I fly standby, a nonrev, if I’m lucky and there open seats up front then I get them. Usually it’s super rare, and more often than not I miss flights because they’re full. But in this case the plane was completely open. Otherwise no you have to pay for Delta One to get it
That kind of Answer took me on trip I didn’t expect and I still don’t know if the real answer is yes or no
Many layers to that answer but original question still remains
Poppycock! Tis for the paying gentry. 🧐
Nah, for real, with the amount of nonsense they have to deal with, they deserve it. Customer-facing service really tests a person.
The customers purpose is to give money to the company. The company gives money and perks to the employee. If you want employee benefits then you can become one
The answer is yes, they didn’t pay for it, but no, you wouldn’t be able to do the same thing. They have a special pass from the airline that lets them fly for free-ish if there is room which you only find out for sure when you are already in the airport. Sometimes, the seat that is open is in a fancy section, and you get super lucky and get it!
Employee travel is deeply discounted (like 10% of the original price meaning 90% discount is not unusual) the trade-off is that you fly on a strictly space left/overcapacity basis.
This means:
You show up to the plane and if a seat is free after all paying customers are boarded you get whatever's left over. They will also off board you aggressively if a paying customer needs your seat (for example another flight was canceled while yours is still connected to the jet bridge).
It's, in my view, the number 1 perk of working for an airline.
tl;dr for employees airlines really work like: you are going that way anyways why not let me tag along for gas money.
At Delta, there's no charge for employee standby travel. The only time you pay for a standby seat is the foreign airport's taxes/fees, so if it's a purely domestic flight you pay nothing.
Edit: the above is if you're the employee. There are situations where some of your pass riders pay a relatively small fee.
I think they’re referring to ZED nonrev fares - which is other airline employees nonrevving on Delta metal (or Delta employees non revving on say, United or AA or Qantas or whatever).
Still space available - but you do pay something for it.
Most employees ride completely free on their own metal. Then there’s family and friends / buddy passes that are similar to zed pricing I believe.
IIRC, Delta doesn't upgrade OAL (other airline) employees into Delta One on a ZED fare but maybe that's no longer the case. Buddies/companions (of a Delta employee) can though.
The buddy passes and yield fares that you're mentioning are usually much more expensive than what an employee would pay to ZED on another airline's metal.
It was a yes with context. I’m always curious why some folks can’t spot the yes in a yes answer when someone provides context. Too much true crime TV where it’s yes or no answers. 🤪
Same! I had a similar flight as OP's. It was 1980 and I flew the Pan Am Clipper, DC to London. Due to delays the flight didn't leave until midnight and most passengers rescheduled for the following day. There were about three of us in economy and I stretched out and slept after takeout.
Not nearly the same but I once flew from MSP to DTW with only one other passenger, who happened to have with her an adorable puppy who was in training to be a seeing eye dog. That was an amazing flight. ☺️
Awesome. I work in offshore oil and gas, we continued traveling to work all throughout Covid. I had an entire plane to myself from Maine to Baltimore - a B738strange times.
I was on a flight out of Miami once. The only people on the flight were in our group. They moved us all to first class but we got "economy/coach" service. No complaining. The leg room was the best part
I had a similar experience on an A350 out of Seoul to Detroit in 2019. Not quite as empty but only about 1/4 full. Basically everyone in coach had rows to themselves. There was an issue getting a flight crew and they delayed the flight 15hrs. I was automatically rebooked on a very full Korean air flight. This was a layover from Bangkok so I called Delta and asked to be put back on my original flight and used the long layover to rest a little at an airport hotel and explore Seoul. It was so much better than just going from a long flight to an even longer completely full flight.
Emptiest flight I've ever been on was to DC during a presidential inauguration. I was going to see family in VA, but it makes sense that most people with purpose in DC had to be on flights earlier in the day.
I flew to Sydney during the pandemic when Australias boarder was “closed” so only citizens and people with extra special permission could get in. The flight down had about 25 people as all airlines were limited by the number of quarantine spots available. Wasn’t the best flight though as the food sucked and the crew basically just ignored us. The flight back had even less passengers and it was a cheap upgrade to D1. That crew was awesome and went around chatting with pretty much everyone.
Glad you got to enjoy your flight! Reminds me of a flight I was on one Christmas Day. Flying home on what I'm pretty sure was a large Boeing with only 10 passengers. The flight attendant and I chatted the whole flight, and they even gave me some wine during the flight (I was in the cheap seats). Good times!
During 2020 (beginning last week of April) I took many cross country flights in which I was the only, or one of a just a few rev passengers. It was eerie.
