Flying out of Atlanta back to LAX, my wife and I had the opportunity to fly in Premium Select class…read moreon an Airbus A350-900. It was worth remembering (documenting).
By maintaining Delta Platinum Medallion level, I'm able to purchase a Main seat (not Basic) for me and a companion, and almost immediately upgrade to Comfort+, if they are available. That's been my M.O. for most flights, sometimes (very rare these days) being upgraded to F.C. the day of. So when I got a notification 2 days before our flight to LAX, that we had been upgraded to Premium Select, I was excited, mainly because it was something new (knowing that Premium Select is different than first class). We also got to pre-order our dinner for the 4 hour flight, right on the app.
Premium Select was tied to boarding group 2, and had 40 seats.
The A350-900 has Delta One lie-flat seating (1-2-1 configuration with total of 32), so after that group 1 boarded, it was our turn. Premium Select is configured in a 2-4-2 configuration, meaning that a Delta One seat is about twice as wide as a Premium Select. Main economy is configured as 3-3-3, so that missing seat's width is distributed across 8 seats: the width is pretty much the same as an economy seat. Where it is quite a bit better is the pitch (the space between you and the seat in front of you) and the existence of manual built-in adjustable leg rests and foot rests. It made a big difference for me, being able to elevate my legs and feet. There are three buttons to control it (with the 3rd button controlling the recline). One negative is that the space in front of you to store a small personal item, is a lot smaller (shallower) than a typical seat. My wife had to put her duffel bag up on top because it wouldn't fit.
Other added feature included the aforementioned dinner (similar to what one would get served on a first class seat), noise canceling headphones, bottled water, pillows and blankets for comfort, and a Tumi amenity kit. The seatback screen seemed bigger as well, though there were continuing problems with the playback of movies throughout the trip, with inconsistent sound (a lot of static) from the headphones. Wifi worked fine, so used that instead.
This flight had a total of 10 flight attendants to take care of the 300 plus passengers, and they were friendly and attentive. Because of a problem with the flight attendants not arriving on time to the gate, we were delayed 1 hour. But nobody seemed to be in a hurry (LA seemed to be the final destination for most), and the flight ended up being very pleasant. Our checked bags did come, though to the wrong marked carousel. But it was nice to be home, taking a Lyft back to Long Beach.