Delta Air Lines - DAL > Reviews > Good Gatwick-based American carrier

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Good
Customer Service	Outstanding
Punctuality	Always on time
Space	Fairly Comfortable
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Good, efficient service; Gatwick convenience
Disadvantages:	Not as exciting as other trans - Atlantic alternatives

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

My girlfriend and I are big fans of travelling to the States; we've visited it on holiday some six times in four years.

And the majority of those flights have been with Delta, primarily because they operate out of Gatwick, which happens to be close by to my girlfriend's parents. And there's every reason to praise Delta for their trans-Atlantic service.

First of all, they use the more spacious North Terminal at Gatwick, and perhaps because they're not as popular or well-known as other operators in Britain, there's never, ever a queue at check-in if you're comfortably early.

Staff are always polite and helpful, a common sign of American carriers in our experience. Timekeeping is another strong point, although sadly their fleet isn't quite as brilliant; other than the comfortable Boeing 777 flagship, we've also flown on their 767s and even an McDonnell-Douglas; both of which were sorely in need of a facelift.

Similarly, entertainment on these flights is determined by aircraft. The 777 has the personal screens with movies, but there's still some way to go to reach the competition. Virgin Atlantic provide films, TV programmes, cartoons and even computer games on their flights. Why can't Delta do the same?

Food is always good quality, but remember this is an American carrier so expect American food. Lots of savoury items where perhaps we'd expect something sweet.

But this is nit-picking; there's no doubting Delta's convenience. From Gatwick you fly into either Atlanta or Cincinnati, and they schedule literally dozens of connecting flights to all major US cities to follow your trans-Atlantic flight. They can even tell which gate to go to before the plane has landed.

I must also mention one time when they messed up, but sorted the problem quickly. For a time until mid-2002, there was a direct scheduled flight to Boston, but the night before we were due to fly, we called to confirm with Delta and they told us that the flight had stopped operating. As it was late at night, we were patched over to an American call centre and a very helpful chap there booked us on to the Atlanta flight the next day, with a connection to Boston. Not ideal, but at least they corrected the problem with no fuss and importantly, no cost to us.

Overall, I'd happily recommend Delta Airlines.