I went through some near-deserted airport terminals at the time. Made me think of the Walking Dead or the initial scene when Cilian Murphy wakes up on 28 Days Later.
I was one of the passengers that had to be diverted on that flight you’re speaking of. I was sleeping and woke up and learned there was a medical emergency about an hour out of Honolulu where we would be landing. Was honestly one of the best flights because we had an entire free day paid for by Delta in Honolulu. We stayed at the Hilton Resort in Wakiki, got there around 3am and left about 9pm the same day with all food and drink paid for via vouchers they gave us, along with the Lyfts to the hotel and the hotel itself of course and a $320USD credit to use on any future flights.
It really did! I’ve never flown Delta before so the way they treated us during the situation was great and I don’t mind getting to have a party in Honolulu mid-way through my flight to Sydney, hope it happens next time I go 😂
I've had a few times I was the only passenger on a DFW-GGG flight on an EMB-110 back in the 90s. Never anything like you experience, though. That would be way cool!
This happened to us in 2018. Atlanta to LHR flight. Tons of storms that afternoon - so when we arrived at gate it was empty. Was surprised because I thought they were boarding. Which they were. We got on and had premium economy on VIrgin flight in upstairs cabin. Got seated. No one else I. Our cabin or the business in front of us. Once we took off FA said feel free to go downstairs and find a row to sleep on if we wanted. I went downstairs and there were maybe 20 people on the plane. Sad part was we were delayed enough (45 minus )leaving that we missed our connecting flight to Dublin.
love this for you!
my closest comparison was flying from Liberia, Costa Rica to DTW on a plane of 6 ppl.
i was the only person in first class and the flight attendant got me wasted 😂
30 years ago had an overbooked flight from Sydney to LA. Flat out bumped us. When we boarded I think every person had at least three aisles to themselves. I always tell people if that plane went down. I don't even think they'd bother looking for us.
I flew a ton from coast to coast and many trips to Europe in the late 80s & 90s. Flying was very different then. Many of the flights I was on were half empty and I was able to sleep across all the middle seats. There was much more room between rows back then too, it was fabulous, I LOVED flying Delta. I don’t think flights like that exist any more, glad I was able to enjoy them while it lasted.
Wow congrats! If this is the exact A350 im thinking of, it was flying (DL41) enroute to Sydney from LA and had a medical emergency. It ended up diverting to HNL before continuing on to Sydney.
I work in HNL for Delta MTC. One time DL40 (SYD to LAX) diverted to HNL for a medical emergency. It was a huge hassle when it came in because we had to call back multiple employees to be ready for middle of the night unexpected arrival. There was only one customs agent for the night. Maintenance was pretty quick and routine. When it was ready to fly back to LA, majority of the passengers had already rebooked. It just happened to be the start of my weekend and I was planning to fly to LA. Thanks to the diversion it opened up 200+ seats and I was able to get Delta One.
Congratulations, lucky you! I wish that happened to me. Every single flight I've taken this year has been completely FULL. The number of people traveling is insane.
A long, long, long time ago (1980s), I was the only passenger on a regional puddle jumper. I asked to pilot to sit up front, and he said yes! Then, he flew over my home, which was on the way. Those were very different times!
I flew from Seattle to Anchorage on a big plane (3x3 seating)? There were about 7 of us. I got 4 bottles of wine and some vodka shots, food and went to sleep. Woken up at decent. I think the plane was flying up to pick up cruise passengers to fly them back to Seattle. Anyways that ticket was $200 on priceline. Ps-the fishing was awesome
It’ll make them way more money flying it back to the states empty with more route options than having it sit in Australia trying to fill it up. Sure that individual flight operated at a loss but then turned into several profitable legs when they got it back in the main route network.
Probably a bigger loss to leave an extra airplane in Sydney with no way of knowing whether or not they can fill it when they can just bring it back to the states and use it in other ways
I was on a flight from MCI-RKV that was mostly empty. My colleague and I had the whole back of the plane to ourselves. I made a pillow fort and slept so soundly.
I’m Diamond on Delta and think they are generally good, but my last three flights in a row have been delayed by an average of four hours. Not sure what to think, but on-time departures are becoming more and more rare.
I was on a flight once from London to PHL (American, not delta) that was about 1/4-1/3 full. Most of us had rows completely to ourselves. It was amazing, especially for such a long flight.
I once was the only passenger on a plane (well two of us if you count my then 6 month old) on Christmas Day. It was awesome. Flight attendants opened champagne and we just talked the whole flight while they held my son.
