Delta Airlines Comfort class

rossadams

My wife and I are doing the September 25th trip and the best scenario that works for us from the San Francisco Bay area is San Jose/Seattle/Amsterdam route. It has the 2 seats on the side of the plane on all but one leg. San Francisco does not work as well, 3,3,3 setup on 777 planes. Anyway, the main question, has anyone flown the comfort class and what are your thoughts on it. We cannot stretch to business class and there is no premium economy which is my sweet spot for which I fly regularly to England on BA. BA does not work well, unfortunately for the London to Tanzania-Nairobi to London leg so I'm closing in on the Delta flight.

Claudia Sails

We've flown Delta Economy Comfort to Europe 3 times. It's not a huge upgrade but we find it worth the extra cost. In addition to slightly more leg room and recline, the seats are located towards the front of the plane meaning you get off earlier, you get Sky Priority boarding (although their boarding groups have changed since our flight last summer so I'm not sure what its called now), Sky Priority can often speed things up in places like check in and the extra security lines they have at Amsterdam airport, you get dedicated overhead space, and on conus flights free alcohol.

We take our own noise canceling headphones, neck pillows and I have a thing called "Sleepy Ride" from Amazon that's a sort of foot rest. Used it last summer flying to Dublin and it made the flight much better. It hangs on the arms of the tray table without disturbing the person in front and I can put my feet in it or support the backs of my calves. Much better on my back.

Be warned about the bulk head seats. While they do give you more legroom, the seats are narrower to provide space for your tray table/TV in the armrest.

Some day I hope to try out Business Class but so far always choke at the price.

rossadams

Thanks Explorer, especially about the bulk head, I was looking at that to begin with but seat guru warned about it as well. You have now confirmed it.

Claudia Sails

rossta wrote:

Thanks Explorer, especially about the bulk head, I was looking at that to begin with but seat guru warned about it as well. You have now confirmed it.

Yep, seat guru warned us too but got over ruled by my long legged husband. He lived to regret it as our plane had the kitchen and toilet right there. Even he didn't sleep on that flight.

sherry_schare

rossta wrote:

My wife and I are doing the September 25th trip and the best scenario that works for us from the San Francisco Bay area is San Jose/Seattle/Amsterdam route. It has the 2 seats on the side of the plane on all but one leg. San Francisco does not work as well, 3,3,3 setup on 777 planes. Anyway, the main question, has anyone flown the comfort class and what are your thoughts on it. We cannot stretch to business class and there is no premium economy which is my sweet spot for which I fly regularly to England on BA. BA does not work well, unfortunately for the London to Tanzania-Nairobi to London leg so I'm closing in on the Delta flight.

Maybe we are neighbors (Saratoga)

We are on the Great Migration Kenya and Tanzania (July 21) and are flying SF0-Amsterdam-Arusha and home from Capetown through Paris into SFO. (long story that's on another thread here). Friends are on another trip on British Air ((SJ-London {long delay} tp Capetown. Although we don't like the cost, for flights that long I have convinced my husband that business is the only way to go. Even if it means we take fewer trips we arrive at our destination feeling human instead of like pretzels. Sometimes we even get a decent sleep. Tauck booked our flight with us this time and actually did have the best prices. That isn't always true. The only drawback this time is that we have to spend an overnight in Amsterdam. It works out really because we havae hotel points to use there, and Amsterdam is a great city to revisit.

Good luck on your flights. Sherry

Sealord

We did coach comfort/economy comfort on KLM on our last Africa trip. It was well worth it for me, over 6 feet, and there are other perks that sweeten the deal. More leg room and the seats recline further. We had ‘twin’ seats on all flights.

AlanS

rossta wrote:

My wife and I are doing the September 25th trip and the best scenario that works for us from the San Francisco Bay area is San Jose/Seattle/Amsterdam route. It has the 2 seats on the side of the plane on all but one leg. San Francisco does not work as well, 3,3,3 setup on 777 planes. Anyway, the main question, has anyone flown the comfort class and what are your thoughts on it. We cannot stretch to business class and there is no premium economy which is my sweet spot for which I fly regularly to England on BA. BA does not work well, unfortunately for the London to Tanzania-Nairobi to London leg so I'm closing in on the Delta flight.

First, as far as "comfort," Comfort + only gives you a few more inches of leg room.

If you can somehow stretch to go business- you'll have lay-flat seats and 1-2-1 on Delta (or 2-2-2 on KLM) seating. We always take the center section so both of us have aisle access. I hope we'll luck out and get a refurb Delta 777 with the new Delta One Suites on our flight to Jo'burg. All 8 Delta's 777-200ERs will be done by then but probably not enough of the 10 777-200LRs which are used on the Jo'burg route.

