“Flying to Australia was the best on Delta,” reminisced Craighton Miller, a flight dispatcher with regional carrier Endeavor Air who flew the 777 across the Pacific. “Oh, that flight was long!” The 777 was the first twin-engine aeroplane that could fly it nonstop, breaking into the exclusive long-haul domain of the four- and three. Come November, there will be one less Boeing 777 operator. In a pandemic-related fleet shakeup, Delta is gearing up to bid farewell to one of the largest planes it operates — the Boeing 777. The Delta 777 was retired on October 31st with the final revenue flight from New York-JFK to Los Angeles (DL8777) after being the experimental aircraft with Delta for 18 years. The aircraft came on Delta property in 1999. Flight status, tracking, and historical data for Delta 777 (DL777/DAL777) including scheduled, estimated, and actual departure and arrival times.

1. Delta Airline 777-200
2. Delta Airline 777
3. Delta Flight 7775

Come November, there will be one less Boeing 777 operator.

In a pandemic-related fleet shakeup, Delta is gearing up to bid farewell to one of the largest planes it operates — the Boeing 777. This widebody jet was the workhorse on many of Delta’s flagship long-haul international routes, including flights from Los Angeles to Syndey and from Atlanta to Johannesburg.

But then the coronavirus came stateside and nearly wiped out all demand for these routes. Although Delta recently completed a cabin retrofit project across its 18 777s, the Atlanta-based carrier later decided to simplify its fleet for cost-effectiveness.

To that aim, in May, Delta announced the retirement of its entire fleet of 777s by the end of the year. Well, 2020 is nearly over (thankfully), and the carrier has scheduled its final two 777 flights.

If you’re looking to catch one final ride on this Boeing widebody, you better start planning now. The final two flights are as follows, according to Cirium schedules and confirmed by a carrier spokesperson.

• Oct. 30: Delta Flight 8787 ATL — LAX, 3 p.m. — 4:30 p.m.
• Oct. 31: Delta Flight 8807 JFK — LAX, 1 p.m. — 4 p.m.

Of course, there’s a possibility that the dates and timing shift. Over the past few months, there’s been an increased number of pandemic-related schedule changes across airlines. So while these are the final scheduled flights, anything could theoretically change at the last minute.

There are still seats left for sale in all cabins on the first retirement flight from ATL to LAX. The JFK to LAX flight is currently sold-out in business, but there are seats left in the other two cabins. Coach fares start at $149, premium economy starts at $350 and business class starts at roughly $1,200.

Award availability is limited, though there are currently some coach seats available at saver rates on the JFK to LAX flight. Delta’s charging 16,000 SkyMiles, though you can book the flight through Virgin Atlantic for 12,500 points.

You’ll still see plenty of these Boeing jets flying across the country. Aside from the myriad of international airlines that fly the 777 to the U.S., two of Delta’s biggest competitors — American Airlines and United — both operate the 777-200 and longer 777-300 variant. You’ll even find AA and UA 777s flying on domestic routes from time to time.

Related: These are the jets that could end up in the boneyard

Delta’s retirement of the 777 is just the latest in a long list of planes being sent to the boneyard across the world. With a full recovery not predicted for a few years, carriers are streamlining their fleets and saying goodbye to the gas-guzzling jets of yesteryear. In Delta’s case, the airline has so far retired the Boeing 737-700, McDonnell Douglas MD-88 and the MD-90.

Aviation enthusiasts like me (case in point: check out my Instagram page) will mourn the fact that many Airbus A380s and Boeing 747s — two of the world’s largest passenger planes — are getting scrapped. Just this week, British Airways retired its final two Queens of the Sky. BA was previously the world’s largest operator of the 747. Going forward, it’ll have none, leaving just a handful of airlines still flying the 747.

While long-time fans and enthusiasts will miss the flying the 777 in Delta’s livery, the carrier already has a swanky modern replacement, the Airbus A350. Going forward, the A350 will be DL’s flagship aircraft. The A350 burns 21% less fuel per seat than the 777s they’re replacing.

Plus, these are some of the newest widebodies to enter the airline’s fleet. The cabins are outfitted with the latest Delta One Suites, Premium Select, Comfort+ and standard coach seating.

It’s not all sad news; the A350 is actually opening up a new market for Delta: Cape Town.

Related: Delta to serve all 777 routes with A350s, and add Cape Town

Though the A350 can replace almost every ultra-long-haul 777 route, the Atlanta to Johannesburg frequency requires a modification. Going forward, the airline’s South Africa service will follow a new circular routing that goes: Atlanta-Johannesburg-Cape Town-Atlanta.

The stop will allow for refueling at sea level before beginning the 8,130-mile trek back to the U.S. And it adds a new dot to Delta’s route map.

So while Delta’s 777 retirement is sure to disappoint some flyers, it ushers in a new era for the carrier’s fleet — one focused on more modern, fuel-efficient aircraft.

Featured photo by Alberto Riva/The Points Guy

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Delta Airline 777-200

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To a casual observer in the cabin, Delta Air Lines flight 8777 from New York to Los Angeles on Saturday might have looked like a run of the mill hop from coast to coast, one of many crisscrossing the country every day.

But at a closer look, it would have become clear that this was not a normal coast-to-coast flight like we used to have before the pandemic.

