I find that Delta’s staff both on the ground and in the air are usually polite and exceed the “friendliness” of any other domestic “legacy” carrier, and this trip was no exception. Service on the ground was polite at check-in. I had one bag that I just wasn’t going to carry onboard whether I could have or not. No wait for a kiosk, but the one Delta employee working ALL of the kiosks was over taxed with travelers, one or two of which had issues with checking in. My wait was still under 10 minutes, but it should’ve been less than 5. The one agent was still pleasant enough once she’d worked through the backup of issue-oriented neophytes and others waiting to check their luggage. Security was a less than 5-minute affair, and I was on the inside!
I camped out at the Delta Crown Room for the one hour wait. I am not a Crown Room member, but access via my American Express Platinum Card ($450 annual fee that pays for itself in spades), which allows access to the Crown Room when flying Delta, not to mention American’s Admiral’s Club, Continental’s President’s Club and the Northwest World Clubs when flying those airlines. Delta provides free wi-fi to Crown Room members, but T-Mobile service (both wired and wireless) is available for the rest of us.
The 9:55am flight is operated by the 9:01am arrival from Atlanta, and 54 minutes is tight for a full 757. Thus, we were maybe 10 minutes late pushing back after a last-minute snafu with incorrectly boarded passengers. Turned out that they were non-revenue employee travelers. Not sure what the confusion was about. In-flight service was polite and pleasant, but late getting started due to turbulence. And we landed 5 minutes early even with the late start.
Baggage delivery was fast in Atlanta. My bag was already on the carousel when I arrived at baggage claim. Granted, I walked from terminal A rather than riding the train since I knew I wouldn’t make it to the gym today.
All in all, a typical Delta flight. They delivered what was promised with an air of “southern hospitality.”