British

We have been very lucky this past couple of years to be able to afford to fly business class. But before that we would go to Africa on economy seating. My tip here is to plan to pay for an extra night at the beginning of the tour. The price of a hotel room for the extra night is a great deal compared with the price of business class seats. Although business class is very nice, for us, it still does not help us get over jet lag any faster, whereas, an extra night in the country and time zone does. It's a good compromise if you can't stretch to the crazy price of business class.

rossadams

Thanks for all the input, I was very lucky to get an affordable business upgrade for $800 each on BA at Christmas to London, normally $4500 upgrade. It was great but I still didn't sleep a wink, I just read a book horizontally!!
The legroom is the most important thing for me so comfort will definitely make the difference for me at a reasonable rate, they have two separate seats together so I booked this morning.
A note for anyone else booking on Delta trying to do the comfort class. You book everything in economy first then go back and do the upgrades separately. Seems silly but that was what I had to do. You can see that the seats are available beforehand though.

British, we are actually arriving two nights earlier, seemed to make no difference to us to add an extra Sunday into the mix as it didn't affect work. That way we will be in much better shape, take Tuesday to relax and then maybe do Arusha Park on Wednesday.

Sherry, yes, we live in Los Gatos (in the mountains).

Many thanks for all the input. I now have just 7 months of annoying more people who ask me if I'm going anywhere this year, they then have to see a 54 year old act like a kid waiting for Christmas explaining where they're going.
Cheers, Ross.

PatV

Just a heads up on return flight from Nairobi to Amsterdam. We did this tour September 2017 and on return flight KLM did not have us in comfort plus even though we had our confirmation itinerary from them. We paid for upgrade at time of booking but they claim they don’t receive payment fast enough from Delta so they allowed the seats to be booked by someone else. Deltas only response when we returned home was a fifty dollar gift card. They put us in the back of the plane.

sherry_schare

To rossadams

Sherry, yes, we live in Los Gatos (in the mountains).

We live in Saratoga and walk around Los Gatos frequently. Our claim to fame is our big white standard poodle. If you see us there, stop and say hello.

Virginia Travelers1

We flew KLM to Amsterdam and to Arusha but we tried something different on the way home. We flew Kenyan Airlines business class from Nairobi to Paris and then Air France home to DC. We were somewhat apprehensive about Kenyan air at first but it was the BEST business class flight we've ever been on. Kenyan Air has been voted the best Business Class 7 years in a row. We had so much room and space it was unbelievable. So when going on this very long trip, and you can afford an upgrade, we very much recommend this change. When we left Nairobi 4 of us flew Kenyan and about 15 flew KLM. The Paris lounge was also extremely well worth it. Just a suggestion!

British

I have no problem with Kenyan air, but Air France frequently go on strike especially in the height of the summer... I avoid them and going through Paris if I can. We have booked Qatar airlines for our flight to Arusha in December. We have flown KLM economy and KLM. Business to Arusha in the past.

Virginia Travelers1

British wrote:

I have no problem with Kenyan air, but Air France frequently go on strike especially in the height of the summer... I avoid them and going through Paris if I can. We have booked Qatar airlines for our flight to Arusha in December. We have flown KLM economy and KLM. Business to Arusha in the past.

That's a really good point. It seems like the French are always on strike. Definitely something to consider.

Margaret_Grotle1

We flew the direct flight from JFK to Nairobi on Kenya Airlines Dreamliner 787...wonderful flight and we travelled about 6 hours less than those who flew through Amsterdam. Tauck can book it for you with a discount...

British

Yes, but you flew to Nairobi, how did you get to Arusha?

AlanS

My guess is Precision Air in an ATR turboprop or Embraer 190 small regional jet. I think they are the only airline flying that route. Kenyan Air is operated by Precision Air on the route.

There is a 4 hour shuttle bus too

Nedda Honig

We leave in 16 days, flying Delta/KLM Orlando to Boston, Boston to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Arusha and on the way home, it is Nairobi to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Atlanta, Atlanta to Orlando, then drive 90 minutes home. Doing Businnes or First class all the way, Tauck couldn’t get us BC/FC on one leg home and our TA did but we have to spend an extra night in Arusha and Nairobi to get the good price. $9100 for the two of us, not individually!!! I’ve seen other prices all over the park.. Neighbors going in late Sept - Oct and Tauck was able to get them BC/FC all the way round for $8900. Found a hotel in Orlando that lets us leave the car there free for 14 days so will only have to pay for 2 or 3 days. Our TA gives 5% of the trip back to us so that will help pay for the 2 dogs at their sitters for the 20 days. The countdown has begun!!