Background:
Back in September of 2022, I wrote about booking Delta One Suites with Virgin Atlantic Points from New York to Amsterdam roundtrip. I was quite excited to be flying on the Delta One Suites both ways on the A330-900neo.
Delta currently offers 2 flights in each direction from New York (JFK) to Amsterdam (AMS). One flight is served by the A330-300 with the older seats, and the other flight is served by the A330-900neo with Delta One Suites.
Delta Removed Me From Delta One Suites in January:
Then at the beginning of January, I received an email from Virgin Atlantic about a flight change regarding my inbound leg from Amsterdam to New York. My original flight was DL49, and it was scheduled to depart Amsterdam at 11am. This flight was moved to depart one hour later at 12pm, so somehow Delta decided to take me off DL49 and put me on DL47 departing an hour earlier than my original flight at 10am. And so, Delta removed me from Delta One Suites! This meant that I would be flying on the old non-suite plane.
I really didn’t mind leaving an hour later, I honestly rather would prefer it to leaving an hour earlier. So, I first tried calling Delta to see if I could stay on my original DL49 flight. The first person I talked to told me to call Virgin, and so I called Virgin but they said that since there was no award space open, they couldn’t do anything. Hmm. I decided to call Delta again, and this person essentially told me to call back when it was closer to the flight (a week or two) because they couldn’t do anything about it right now.
To make matters even more interesting, I found out that my outbound flight from New York to Amsterdam wasn’t changed with regards to the schedule, but the equipment was swapped from Delta One Suites (A330-900neo) to the old non-suites plane (A330-300). Sigh. We started with two suites flights, and now we ended up with zero (for now).
Calling Delta A Week Before:
About a week and a half before my flight, I decided to call Delta again. This time, a very helpful agent tried her best to get me back on my original flight. While I was on the phone for about an hour, she was able to connect to a special team to get me re-ticketed to my original flight. Yay!
All I had to do after was call Virgin Atlantic to reissue my ticket. I got a new ticket within a day, and we were all good to go. At least I would get to try Delta One Suites on my flight home!
A Mini-Panic:
Two days before I was supposed to fly from Amsterdam to New York in Delta One Suites, I noticed on the App that my seat was changed, and it went from the “Delta One Suites” to just “Delta One”. Oh no, another equipment swap!
I called to confirm, and the agent said that they did do an equipment swap. I was bummed, but then the next day I noticed something very odd. On the app, it said our inbound plane was an A330-900neo with Delta One Suites. Could it be true? At this point, Delta locked the seat map and it still displayed the old plane “A330-300” as the aircraft serving the flight. What’s even odder was that I had to check-in with KLM at the online check-in. On the KLM site though, it showed the A330-900neo with Delta One Suites, so thankfully Delta switched back!
The Verdict:
While it was annoying that Delta removed me from Delta One Suites for both my legs, I’m happy that they at least were able to put me back in Delta One Suites for my inbound flight home. The Delta One Suites product on the A330-900neo is much nicer than the old non-suites product on the A330-300. I’m not sure if all airlines are switching out planes and schedules as much as it seems like Delta is, but I’d be curious to know.
Schedule changes can be annoying as they can even sometimes result in an equipment swap. I recommend making sure to keep track of any emails or texts regarding your flights, as it is better to try to fix any issues that arise earlier than later. Especially in other cases that are more severe, such as when Delta downgraded me from paid Delta One to the Main Cabin, attempting to fix an issue earlier may allow you a better chance to fix it.
Have you had an experience similar to this before? Were you able to fix it? Comment below!
Cheers,
Ty
Have any questions? Comment below or email me at takeofftotravel@gmail.com. I’ve also started working with a travel agency, Fora Travel, and can assist in booking hotel stays or planning trips. You can also view all my other posts here! Thanks for stopping by!
