Delta Air Lines announced today that they are launching a west coast shuttle with hourly service between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The airline will use Embraer E-175 jets operated by Delta Connection partner Compass Airlines. Delta will offer First Class, Economy Comfort, and Economy services on the route. According to Delta, customers will enjoy the following features on the route:
- Check in as close to 30 minutes prior to departure
- Dedicated check-in counters
- Gates located near security
- Complimentary newspapers
- Assigned seating
- Complimentary beverages including beers from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Starbucks Coffee, and wines from Wente Vineyards
- Complimentary on board snacks provided by LYFE Kitchen, a California based lifestyle food brand
- Flights will operate every hour on the hour beginning at 7am, Monday through Friday, and you can view the complete schedule here.
MJ’s Take
Well, I don’t live on the west coast but it’s a nice option that ties in with Delta’s efforts to build up LAX. The 30 minute check-in, and PreCheck (for those who are eligible) on both ends will make this useful for business travelers. Interestingly, I don’t think Delta has assigned seating for its east coast shuttle service, so that’s a unique wrinkle. I no longer live in DC, but I found the lack of assigned seating on the DCA-LGA shuttle to be mildly annoying. I like that change a lot. Hopefully, assigned seating means you can reserve a seat at booking and not at check in, like the US Airways east coast shuttles. All in all, a net positive for Delta flyers, and a bit of competition for United in the market.
-MJ, August 1, 2013 (from onboard a Delta jet via GoGo inflight wi-fi 🙂 )
Agreed…the assigned seating on west coast is done to try and position against WN. On East coast, its not done because its not needed for a 35 minute flight–it just adds time and confusion. It is done for the LGA-ORD shuttle because that is a 2 hr+ flight
I don’t think assigned seating has anything to do with confusion about continuing flights, I think it is more to do with the competition in the market. Southwest runs a dozen flights a day LAX/SFO, so to have that added “perk” is just another selling point.
Reason for assigned seating is there is a lot of flow passengers for the west coast shuttle, but none for the east coast shuttle. So, it’d be weird and confusing to have an assigned seat for PHX-LAX, and then no assigned seat for LAX-SFO.
PreCheck opened at DL’s SFO checkpoint 2-3 weeks ago.
Are you sure that “expedited screening” means PreCheck? I’m guessing it means SkyPriority. Otherwise, any “evil-doer” could just buy a ticket on SFO-LAX and effectively bypass the more rigorous screening.
Hi Gene. I didn’t mean to imply PreCheck and expedited screening were one and the same. I clarified the post just a tiny bit.
don’t think that SFO has pre-check though.
@Steve,
As Gene said, PreCheck is now open at Delta’s gates in SFO.