start doing this) this is a bold move by Delta.

Delta will be offering long-haul Economy Class seats with an amazing 18.5″ of seat width and, when even “premium” airlines like Cathay Pacific have caved and are cramming more seats in their 777 Economy Class cabins, this could be a genuine differentiator for some flyers.

Delta’s 777 Premium Economy cabin has a 2-4-2 seating arrangement (which is the same as you’ll find in American Airlines’ 777 Premium Economy Class cabin) and houses seats which are 19″ wide and which offer 38″ of legroom.

a screenshot of a plane

38″ of legroom is about par for most Premium Economy cabins but 19″ of seat width isn’t going to be noticeably more than passengers get in Economy Class.

American may offer 19″, in its Premium Economy cabin but airlines like Qantas (20.5″) and Virgin Atlantic (21″) offer noticeably more personal space in their Premium Economy Cabins.

The frontmost cain is where you’ll find the star of the show on the refitted Boeing 777s – the new Delta One Suite:

a screenshot of a plane

I have yet to try out this new suite so I can’t speak from first hand experience….but the product really looks good.

There are 28 Delta One Suites on the 777-200 aircraft so that’s 9 fewer (but much better) Business Class seats than the aircraft offered before the refit.

The cabin is set out in a 1-2-1 layout and the suites offer about as much privacy as you can get in any Business Class Cabin.

a woman sleeping on a bed

The seats aren’t particularly wide at just 21″ (the same width as a Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy seat) but, I’m told, that the overall feel of the suite isn’t claustrophobic and the seat is said to be very comfortable (the fact it includes memory foam almost certainly helps).

Delta will begin flying the refitted 777 aircraft in just a few days time when it takes over some of the flights on Delta’s Detroit – Beijing route [HT: Routes Online]

Between 2 July and 20 July the reconfigured 777 will operate on the Detroit – Beijing route every other day on the following schedule:

DL189 DTW 13:50 – 14:45+1 day PEK (Mon, Tue, Thu & Sat)
DL189 DTW 14:11 – 15:20+1 day PEK (Wed, Fri & Sun)

DL188 PEK 16:50 – 17:50 DTW (Daily)

From 31 March 2019 refitted 777 aircraft will operate Delta’s Los Angeles – Sydney route daily.

Bottom Line

I’d love to try out the Delta One suite on this aircraft but it’s not going to happen any time soon as my travel plans are already firmed up for the rest of the year – I’ll probably aim to try it out on the LAX – Sydney route in 2019.

The biggest surprise here is definitely the amount of seat width this aircraft will offer in Economy Class and I for one would actively choose this aircraft over most others (when flying Economy Class) just because of that.

With more and more airlines throwing customer comfort out of the window in favor of higher profits it’s nice to see Delta resist the urge to do the same with the refitted 777s. I have no idea why the airline didn’t go with the more dense seating arrangement that most of its direct competitors have embraced but I’m very glad that it didn’t.

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