Review of Delta Air Lines flight Salt Lake City → Baltimore in Economy

Hello and welcome to another flight report! This report will document my return flight to Baltimore after a weekend trip to Oakland, California. The outbound report can be found here.

Background: About a month ago Delta had a fare sale on west coast destinations from Baltimore, to OAK, SAN, SJC, SMF and ABQ connecting in SLC, for just over $200. I figured that fare was reason enough to take a quick trip out to the Bay Area, so I booked my tickets. When selecting seats during the booking process, it became clear why Delta was offering that price to these destinations: the seat maps for all four of my flights were wide open.

That morning: I began my day with an early 6:05am flight from Oakland to Salt Lake City. I won't be reporting that flight, but I wanted to share a few pictures.



The Flight: My flight from Oakland arrived a few minutes early at gate D11. The unrefurbished 26-year old N314US would next be flying all the way to EWR.



Since flight 1189 to Baltimore would be departing from gate D5 just 50 minutes later, I did not roam too far from the D concourse. I clearly was a small part of the morning Delta bank at SLC, as the concourses were absolutely packed with people.

A look at the ramp between the C and D concourses, with a 757-200 boarding for a flight to ATL.



Boarding for our 9:50am departure began on time at about 9:20am. Notice the huge radome on top of the fuselage – N3741S had recently gained GoGo 2Ku Wi-Fi during its refurbishment (more on that later).



Once again I boarded with Zone 3, and offered to gate check my carry-on bag to Batimore – I really didn't want to bother with searching for a space in the overhead bins on this full flight.



The view from seat 30A. Gate D3 would soon be housing an A330-300 turn from HNL.



We pushed back right on time and began taxiing out to runway 16L. The captain announced our flying time as a quick 3:20, and that our aircraft was fitted with new much faster GoGo 2Ku Wi-Fi – interesting that the Captain was highlighting that new feature. He also announced that we would be taking off to the south, then making a sweeping right 270-degree turn back to the east.

Passing one of the Skywest-branded CRJ-200s. I flew on one of them on an American Eagle flight ABQ-LAX back in 2013.



Passing a Delta hangar, with one of the now-rare domestic 763s getting some rest.



Takeoff on runway 16L. We had a noticeably-long takeoff run of 8,000 feet. SLC's altitude was showing here.



The Salt Lake City skyline visible to our east.



Notice the "6" marker below our wing – halfway down the 12,000-foot runway.



Rotating.



Starting our long right turn as part of the LEETZ 5 departure.



Once we reached cruising altitude, I switched the IFE over to ESPN to watch the College Football Playoff teams be revealed.



Legroom again pretty "meh" on this refurbished 737.



Cruising over Wyoming.



Since it was a Sunday afternoon, I flipped from ESPN over to CBS/Fox to watch some a bit of football, but quickly remembered that Delta offers free HBO content now. This 737 offered more content than the older system on my flight a few days prior, including Silicon Valley's full third season, which I watched for the remainder of the flight.

This might sound like a weird thing to say, but there was almost too much entertainment on this flight. Between the 2Ku Wi-Fi which is advertised to support streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, the excellent selection of content available for free on the IFE, as well as the live TV offering, the flight blew by.

Here's the landing page for GoGo highlighting this aircraft's improved service. I didn't purchase it though, as I was more than happy enjoying the seatback IFE.



Over south-western Nebraska.



Interesting transition to snow cover.



The cabin crew completed two beverage/BOB services on this flight like on the BWI-SLC flight a few days prior, but 'only' handed out a single snack each time.

Clouds covered the view from Iowa all the way until we started our descent into BWI.



I know I said it before, but this flight really passed quickly between the outstanding IFE offering and the tail winds that day.

Passing over downtown Baltimore.



A look at the Chesapeake Bay



Final for runway 33L.



An old World DC-10.



Taxiing past the Southwest operation at Concourse A/B.



There are a few DC/Baltimore-themed murals on the outside of Concourse B. One can be seen just off our winglet.



Apparently Spirit still has some planes in their old old livery.



A UA A320 loading for DEN on the other side of Concouse D.



On stand at gate D26. Remember how I said there were some tail winds? We were on stand a full 30 minutes before STA.