Review of Delta Air Lines flight New York → Chicago in Economy

Hello and welcome to this set of reports covering my trip to Chicago and Indiana!

Here's the routing:

8/19/16: Delta 5955, LGA-ORD, E175, Economy (You are Here)
8/23/16: Delta 4086, IND-LGA, CRJ900, Economy, and Tourist Bonus! (Here)

I booked this flight as it was a unique opportunity to fly out of LGA's Marine Air Terminal. Flights on American and United were slightly cheaper, but our miles are all with Delta, so this seemed like the right choice.

We arrived at Terminal A at 17:03.



The only flights that leave from this terminal are Delta's shuttle services to O'Hare and Reagan. Delta's shuttle service to Boston leaves from C/D.



Upon entering, the baggage claim is to your right, the bag drop area is to your left, and security is straight ahead. We had no bags to drop.



We also had TSA PreCheck and there was nobody in line, so it literally only took one minute to clear.



The FIDS showed that all the flight to Chicago were delayed. Yay.



There was a large selection of magazines and newspapers available for free.



I was very surprised at the terminal. It really felt like the SkyClub at JFK T4. Lounge chairs and power ports everwhere, small, but busy.



The flight was leaving from gate 2. The plane hadn't arrived yet.



N215JQ, a 7.5-year-old E175, showed up around 17:40.



Departure kept getting pushed back due to weather en route to Chicago. Boarding finally started at 19:04 (already 40 minutes behind STD).

Of course, everyone lined up even though only pre-boarding had been called.



I was on board at 19:17.



I was in seat 12D.



Legroom was a bit tight.



A nice sunset!



All of a sudden, everything whirred to a stop, and the lights went out. The captain announced that the transfer from gate power to the APU hadn't gone well and that there were lots of error messages showing up in the cockpit. He said that some engineering people were coming to take a look, and everything should be solved in 20 minutes.



20 minutes came and went. The FAs came through the cabin with glasses of water, which was a nice gesture considering we were already more than an hour behind STD and still at the gate.
Eventually, the captain came on and said the test had failed so they were going to try another test. Another 20 minutes went by, and the captain came out again and said, "I've been flying this airplane for 13 years and I've never seen it take this long to resolve this issue". Finally, at 20:37, the problem was fixed.

The cabin had gotten dark by that time. The flying time was announced to be 1h45m.



We pushed back at 20:55, began taxiing at 20:59, and took off on runway 13 at 21:13 - 167 minutes late!







I checked out the seat back contents as we went up.



The cart came through at 22:10 and offered a drink and a nut mix. It's worth noting that all alcohol is FREE on Delta Shuttle (and only Delta Shuttle) flights.



That's pretty much all that happened during the flight.

The crew was really phenomenal. They stayed upbeat despite the long delay, were super accommodating, and kept us in the loop about what was happening. Can't ask for anything more.

The seat was fine for a short flight. It was comfy, but a bit tight (as expected on regional jets).

I didn't use it on this flight, but the fact that Delta offers free streaming entertainment on every flight is great. The selection isn't huge but it's better than nothing.

We began our descent into ORD and touched down on runway 27L at 21:54 - 111 minutes late.





A very short taxi to the gate - we pulled in at 21:59.



Thanks for the ride, N215JQ!



O'Hare was pretty much deserted. It was a long walk to the exit but I guess it was okay after sitting around for so long!

That wraps this report up. Thanks for reading!

-Daniel