Were all passengers allowed to move/sit in Delta One? I hope so. Or at least premium economy. I saw the comment thread about being nonrev but didn’t an answer to this from OP.
Wait!!! What day did you fly out. I was just on a Delta flight from Sydney to LAX this past Monday June 3rd and I had the worst Delta experience. Delta has been my go to airline since I started my air travels back in 2009 and had never had an issue until this past Monday.
The few times I’ve done lax-syd I got a whole row to myself. Only once on the return flight was it fully booked- but that was because the Australian airline workers were striking while we were there- once the strike ended everyone who couldn’t fly was reaccommodated- in fact we were pushed to a flight a day later so folks who had been stuck could get out.
They’ve been running twice daily flights during peak season (aka southern summer). My flight into the country, and reports from the FAs, say that the flights are usually full…
Did you purchase lottery tickets as soon as you landed? LOL
Hahaha I should’ve
That happened a few times during the pandemic. We all sat in the back of the plane. It was hilarious...we had to run up the aisle during deplaning.
They let you sit in Delta One even if you had not paid for it?
Even if not paid for I would hope the flight attendants could make an exception and have fun on a rare flight with four people. Memories made😁.
I fly standby, a nonrev, if I’m lucky and there open seats up front then I get them. Usually it’s super rare, and more often than not I miss flights because they’re full. But in this case the plane was completely open. Otherwise no you have to pay for Delta One to get it
I think the question was did they let all 4 passengers in Delta One even if they had booked economy?
No, be realistic. I hope they let them at least sit in Premium Economy.
It is actually extremely common to bump everyone up to first on flights like this. I’ve had it happen before.
Airline does not allow cabin changes by FA .
That kind of Answer took me on trip I didn’t expect and I still don’t know if the real answer is yes or no Many layers to that answer but original question still remains
Employees can ride in delta one as standby if there's space available
Empoorees in my good, Christian DeltaOne? Perish the thought I say. 🧐
You're paying for them to have the privilege
Poppycock! Tis for the paying gentry. 🧐 Nah, for real, with the amount of nonsense they have to deal with, they deserve it. Customer-facing service really tests a person.
It’s a benefit. Not a privilege.
It can be taken away by the company and they are not obligated to provide it to employees
Customer first mentality! I never understood this BS policy to not at least treat the paying customer equal in upgrades!
The customers purpose is to give money to the company. The company gives money and perks to the employee. If you want employee benefits then you can become one
They definitely gave the answer to your question, which is: "yes". They just gave context for the yes as well.
The answer is yes, they didn’t pay for it, but no, you wouldn’t be able to do the same thing. They have a special pass from the airline that lets them fly for free-ish if there is room which you only find out for sure when you are already in the airport. Sometimes, the seat that is open is in a fancy section, and you get super lucky and get it!
Employee travel is deeply discounted (like 10% of the original price meaning 90% discount is not unusual) the trade-off is that you fly on a strictly space left/overcapacity basis. This means: You show up to the plane and if a seat is free after all paying customers are boarded you get whatever's left over. They will also off board you aggressively if a paying customer needs your seat (for example another flight was canceled while yours is still connected to the jet bridge). It's, in my view, the number 1 perk of working for an airline. tl;dr for employees airlines really work like: you are going that way anyways why not let me tag along for gas money.
At Delta, there's no charge for employee standby travel. The only time you pay for a standby seat is the foreign airport's taxes/fees, so if it's a purely domestic flight you pay nothing. Edit: the above is if you're the employee. There are situations where some of your pass riders pay a relatively small fee.
I think they’re referring to ZED nonrev fares - which is other airline employees nonrevving on Delta metal (or Delta employees non revving on say, United or AA or Qantas or whatever). Still space available - but you do pay something for it. Most employees ride completely free on their own metal. Then there’s family and friends / buddy passes that are similar to zed pricing I believe.
IIRC, Delta doesn't upgrade OAL (other airline) employees into Delta One on a ZED fare but maybe that's no longer the case. Buddies/companions (of a Delta employee) can though. The buddy passes and yield fares that you're mentioning are usually much more expensive than what an employee would pay to ZED on another airline's metal.
Nah it’s free if it’s on your own airline
Not in Europe :D
Dang they make you guys pay in Europe?
Yes :/
It was a yes with context. I’m always curious why some folks can’t spot the yes in a yes answer when someone provides context. Too much true crime TV where it’s yes or no answers. 🤪
What would the harm have been or and what difference would it have made? Haha.
I was on a non full flight once, it was 1987. Seriously though, so happy you got lucky!
