Delta knows the top 40% of Americans are $40 trillion richer than just a few years ago. Cue new burgers and bourbon on Delta One’s biggest revamp yet

On Wednesday, the company unveiled the next era of Delta One, part of what it calls its largest investment and most holistic redesign in nearly 30 years. It starts on transoceanic flights from Los Angeles this fall and reaches the full network in early 2027. Ranjan Goswami, Delta’s chief marketing and product officer, put the dates more precisely at a preview in New York, with Fortune in attendance: November out of LAX, and systemwide on March 1. The project builds on a more than $1 billion fleet upgrade Delta announced in April, which brings new suites to its Airbus A350-1000s starting in early 2027.

“Every investment we make is deliberate and designed to deliver the industry’s most premium end-to-end travel experience,” Goswami said in a statement.

The numbers behind it

Just days earlier, Delta reported premium ticket revenue rising 18% in the September quarter to $6.82 billion, while main cabin revenue rose 12% to $6.80 billion, according to the company’s latest earnings release. Adjusted revenue reached $17.6 billion, up about 16% on roughly flat capacity. Delta said “diverse” revenue streams, a category that includes premium, made up 61% of the total. The airline cut its 2026 profit outlook to $5.10 to $5.60 a share, from $6.50 to $7.50, as fuel costs surged; the stock is up more than 15% year-to-date.

Adjusted pre-tax profit held at $1.5 billion, in line with a year ago, even though Delta absorbed “$1.6 billion of higher fuel costs,” CEO Ed Bastian said on the Oct. 9 earnings call. Bastian credited a “secular shift in consumer behavior.” The top 40% of U.S. households, which make up most of Delta’s customer base, are “nearly $40 trillion wealthier than they were just a few years ago and increasingly prioritizing experiences, including travel,” he said. McKinsey noted that on busy transatlantic routes, a business-class cabin can contribute nearly as much revenue as an economy cabin while using far less space.

Delta is reshaping its planes around those customers. Chief commercial officer Joe Esposito said premium capacity grew 6% to 7% in the quarter, while premium load factors rose almost two points. “We were not discounting fares,” he said. Delta is “supplying it in premium seats, not Main Cabin seats,” he added, and it plans to cut main cabin seats year-over-year in the fourth quarter. On the July call, Esposito said a 787 replacing a 767 takes a jet from about 30% premium seating to more than 50%.

Coach is holding up, too. Main cabin unit revenue grew 17%, the third straight quarter of improvement, as rivals pulled unprofitable capacity. Still, Esposito said premium and Delta’s other “diversified” revenue streams now make up more than 60% of the airline’s revenue. Main cabin is 39%.

A menu built on classics

At the New York Delta One reveal, held 72 stories up on 42nd Street and Madison Avenue, looking down at the Chrysler Building, Delta said customers asked for recognizable, nostalgic dishes done well. The new menu includes the Wagyu burger, a roasted sea bass, braised lamb, short rib, mac and cheese and a mushroom risotto. Delta’s culinary team said the short rib is braised for eight hours. They also said they think they’ve “cracked” a risotto that can be reheated in the air, something that had been hard to get right. Sauces now come in separate saucières, so passengers decide how much to pour.

Chef Simon Hulstone, whose Elephant Restaurant in Torquay, England, has held a Michelin star for two decades, said Delta wanted to bring a “Michelin mindset” to the program. He said consistency matters because the food now ends up on Instagram, and the airline upgraded its crockery so “the food is now framed.” Chefs Norio Ueno and Jereme Leung are consulting on regional dishes.

Master Sommelier Andrea Robinson told Fortune on the sidelines that this is the biggest incremental investment in the wine program since she began working with Delta roughly 20 years ago. She said it shows that wine culture in America, as a representation of hospitality and place, “has arrived.” Delta narrowed 1,600 wines down to 13 from 11 wineries and cut rotations from four a year to two. Champagne Taittinger is expanding to domestic Delta One. Blanton’s bourbon arrives Dec. 1, and Delta says it is the first and only airline to carry it. Dassai 45 sake joins Tokyo-Haneda flights Nov. 3.

Delta is also extending entrée pre-selection to 18 hours before departure. It says no other U.S. carrier offers a window that close to flight time.

“Luxury is about having the experience designed around you—today’s premium traveler values choice as much as quality,” Kristen Manion Taylor, Delta’s SVP of brand experience, said in the release.

A ‘good problem to have’

Demand that outruns capacity brings its own pressure. Stephanie Laster, a 19-year Delta veteran who works on onboard soft goods, bedding and amenities, called the crowding “a good problem to have.” She added that Delta “also [has] to make sure that we give everyone the experience properly.”

Asked how much of her job comes down to that problem, Laster said, “It really all is.” She described designing at scale: 10 million Delta One meals a year, kitchens around the world and flight attendants who need the right supplies. “The airline industry is not for the faint of heart,” she said. Her goal is for flight attendants to be “proud of what they pour, what they serve.”

Laster pointed to a Missoni collaboration “that we’re really proud of.” The release lists a Winter Elsewhere amenity kit and a second Missoni pillow among the changes. “We’ve got a new Missoni Mini cuddle pillow coming to complement the suite on all international as well,” Laster said. “Because we know, first and foremost, it’s all about rest… you want the [lie-flat] seat, you want to rest.”

Goswami said sleep and food are the two fundamentals of the experience. Suite doors are present on almost half the fleet, and he expects about 60% by the end of next year, pointing out that this is something you can’t do with just a month’s planning. Delta launched the Delta One brand in 2015 but, Goswami said,, he said, but has never before run a marketing campaign built around it.

Delta says more than 200 flight attendants and employees shaped the program over 14-plus months and 36 trial flights, producing more than 60 new pieces of tableware. “We spent two years building this product,” Goswami said. “We’re now ready to launch it.