Award Booking

As I mentioned in my earlier post about redeeming VS miles, I took advantage of the 30% bonus when transferring MR to VS and used 93,000 MR (120,000 miles) to book two Delta One Suite seats on PEK-DTW on the A350. After that, I added a separate Delta segment from DTW to ORD on my own. Both tickets were paid for with the Barclays Arrive Plus credit card, which was the only card I had with a 6-hour trip delay insurance benefit. As it turned out, the flight really was delayed by more than 6 hours.

I forgot to take a screenshot on the official website when I booked the award seats, so I’m adding one I found online here. Delta doesn’t have first class on this flight, so Delta One Suite is the highest cabin. We got seats 4B and 4C. When boarding, we used the door behind the business class cabin, so economy boarding didn’t affect business class.

SkyTeam Lounge

The flight was originally scheduled for 3:50 PM, but because the inbound aircraft from the U.S. had already left 6 hours and 1 minute late, our departure time showed as 10:35 PM, a delay of 5 hours and 45 minutes. That timing was really miserable, though it was later pushed back again and ended up exceeding 6 hours. We left the Waldorf at 4 PM and still got to the airport a little after 5. We proactively moved our onward flight to the next day. Even though the tickets were purchased separately and the second flight was in Basic Economy, they still rebooked it for us. Our bags were also checked through to ORD. After finishing the airport formalities, we first went to the SkyTeam lounge. The environment was decent, but the food was very poor. I had only taken a few photos before a lounge staff member told me to stop, so these are the only ones I have.

They opened this curtain at night, so you could see the airport. During the day, I assume they kept it closed because the sun was too strong. These two salads were awful: hummus salad and cucumber yogurt salad. I didn’t photograph the rest of the food line, but I remember there were red bean buns, Hong Kong-style siu mai, Kung Pao chicken, and fried noodles. Overall, the experience was quite poor.

Air China Lounge

I saw on the PPS card that there were two lounges in T2, so we decided to check out the Air China lounge. There was a small hiccup: because the PPS app wouldn’t open on a mainland China phone, I had to use the physical card. Luckily I had brought it. But I had registered one card each with Aspire and Ascend, and I couldn’t remember which one was linked. The front desk also couldn’t tell me which account it was associated with, and I was worried that bringing in two people on the Ascend version might trigger a charge. In the end, I swiped it anyway, and apparently I wasn’t charged. So if you’re heading back to China, it’s best to add your PPS card to Wallet in advance or only bring one physical card.

The Air China lounge was much better than the SkyTeam lounge upstairs. The food was better, there was more variety, it was less crowded, and the massage chairs were free to use. We rested here for quite a while.

I skipped the other lounge because I was worried about being charged. Once it was clear the delay had reached 6 hours, I went to buy a few things. I’m not sure whether those expenses will be reimbursed. I’ve already submitted all the required documents and am still waiting to hear back.

Delta 188 Business Class Review

Because shopping took longer than expected, I didn’t board early. Most business class passengers were already on board, and the cabin was quite full that day, so I didn’t take many photos. Overall, privacy was excellent. There was much more storage space than on Swiss, and the bed was also more comfortable. The amenity kit was by Tumi, and the bottled water was Evian, both of which were nice touches. There were a few issues, though: the pillow and blanket took up a lot of space, and when I wasn’t sleeping there wasn’t a good place to put them. Also, the divider between the two seats couldn’t be lowered all the way (maybe we just didn’t figure it out), so it was inconvenient to watch a movie or TV show together. And one more thing: my power outlet didn’t work.

Business Class Seat and Amenities

The blanket and pillow were both pretty thick, but the seat itself was spacious and comfortable.

The screen was new and very responsive, much better than the one on my previous Swiss flight. There was also a ton of legroom. I hadn’t done enough homework beforehand, so at the time I didn’t know there was customizable mood lighting to play with. This divider wouldn’t open fully and would only go halfway down, which made it pretty awkward to watch a movie together. The Suite offered excellent privacy. Some doors didn’t close completely tightly, but even then it was only a small gap.

Amenity Kit

Out of curiosity, I looked it up and found that people were even selling this amenity kit on eBay for around $10 each.

Dining

At first we wanted one Chinese meal and one Western meal, but by the time service reached us, the Chinese option was gone. In the future, it looks like I’ll need to pre-order online. In the end, we chose one roasted beef tenderloin and one salmon, and both were very good.

The standout was this summer tomato soup, which was excellent. The dessert was still a bit too sweet for my taste. After dinner, it was already the middle of the night Beijing time, so I went to sleep and stayed half-asleep until there were only two hours left before landing. For breakfast, I chose cereal and an egg omelet, which was nothing special.

Final Thoughts and Follow-Up

Overall, this was a very good experience. There was plenty of storage and legroom, privacy was excellent, and the food was solid. I liked it better than Swiss overall. We landed in DTW at 11 PM. Even though this wasn’t a single through-ticket itinerary, Delta still provided us with a hotel, which was generous, though it wasn’t the airport Westin. It also didn’t seem like business class passengers got any special treatment, but I still thought Delta handled it fairly well. The next day, they also checked our bags to ORD for free, even though they were overweight, so I ended up very satisfied with Delta overall. The next morning, we grabbed some breakfast at the airport and I’m hoping that can be reimbursed by the trip delay insurance. I’ll report back with a DP later.

One update: the trip delay claim reimbursed $300. The Barclays Arrive Plus reimburses per trip, so even for two people the limit was still only $300. The reimbursed expenses included breakfast and some skincare products.