<p>No difference in price; one leaves an hour earlier (not a big deal to our travel plans). </p>
<p>Boeing 747-400 operated by Air France.
Boeing 767-300ER operated by Delta.</p>
<p>I’m leaning toward the 767, only because the 747 has very few sets of two seats together; instead, most of the seats are three together, and with just the two of us flying I would rather have two seats to ourselves than be stuck next to a third person for an 8-hour flight. </p>
<p>But maybe I am overlooking some other, more important difference . . .</p>
<p>check out seatguru.com - great site that can tell you a great deal about your seat selections. </p>
<p>Personally I love the 747 - but have not flown an Air France one before so don’t know how it is configured. Seat pitch and the distance between rows would be the key things to look at on seat guru</p>
<p>One other thing to consider is whether you’d prefer Air France’s food to Delta’s. This may not be a huge big deal, but all other thigns considered, it might be nicer to have a fresh croissant, fruit and dark coffee in the morning than reheated scrambled eggs and a biscuit.</p>
<p>For me anyway, I’d prioritize (since the schedule and cost are both equivalent) -
The seat since this is where you’ll spend all your time and it’s a long flight. If you can manage to sleep in it for a decent portion of the flight, all the better.
In-flight entertainment - i.e. whether you get your own little monitor on the seatback in front of you and the choice of movies. I flew Delta from Atlanta to Manchester, UK within the last 2 years and the plane had an ‘on-demand’ entertainment system where you could select from a number of movies, tv shows, music, etc. at-will and pause/rewind, etc. It was really pretty good and killed time when I wasn’t reading but I can’t sleep on airplanes. </p>
<p>You should be able to figure much of this out on the airlines’ websites. </p>
<ul>
<li>Meals - I don’t really care since they’re all roughly comparable unless you’re in business or first class. The ‘beef’ or ‘chicken’ or ‘vegetarian’ all seem about the same regardless of the airline with it sometimes being slightly better one time than another time.</li>
</ul>
<p>I would not suggest Delta. I had two miserable transatlantic flights on Delta. My most recent flight to the UK was Continental, which was slightly better than adequate. I liked Virgin Atlantic a lot. My 17 yo son – who seems to be the world traveler in the family at the moment – would do Air France in a heartbeat.</p>
<p>Anything but Delta seems like a good guiding tip, at least if you have any intention of being fed (yes, they do feed you on transatlantic flights, but only once, and with a tiny pittance).</p>
<p>I will say that Monday, flying from the UK on Continental to Newark, we had tons and tons of food. We were continually offered beverages and water and there were maybe 3 food services. Essentially a hot lunch, a snack, and a hot sandwich. The flight was not full. My son, growing 21 yo that he is LOL, was given two hot lunches and two hot sandwiches, and they offered me extras as well. Food was not bad for airline food.</p>
<p>We had good luck with Delta to Italy last year. All 4 flights were on time, food was okay, free alcohol on the return flight. Not all of their flights have seatback entertainment though. That would be the deal breaker for me.</p>
<p>I prefer the 767 because of the TV screens and set of two seats. I think Air France has better service than any Delta flight I’ve been on, although it can vary greatly. I’ve always found Air France found to be far superior to US airline food, although it’s still airline food. Flying Air France is almost like starting your trip early.</p>
<p>Speaking of flying Air France, I would avoid it if it’s one of the Airbus planes. I know they’re safe, but they’re essentially flown by computer, and I always find that there’s a lot of accelerating/decelerating that seems obviously done by computer to adapt to wind, for example. It’s like cruise control on a hilly road. I think a pilot makes those adjustments more smoothly.</p>