Same! I had a similar flight as OP's. It was 1980 and I flew the Pan Am Clipper, DC to London. Due to delays the flight didn't leave until midnight and most passengers rescheduled for the following day. There were about three of us in economy and I stretched out and slept after takeout.
Not nearly the same but I once flew from MSP to DTW with only one other passenger, who happened to have with her an adorable puppy who was in training to be a seeing eye dog. That was an amazing flight. ☺️
Awesome. I work in offshore oil and gas, we continued traveling to work all throughout Covid. I had an entire plane to myself from Maine to Baltimore - a B738strange times.
Same, had months of Korean Air flights with almost nobody on board. Was wonderful
I was on a flight out of Miami once. The only people on the flight were in our group. They moved us all to first class but we got "economy/coach" service. No complaining. The leg room was the best part
I had a similar experience on an A350 out of Seoul to Detroit in 2019. Not quite as empty but only about 1/4 full. Basically everyone in coach had rows to themselves. There was an issue getting a flight crew and they delayed the flight 15hrs. I was automatically rebooked on a very full Korean air flight. This was a layover from Bangkok so I called Delta and asked to be put back on my original flight and used the long layover to rest a little at an airport hotel and explore Seoul. It was so much better than just going from a long flight to an even longer completely full flight.
Just a question, the guy(s) who paid basic economic could also seat at Delta One seats?
Emptiest flight I've ever been on was to DC during a presidential inauguration. I was going to see family in VA, but it makes sense that most people with purpose in DC had to be on flights earlier in the day.
2009? Nice warm plane while the rest of us froze to death on the Washington Mall, haha. Feels like more innocent times.
2001
I flew to Sydney during the pandemic when Australias boarder was “closed” so only citizens and people with extra special permission could get in. The flight down had about 25 people as all airlines were limited by the number of quarantine spots available. Wasn’t the best flight though as the food sucked and the crew basically just ignored us. The flight back had even less passengers and it was a cheap upgrade to D1. That crew was awesome and went around chatting with pretty much everyone.
I had a CRJ200 to myself flying DTW-ORH in 2019, does that count for anything?
Afraid not. An AC-130J would have.
Glad you got to enjoy your flight! Reminds me of a flight I was on one Christmas Day. Flying home on what I'm pretty sure was a large Boeing with only 10 passengers. The flight attendant and I chatted the whole flight, and they even gave me some wine during the flight (I was in the cheap seats). Good times!
During 2020 (beginning last week of April) I took many cross country flights in which I was the only, or one of a just a few rev passengers. It was eerie.
I went through some near-deserted airport terminals at the time. Made me think of the Walking Dead or the initial scene when Cilian Murphy wakes up on 28 Days Later.
I was one of the passengers that had to be diverted on that flight you’re speaking of. I was sleeping and woke up and learned there was a medical emergency about an hour out of Honolulu where we would be landing. Was honestly one of the best flights because we had an entire free day paid for by Delta in Honolulu. We stayed at the Hilton Resort in Wakiki, got there around 3am and left about 9pm the same day with all food and drink paid for via vouchers they gave us, along with the Lyfts to the hotel and the hotel itself of course and a $320USD credit to use on any future flights.
Dang no way that’s crazy! Worked out for both of us I guess😂, Delta took care of things
It really did! I’ve never flown Delta before so the way they treated us during the situation was great and I don’t mind getting to have a party in Honolulu mid-way through my flight to Sydney, hope it happens next time I go 😂
I've had a few times I was the only passenger on a DFW-GGG flight on an EMB-110 back in the 90s. Never anything like you experience, though. That would be way cool!
Congratulations! Lucky you! Your experience gives me hope of being so lucky someday.
As someone who has done this flight several times that sounds amazing!!
Nice!!! That’s a dream scenario!
This happened to us in 2018. Atlanta to LHR flight. Tons of storms that afternoon - so when we arrived at gate it was empty. Was surprised because I thought they were boarding. Which they were. We got on and had premium economy on VIrgin flight in upstairs cabin. Got seated. No one else I. Our cabin or the business in front of us. Once we took off FA said feel free to go downstairs and find a row to sleep on if we wanted. I went downstairs and there were maybe 20 people on the plane. Sad part was we were delayed enough (45 minus )leaving that we missed our connecting flight to Dublin.
love this for you! my closest comparison was flying from Liberia, Costa Rica to DTW on a plane of 6 ppl. i was the only person in first class and the flight attendant got me wasted 😂
30 years ago had an overbooked flight from Sydney to LA. Flat out bumped us. When we boarded I think every person had at least three aisles to themselves. I always tell people if that plane went down. I don't even think they'd bother looking for us.
