Despite ‘Premium’ Brand (& Prices), Most Delta Biz Class Seats Are Relics

Delta fancies itself America’s premium airline … and says so repeatedly. Yet more than half of Delta’s widebody planes flying abroad are outfitted with business class seats designed and installed more than a decade ago – positively ancient compared to the competition.

While Delta has set itself apart among U.S. airlines with stellar on-time performance and a reputation for better service, it lags those same competitors when it comes to premium business class cabins. That reality leaves Delta’s top-paying customers with a crapshoot: Will they luck out with a flight in newer Delta One Suites … or wind up in a narrow and outdated seat with tiny, low-resolution screens?

That’s a daunting coin flip for passengers paying thousands of dollars (or forking over hundreds of thousands of SkyMiles) for a business class fare with Delta. And those outdated seats for top-paying customers stand in stark contrast to Delta’s premium mantra – even as its competitors at home and abroad have invested heavily in hardware.

• Nearly 60% of Delta’s long-haul fleet is equipped with outdated business class seats from 2013 or even earlier, according to our analysis of its fleet
• While its fleet of newer jets with state-of-the-art Delta One Suites onboard is growing, those older Boeing 767-300s and Airbus A330s with outdated seats remain the workhorse – especially flying to Europe and back
• Delta retrofitted those older planes to install Premium Select cabins and update economy seats over the last few years, yet it left business class cabins and seats largely untouched – aside from some cosmetic touches like fresh upholstery
• Competitors like American and United offer a consistent (if not identical) experience in business class no matter which plane you’re on, but Delta currently has a whopping seven different business class seat configurations flying internationally

Complaining about any lie-flat business seat may seem entitled or even spoiled, and it probably should. And no matter what plane you’re on, Delta gets the basics right: You’ll always have a seat that reclines all the way into a bed and direct aisle access – no need to step over a neighbor to stretch your legs or use the lavatory.

But while that was a selling point a decade ago, the rest of the airline industry has caught up … and then some, with far more modern cabins, greater privacy, and newer technology onboard. Whether they’re paying top dollar or redeeming credit card points, flyers have choices.

How Delta One Stacks Up

You don’t need to look far to see that the grass might, in fact, be greener with another carrier.

While its catering gets low marks, United’s entire long-haul fleet is now outfitted with the same new Polaris business class seats after a years-long retrofit project. American Airlines has just a few different business class configurations, most of which are nearly identical – and a new business class suite is on the way.
 

In a statement, a Delta spokesperson defended its business class offerings and said it “regularly looks to update and modernize our aircraft” – though no additional plans to overhaul existing planes have been announced.

“Beginning more than a decade ago, Delta has led U.S. global carriers in the premium business class space with lie flat seats on every widebody aircraft and elevated Delta One service from Delta flight attendants,” the Delta spokesperson said.

To be clear, it’s not all bad flying up front with Delta – far from it. The Delta One Suites you see in Delta ads and onboard the airline’s Airbus A350s and Airbus A330-900neos are arguably the best flying for U.S. carriers today, complete with closing doors for extra privacy.

But those flagship jets currently comprise just over a quarter of the airline’s long-haul fleet today. And you’ll almost exclusively find them flying the airline’s longest routes to Asia, Australia, and South Africa, along with a few ultra-popular transatlantic routes to hubs like Amsterdam (AMS) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG).
 

That setup will become more and more common over time, as Delta has another nearly 50 Airbus widebodies on order between the A350s and A330-900neos. But deliveries of those planes will likely extend through the end of the 2020s.

And while those business class suites were revolutionary when they first hit the skies back in 2017, times have changed: In 2024, a business class seat with a door is practically the standard.

Overseas, even Delta’s partner airlines Air France and KLM are rapidly retrofitting existing planes with fresh new business class cabins. Airlines like ANA, Japan Airlines, and Qatar Airways have pushed the envelope with fancy new suites. From Lufthansa to Qantas to even Qatar, new first and business class cabins with even more features and privacy are on the way.

All the while, Delta has continued leaning on planes with business class cabins that seem generations older in comparison.

Inside Delta’s Fleet & Puzzling Decisions

There’s more to flying business class than just the seat. Travelers want good service, a nice meal, a decent wine selection, and amenities, too. And Delta regularly does much better there, in my experience.

But when it comes down to it, business class passengers are paying for the seat that turns into a bed. And in that regard, the majority of Delta’s long-haul fleet falls far short of much of the industry.

Frequent flyers tend to loathe flying business class on Delta’s oldest Boeing 767-300s, whose seats are derided for their “coffin-like” width and low-resolution screens that measure just 10 inches across. For comparison, the seatback screen in Delta One on its newest A330-900neo is crisp and large, at over 18 inches.

While Delta has touched up the interiors with fresher colors and re-upholstered the cushions, the bones of the seats themselves date back to 2011, if not earlier. That’s an eon ago in the fast-moving airline industry.
 

Delta One business class on its older Airbus A330-200s and A330-300s at least sports a much wider seat. And the cabin is laid out in a reverse herringbone pattern, with seats angled away from the aisle for more privacy – the same configuration used by many top-rated airlines today.

But they’re from 2013 … and they look it, with equally ancient entertainment systems and finishes that look wildly out of date.
 

Delta pulled both plane types out of service for improvements as travel demand climbed back from the depths of the pandemic – largely to install new Delta Premium Select seats, the airline’s name for premium economy. But the airline stopped far short of replacing the business class cabins, despite retrofitting all its Boeing 767-400s with a new business class seat over the last five years.

Delta is expected to keep flying those Boeing 767-300s until at least the end of the decade – and even longer on the older Airbus A330s.
 

Other airlines used the great travel disruption of 2020 to get in line with the times, ditching their oldest and most out-of-date planes.

American Airlines, for example, retired all of its old Boeing 767s and Airbus A330s, both which had outdated business class cabins that didn’t fit with the rest of its fleet. Today, you’ll find similar (though not identical) business class seats on all its Boeing 777s and 787 Dreamliners.
 

Delta took the opposite approach.

As COVID-19 first roared and travel screeched to a halt, Delta dropped its entire, 18-plane fleet of Boeing 777s in the name of efficiency and cost savings. Not only do the massive Boeing jets guzzle more fuel than newer planes, but a relatively small subfleet like that can be a headache for scheduling and maintenance. It was an easy cut at a time when Delta needed far fewer widebody jets.

But that decision also cost Delta 18 planes equipped with Delta One suites, after a multi-million-dollar retrofit project just a few years earlier.
 

To Delta, the costs of keeping those 777s in the air outweighed the price of the renovation … let alone what flyers with their eyes on a business class fare might have preferred.

Bottom Line

A lie-flat seat is a luxury, period. But whether they’re paying cash or redeeming miles for that luxury, flyers have choices.

Delta’s competitors have invested to ensure top-paying customers find a modern business class seat onboard, no matter what plane they wind up on. Delta hasn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, Delta does a lot well. But consistency and uniformity at the front of the plane isn’t on that list.

It’s an odd choice that doesn’t square with Delta’s brand as a premium airline. And it shouldn’t sit well with travelers forking over 300,000 SkyMiles or more for a business class fare only to sit down in something that looks like it’s from more than a decade ago … because it is.