Review of Delta Air Lines flight Atlanta Austin in Economy

Airline Delta Air Lines
Flight DL546
Class Economy
Seat 26F
Aircraft Airbus A321
Flight time 01:57
Take-off 09 Apr 19, 11:42
Arrival at 09 Apr 19, 12:39
DL   #33 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 826 reviews
YGeorgeW
By GOLD 989
Published on 16th April 2019

National Championship Trip



Delta, AUS-MSP, A319, Economy (Click Here)
Delta, MSP-ATL, Boeing 757-300, Economy (Click Here)
Delta, ATL-AUS, A321, Economy, Minute Suites (You Are Here)

Minute Suites ATL



My previous flight was parked at Gate A7. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the Delta Clubs. I believe ATL only has two priority pass lounges. The Club in the international terminal and the Minute Suites in Concourse B. It was a 10 minute walk to the Minute Suites from A7, which is relatively central in Concourse B.

The concourses are connected by lovely moving walkways.

photo sdfsd

This was my first time using Minute Suites with Priority Pass. I'm not sure if you can make a reservation ahead of time, but I was lucky they had a single empty room while I was in Atlanta. The front desk agent, Steven, was very efficient and helpful in getting me checked and explaining how Minute Suites work. For those of you who don't know, Priority Pass Select gives you one-hour free. Every hour afterwards is $28/hour. I believe if you have multiple Priority Pass memberships through various cards, you can stack them for additional hours.

The Minute Suites in Atlanta had 6 rooms. Each were rather small, but a nice area to nap or work in. The rooms came with a small desk, large television screen that you can also use as a computer, and a "bed." The room also has adjustable temperature and a white-noise generator. I plugged in my phone to charge and took a much-needed nap for ~30 minutes. The bed was comfortable enough for the short period of time, but if you need some real, long sleep, it might be better to find an airport hotel.



Here is the outlet on the wall, but for whatever reason, my phone did not charge via the USB port.

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The snacks and drinks were not complimentary.

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Here is the price list.

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After a quick nap, I let Steven know I was leaving - that's all there is to the checkout process.

DL 546



Taking me to Austin was N343DN, a new A321-200. In fact, it was delivered in May 2018, so this plane is less than one year old!

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Boarding began on time, no calls for volunteers this time. This was my only flight on this trip that was not completely full.

I had chosen the exit-row window seat on the starboard side of the plane. SeatGuru flags this seat as a bad seat because it's missing a window, but you have one window right next to you, all you need for looking out. The seat, however, does look narrower than the two other seats in the row because the armest alongside the window is smaller, but sitting in it felt fine to me.

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As you can see, there is legroom for days.

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The overhead panel was once again a little different.

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There is no seatback IFE, instead, the IFE screen is underneath the seat and must be pulled out. It worked just fine though, and I actuall prefer how you can adjust the position.

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As luck would have it, I also had an empty middle seat next to me. The exit row area is also right across from a jumpseat for one of the flight attendants as well as the middle lavatory. It's hard to tell from this picture, but the opposite row of exit-row seats only had two seats and no seat next to the window (to give room for the jumpseat).

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As you can imagine from the previous picture, the bathroom was tiny.



The Captain welcomed us onboard at 11:20 AM and warned about turbulence at the beginning of the flight. We pushed back 8 mminutes later.



I had passed out shortly after takeoff, and woke up groggily towards the end of service. I was able to flag a flight attendant down and get a snack and drink though. I opted for the granola bar again, with a cup of hot tea.

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Wingview somewhere over Mississippi:

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We began our descent at 12:11 PM.

There's Austin!

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We touched down at 12:39 PM and was at the gate at 12:50 PM.

Austin-Bergstrom Airport Arrival



I have not flown since late January and was surprised to find that the rideshare situation in Austin is now different. If you are hailing a taxi or rideshare, you have to walk through a few of the garages to a new rideshare/taxi pickup location. I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it is a bit more inconvenient than before (in terms of walking for a bit more after you exit the building), but I imagine this makes pickup and traffic a lot smoother during busier times.
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Verdict

Delta Air Lines

6.9/10
Cabin7.5
Cabin crew7.0
Entertainment/wifi9.0
Meal/catering4.0

Atlanta - ATL

7.3/10
Efficiency7.0
Access8.0
Services6.0
Cleanliness8.0

Austin - AUS

7.8/10
Efficiency7.0
Access7.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness9.0

Conclusion

Lounge: The Minute Suites are a nice additional to Priority Pass. Great place to get some work done or take a quick nap. It wasn't an option on the drop-down menu for this flight report, but it's hard to say what I would have rated it points-wise. It's not a lounge in the traditional sense.

Cabin & Seat: This was the most comfortable of the three Delta flights on this trip. The exit row on the starboard side has legroom for days.

Service: As before, efficienct service. I do think Delta (and all U.S. airlines) can learn from Air China and slap a sticker on the seat in front of

Meal & Catering: Choice of snacks is nice, I think the granola bar is probably my preferred choice.

Bottom Line: Same as before - Delta is definitely better than UA or AA when it comes to no-status economy.

Related

2 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 497908 by
    ThomasDutch SILVER 633 Comments
    So much legroom for a window seat and a lavatory in the middle of the plane? Can't say I have witnessed that ever in Europe on an A321.... Usually it's just configured like an A320 with lavatories in front and in the back and with extra legroom for emergency exits, but definitely never that much. Isn't it a tad annoying though? To have a lavatory so close to your seat? Thanks for your report!
    • Comment 497943 by
      YGeorgeW GOLD AUTHOR 273 Comments
      Hi ThomasDutch! Thanks for reading and commenting.

      Can't say I have witnessed that ever in Europe on an A321 >

      -I believe Lufthansa has a similar setup on their A321s without the bathroom (looking at Google Images, the legroom seems comparable).

      Isn't it a tad annoying though? To have a lavatory so close to your seat? >

      -I was passed out for half of the flight and in the window seat, so it didn't bother me too much, but if you're seated in an aisle seat, it can definitely be annoying with all the traffic.

      Thanks again!

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