All the middle seats, blocked by Delta’s social-distancing policy, were unoccupied, and everybody wore a mask — but most importantly, the vast majority of the passengers behind those masks weren’t regular flyers just getting from JFK to LAX. They were aviation enthusiasts, flying to California on the last run of a popular airplane that’s fallen victim to the pandemic: Delta’s former flagship, the Boeing 777.

Because of the drop in traffic this year, the biggest twinjet ever made has become too big for Delta to fly economically. Its almost 300 seats are tough to fill these days when there isn’t a planeload of aviation geeks who want to go on a last ride, so Delta is phasing it out in favor of the Airbus A350. The Airbus doesn’t fly as far, but offers much better economics.

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The demise of the 777 is bad news for the passenger experience in coach class, where Delta was among the few carriers in the world retaining the original 3-3-3 seat layout that Boeing had originally designed. Most other airlines that fly 777s have squeezed in one more seat in a 3-4-3 layout, and that made Delta’s Triple Sevens very popular among passengers, by contrast.

“Retiring a fleet as iconic as the 777 is not an easy decision,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said earlier this year. “I’ve flown on that plane often and I love the customer experience it has delivered.”

Customers on DL8777 agreed.

“Flying to Australia was the best on Delta,” reminisced Craighton Miller, a flight dispatcher with regional carrier Endeavor Air who flew the 777 across the Pacific. “Oh, that flight was long!” The 777 was the first twin-engine airplane that could fly it nonstop, breaking into the exclusive long-haul domain of the four- and three-engined jets.

Yan Chan, a defense contractor, loved the Triple Seven so much that he showed up at the gate with a model Delta 777 he asked his fellow avgeeks to sign.

Max Moncrief, a ramp trainer with Delta, came on his day off to salute an airplane that took him, he said, “all over the world.”

And at the front of the jet, half of the Delta One cabin — sporting the individual suites that the airline had just spent millions installing, before the pandemic — had been taken over by members of the Delta Diamond Medallion Flyers, a Facebook group for people who have the highest elite status on the airline. Buoyed by free biz-class champagne, they had clearly come to party, lowering their masks only to drink from the special cups they had made for the occasion.

Not everybody was so into it.

“I don’t understand the excitement about it,” said Mel Bollom, who had come from Wisconsin to chaperone his young, aviation-enthusiast grandson Cooper, “but I am amazed by the enthusiasm.”

About 10 percent of the people on board, according to a quick estimate by a flight attendant, were normal passengers like him — a number that gives an insight into the scale of the problem Covid-19 has given the airlines. Without the avgeeks filling the jet on this one special occasion, the flight would have gone 90 percent empty.

And that’s why Delta’s Triple Sevens — even if they are at most two decades old, which is young in airplane years — are going away.

According to a study by the International Council for Clean Transportation of airplanes flying on North Atlantic long-haul routes, the Airbus A350 is the most fuel-efficient jet currently used to serve that very important market, while the 777 is among the worst performers. Delta says the Airbus burns 21 percent less fuel per seat than the 777 it replaces.

The two jets have similar capacity, both seating around 300 people, but the A350 is a generation later. Thanks to the use of composite materials, it’s about 30 percent lighter, and it also has newer engines.

Until the pandemic reduced air travel to a trickle, the higher fuel burn of the Boeing was not an issue. Delta flew its Triple Sevens full, which made them profitable. It had also just refurbished their interiors, a sure sign that an airline plans to keep a plane type in the fleet for a while — especially if that airline is Delta, known for investing in maintenance and updated cabins to keep its jets longer than many competitors do.

But when an airline is flying planes almost empty and burning through $750 million a month, fuel savings matter a lot. That means it’s curtains for the airplane that just three years ago had inherited from the 747 the title of biggest and heaviest in the Delta fleet.

None of that mattered on Saturday, though, as the 777 branded on the fuselage as The Delta Spirit crossed the U.S. with its complement of socially-distanced aviation geeks. People were there to celebrate another storied airplane that’s going away, like so many 747s and A380s this year.

“You made this flight extremely special,” Captain Tim Freeman told his passengers on the intercom as the 777 began descending from 40,000 feet. “This is my final landing with the Triple Seven, so make sure to say it’s a nice landing.”

Captain Freeman did make a nice landing at LAX, and many of the avgeeks onboard saluted his smooth touchdown with something that frequent flyers never do, as if to highlight the special occasion: they clapped.

After the 777, the captain will go on to fly Delta’s new flagship, the A350. The first officer, Scott Gottschang, will become a captain himself, on the short-haul Airbus A320.

For the airplane they flew to Los Angeles, though, the future is not as bright.

A few hours later, having disgorged its final passengers into a near-deserted terminal, The Delta Spirit departed one last time, headed for storage — and likely recycling — in the California desert. As the sun went down over the Pacific, Delta’s last 777 gave one of those passengers, watching from a nearby terrace, a sight that summed up a career: it took off, literally, into the sunset.

All photos by Alberto Riva/The Points Guy

SPONSORED: With states reopening, enjoying a meal from a restaurant no longer just means curbside pickup.

And when you do spend on dining, you should use a credit card that will maximize your rewards and potentially even score special discounts. Thanks to temporary card bonuses and changes due to coronavirus, you may even be able to score a meal at your favorite restaurant for free.

These are the best credit cards for dining out, taking out, and ordering in to maximize every meal purchase.

Delta Airline 777

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Delta Flight 7775

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.