Delta upgrades business class with new Missoni bedding, more

Delta Air Lines wants you to sleep better in the sky.

The Atlanta-based carrier announced on Tuesday that it is expanding its partnership with revered Italian fashion house Missoni to include onboard bedding for Delta One cabins. The new bedding amenities include a Missoni duvet, white sleeping pillow and duvet cover, which all feature the classic Missoni zigzag design with navy accents.

Furthermore, Delta will soon offer its signature mattress pad on all Delta One flights (it was previously limited to ultra-long-haul departures). And for those on the longest flights, you'll soon receive a new memory-foam "cuddle pillow" onboard.

The new bedding will be waiting at your seat before departure, and it's set to debut on international Delta One flights this summer, followed by a domestic rollout by the end of the year.

Other upgrades coming to the Delta One experience include fancier Missoni-branded navy slippers and enhanced amenity kits. The new amenity kits will come in refreshed colors (think more blues and creams); inside you'll find new Missoni-branded and color-coordinated socks and eye masks, as well as a Delta One branded pen, Grown Alchemist skincare products, earplugs and a bamboo dental kit.

In preparation for this change, Delta said that it "conducted research, studied customer feedback and did inflight tests to better understand the sleep experience and what customers value."

It's probably no surprise that business-class customers value sleep; after all, perhaps the biggest selling point of a lie-flat upgrade is the ability to convert your seat into a bed to catch some serious shut-eye. The upgraded sleep amenities come as the airline continues to invest in the premium experience, opening more business-class-only Delta One Lounges and upgrading the onboarding catering on many of its flights.

Delta's business-class sleep experience has seen a few iterations over the years. It started with Westin Heavenly Bedding, as the airline tried to bring the hotel's sleep experience to the sky. The carrier then went all-in on a more environmentally friendly sleep set, before now landing on the Missoni partnership.

"When we set out to rethink the in-flight sleep experience, we focused on offering customers the same luxurious sleep experience you might get in a high-end hotel," explained Mauricio Parise, vice president of brand experience, in a statement.

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While American may offer Casper-branded bedding in business class, and United offers Saks Fifth Avenue amenities, there's no doubt that this is among the most luxurious collaborations in the sky.

It'll be interesting to see if Delta changes its marketing efforts around upgrading to Delta One. For years, United has claimed that Polaris offers the best sleep in the sky, and the airline has even hired influencers and sponsored paid advertising efforts to tout its sleep-focused amenities.

Either way, this should be a big upgrade for longtime Delta flyers, and I myself am excited to check out the refreshed bedding sometime soon.

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