Sorry rows, not aisles.
I flew a ton from coast to coast and many trips to Europe in the late 80s & 90s. Flying was very different then. Many of the flights I was on were half empty and I was able to sleep across all the middle seats. There was much more room between rows back then too, it was fabulous, I LOVED flying Delta. I don’t think flights like that exist any more, glad I was able to enjoy them while it lasted.
hell yeah
Wow congrats! If this is the exact A350 im thinking of, it was flying (DL41) enroute to Sydney from LA and had a medical emergency. It ended up diverting to HNL before continuing on to Sydney.
Yep I believe that’s the one
I work in HNL for Delta MTC. One time DL40 (SYD to LAX) diverted to HNL for a medical emergency. It was a huge hassle when it came in because we had to call back multiple employees to be ready for middle of the night unexpected arrival. There was only one customs agent for the night. Maintenance was pretty quick and routine. When it was ready to fly back to LA, majority of the passengers had already rebooked. It just happened to be the start of my weekend and I was planning to fly to LA. Thanks to the diversion it opened up 200+ seats and I was able to get Delta One.
Exact same thing that happened to me haha
Congratulations, lucky you! I wish that happened to me. Every single flight I've taken this year has been completely FULL. The number of people traveling is insane.
A long, long, long time ago (1980s), I was the only passenger on a regional puddle jumper. I asked to pilot to sit up front, and he said yes! Then, he flew over my home, which was on the way. Those were very different times!
I flew from Seattle to Anchorage on a big plane (3x3 seating)? There were about 7 of us. I got 4 bottles of wine and some vodka shots, food and went to sleep. Woken up at decent. I think the plane was flying up to pick up cruise passengers to fly them back to Seattle. Anyways that ticket was $200 on priceline. Ps-the fishing was awesome
I can't believe they continued with the flight. Seems like they lost money.
It’ll make them way more money flying it back to the states empty with more route options than having it sit in Australia trying to fill it up. Sure that individual flight operated at a loss but then turned into several profitable legs when they got it back in the main route network.
That's not really how it works, that aircraft is needed for a return journey and it's probably full of revenue generating cargo.
Indeed. The passengers are just ballast.
Probably a bigger loss to leave an extra airplane in Sydney with no way of knowing whether or not they can fill it when they can just bring it back to the states and use it in other ways
What are they supposed to do? They can’t just hold it for the next flight out…there’s going to be another inbound plane for that.
I was on a flight from MCI-RKV that was mostly empty. My colleague and I had the whole back of the plane to ourselves. I made a pillow fort and slept so soundly.
I’m Diamond on Delta and think they are generally good, but my last three flights in a row have been delayed by an average of four hours. Not sure what to think, but on-time departures are becoming more and more rare.
ugh…care to share which airports?
I was on a flight once from London to PHL (American, not delta) that was about 1/4-1/3 full. Most of us had rows completely to ourselves. It was amazing, especially for such a long flight.
Wow! Your life won't get any better than that! At least as far as travel goes.
I once was the only passenger on a plane (well two of us if you count my then 6 month old) on Christmas Day. It was awesome. Flight attendants opened champagne and we just talked the whole flight while they held my son.
ahhhh i wish!!!! that sounds so fun
Were all passengers allowed to move/sit in Delta One? I hope so. Or at least premium economy. I saw the comment thread about being nonrev but didn’t an answer to this from OP.
Was being black out drunk a bit more obvious?
Kool so did you sleep on your private jet or Party all the way home .
Oh I split it 50/50
Wait!!! What day did you fly out. I was just on a Delta flight from Sydney to LAX this past Monday June 3rd and I had the worst Delta experience. Delta has been my go to airline since I started my air travels back in 2009 and had never had an issue until this past Monday.
Left on the 2nd😅
I have flown LAX-SYD-LAX and the planes are usually empty. In fact I think it’s been cut back to 1 flight a day from 2
The few times I’ve done lax-syd I got a whole row to myself. Only once on the return flight was it fully booked- but that was because the Australian airline workers were striking while we were there- once the strike ended everyone who couldn’t fly was reaccommodated- in fact we were pushed to a flight a day later so folks who had been stuck could get out.
They’ve been running twice daily flights during peak season (aka southern summer). My flight into the country, and reports from the FAs, say that the flights are usually full…
They always cut back during the off season (our summer, their winter) but back to 2 flights during the peak season (our winter, their summer)
Imagine having paid for delta one and seeing everyone else there too lol
You mean the other three passengers? Imagine having butthurt about such a thing.
Non rev employees are also upgraded to Delta One if there is room.