Delta vs Etihad Airways

Best product each one flies

Scored on what can be verified. Service, food and ground recovery are absent deliberately: they need someone in the seat, and they live in the reviews rather than here.

One caveat on the Value line, stated rather than buried: Value is computed from business fares, and a carrier with too few of them does not get a Value score at all. Where you see a dash, we have fewer than three priced business routes for that airline and did not want to invent a figure from one or two — so its product score is the mean of three dimensions rather than four, and it is not directly comparable to a score built on hundreds of fares. The airlines with the most fares behind them are named on the business-class ranking.

Dimension by dimension

• Seat: level

  10/10 on the A350 / A330-900 (Delta One Suite) against 10/10 on the A350-1000 / 787-9 (Business Studio).

• IFE: Delta

  Screens, connectivity and power: 10/10 against 8/10.

• Lounge & bags: level

  What the fare includes before you board: 10/10 against 10/10.

What happens if the aircraft swaps

Both carriers are paying-the-same-fare-either-way propositions on some frames. The worst product each one flies:

Delta: Same 1-2-1 lie-flat, no privacy door.

Etihad Airways: Older 787s carry the original staggered Business Studio without a door.

Common questions

Is Delta or Etihad Airways better to Europe?

Etihad Airways scores 9.3/10 against Delta at 7.5/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare. On the four dimensions we can verify, Delta wins 1 and Etihad Airways wins 0. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.

Does the aircraft change the answer?

Yes. Delta scores 10/10 on the A350 / A330-900 (Delta One Suite) and 8/10 on the 767-300ER. Check the equipment on your date before deciding.

Has Jon flown either of these?

Delta, in business on a Europe route. Etihad Airways has not been flown, so nothing here claims firsthand experience of its cabin.