I wrote a short post earlier today on Delta’s offering of sleep kits for international economy class passengers. The kit consists of an eye shade and ear plugs. Doesn’t sound like much on the face of it, and for those of us who fly with such in our bags at all times, it may not be.

Image Courtesy of Delta Air Lines

Image Courtesy of Delta Air Lines

I’ve posted before that nowadays I fly outside the U.S. about once per year, but my traveling life hasn’t always been so pedestrian. Once upon a time I spent 40+ weeks a year on the road, with half of that being international travel. I was fortunate to spend the majority of those international trips in a premium cabin, but certainly not all. I don’t recall receiving a “kit” of any kind from any U.S. based airline when flying coach.

As I look across the industry now, I don’t see any other domestic airline offering a sleep kit, or anything similar, on international flights though I’m sure I’ll hear about it here if I’m wrong. The moral of the story – this is just one more little thing that differentiates Delta Air Lines from the other big domestic airlines. It doesn’t make up for award availability or broken award booking engines, but if the airline really addresses that in the context of a more revenue based 2015 program, they may be on to something. I really believe they are running the best U.S. based airline from the perspective of things I care about most – product, people, reliability. Color me hopeful for the loyalty program.

-MJ, April 3, 2014