“Premium Economy” is a new concept for me. I’ve flown to Europe several times, but not in the last 12 years. In the bad old days, your choices were 1st class, Business class, and Coach (or Economy class). Now it seems like what used to be “Business class” and “1st Class” have merged into Delta One, while there are two “Premium Economy” classes – Comfort + and Premium Select.
Since I flew Delta One class seven days prior to this flight, I will compare and contrast Delta One to Delta Premium Select for international flights and try to determine if Delta One is worth the update cost. But Delta Premium Select provides some really great upgrades over lower economy classes which I think are definitely worth the cost. A big advantage is that you’ll be consider Delta Sky Priority for check in and boarding. That means shorter, faster check in lines, and being among the first to board the aircraft which should ensure you’ll get overhead space at your seat. I was traveling with a ton of expensive photography gear so this was a key consideration for me.
THE SEAT
When I got to my seat I was greeted with a pillow, a zipper pouch of amenities, and a paper menu. The seat was very comfortable and I had better than expected space in the seat. The seat seemed to essentially be the same as 1st Class seating on domestic flights. I have pretty broad shoulders, so if a guy sits next to me in the window seat, I’m typically leaning into the aisle to avoid contact. That was totally unnecessary in these seats – both myself and the guy next to me had plenty of room.
If you read my Delta One review, you’ll know that I left the too-large Missoni leather zipper container in the seat when I disembarked. I needed nothing in the amenity kit, and while the leather “designer” zipper container was nice, it was too big to be useful. The “Someone Somewhere” branded zipper pouch provided in Premium Select appears to provide all the same amenities as the fancier Missoni container – eye mask, ear plugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, and lip balm. Scan the QR code on the inside of the pouch and you’ll get an interesting story about the Mexican artisans that make the pouches. They’re very well constructed and take up much less room so they’re ideal to be re-used as a tech pouch.
Also just like Delta One Class, there’s a pair of noise canceling headphones in you seat center console which are identical to the model received in Delta One class.
The center console also had a bottle of water:
I also had plenty of room to put my backpack under the seat in front of me and put my pillow down there as well (which I never actually used since it was a day time flight and I was trying to get my body back on my home sleep schedule).
You’ll also note that there are two seat back containers in the seat in front of you. Again, if you read my Delta One review, you’ll know I lamented the fact that the Delta One seat was missing this feature. Located between the seats in front of you are two power outlets – one for each passenger in the row. Just like in Delta One class, you have one USB-A port, and one AC outlet. Since this flight was coming from London Heathrow, I would need to use an adapter to plug into the AC outlet, but I didn’t need anything but the USB-A port for my phone on this flight.
THE FOOD
The food choices were more limited in Premium Select vs. Delta One, but honestly I enjoyed the meals every bit as much if not more than the meals I had in Delta One.
Immediately after take off I was provided a snack of “cheese biscuits” – which I didn’t particularly care for. And we got the customary hot towel for an international flight. Again, just like Delta One class:
Next up came the Cajun chick which was fantastic! It actually had a little spicy kick to it which was most welcome. The rice, bread, and desert were also very good:
A couple of hours before landing we received another meal – this time I got the pizza:
Again, both the pizza and desert we absolutely first rate on the airplane food scale.
IN FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
The screen in the seat back in Premium Select are maybe 2″ smaller than what you get in Delta One, and you can pull them out, but they’re still larger than my iPad so I was perfectly content to watch movies on the Delta system – I had the exact same entertainment choices from the week prior in Delta One. The big difference here was that the touch screen in my Premium Select seat was super responsive and functioned much better that what I had in Delta One.
COMFORT/SLEEP
Again, I didn’t intend to sleep on this flight (though I did nod off for a few minutes after the first meal). But again, the seat was extremely comfortable. The guy next to me took out his pillow and put it up against the window and slept for about three hours. If I were on a night flight and wanted to get sleep, I’d definitely get a window seat and do what he did. The seats do lean back considerably more than standard economy and again were surprisingly comfortable.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
I really do think I’ve taken my last Delta One flight. About the only meaningful feature you missing from Delta One in Premium Select is the lay flat seat capability. And if I take a sleep aid anyway as I normally do when flying to Europe I just don’t think it would make a difference in the quality of my sleep. For me, the cost of the upgrade to Delta One was definitely not worth it when compared to the tremendous value you receive in Premium Select. As the saying goes, your mileage may vary.
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