Review of Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Salt Lake City in Economy

Introduction

Greetings all,
I took these flights heading to Baltimore, MD to visit family. I live in Seattle, and visit relatives in the southern Delaware area every summer, normally flying on Southwest or Alaska. This time, to shake things up a bit, I decided to take Delta eastbound, and Alaska home, on a Seattle-Salt Lake City-Baltimore-Seattle routing. My itinerary was as follows:
7/9/19 DL 1985 dep. SEA 6:00 am arr. SLC 9:00 am 737-900ER
7/9/19 DL 1189 dep. SLC 9:55 am arr. BWI 4:11 pm 737-800
7/23/19 AS 765 dep. BWI 5:20 pm arr. SEA 8:10 pm 737-900ER

Sea-Tac Airport

Given the 6:00 departure time, an early rise was necessary. I woke up at 2:15, left the house at 2:40, and arrived at the airport at 3:50 am, walking into the terminal shortly before 4 am.

I checked in at one of the many kiosks located near the Delta counters, checking a bag for $30 USD and printing my boarding passes. I was offered the opportunity to bid for compensation for taking another flight due to my flights being overbooked, but I reluctantly declined as I had family waiting for me in BWI and a 3-hour drive to southern Delaware after that, so I figured it was best to arrive early and not risk it.

I then proceeded to a bag drop counter, where there was almost no line.

Then, I headed to the security checkpoint, said goodbye to my dad who had driven me to the airport, and got in the security line. There was only about a 20-minute wait, which is really good for Seattle in the summer, and I was airside by 4:25. While talking to the TSA officer who stamped my boarding pass, he wished me a good flight and I almost said "You too", which was a stark reminder that I was operating on 3 hours of sleep.

First, I checked the FIDS to make sure my SEA-SLC flight was on time still. Only one flight delayed (AC departure to YVR), so I'd say things were running pretty smoothly so far!

Concourse B, where I was flying out of, is my least favorite terminal at Sea-Tac due to how crowded it is and the low ceilings, but it really wasn't too bad at this time of day.

Also walked to my gate, just to see what was going on. Sea-Tac was pretty sleepy this time of day; there was adequate seating and no lines at the few restaurants that were open.

My plane to SLC, N929DZ, a 0.1 year-old Boeing 737-900ER. The second-to-last 739ER delivered to Delta (as well as the penultimate 737-900ER built), and the newest of the type currently in service at the time. It was delivered on May 31, 2019, and arrived in Seattle shortly after midnight that day after a late-night flight from Atlanta.

Having about 45 minutes until boarding, I decided to stroll around a bit to see if I could find something I wanted for breakfast. I went to Concourse C and D, in the hopes that either Camden Food Co. or Beecher's would be open, since I hadn't dined at either chain yet and wanted to try one, but neither was open. I saw a Chinese place of some sort in the C Gates, but that seemed too heavy given how early it was, so I just had a frappe and bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit from McDonald's.

Starting to get brighter out there. Love those cotton candy skies.

Delta Flight 1985: SEA-SLC

Boarding started 5 minutes or so behind schedule, at 5:25 am, with the usual pre-boarding groups, US military, first class, etc. I got on with the Main Cabin 2 group.

Outside view from my seat at row 26.

I then turned my attention to the IFE screen, choosing to put it on the moving map for a little bit.

Legroom was average (I'm 6'4''), and the seat was comfortable.

Pushback occurred on-time, and the safety video played as we taxied out to the runway. There was a little bit of a line for takeoff, but it was steadily moving.

At 6:18 am we lined up for takeoff on runway 16L/34R, and took to the skies, initially heading south, then southeast on a course to Utah. A link to a takeoff video is included below as well.

Climbing out over south Seattle, then Tacoma.

Mt. Rainier coming into view, with plenty of snow still on it despite being July.

Once we got to our low-ish cruising altitude of 29,000 feet, the friendly SEA-based cabin crew did a full drink/snack service. Soft drinks and snacks (almonds, KIND bars, Cheez-Its, and Biscoff cookies) were free, and alcoholic beverages were available for purchase. When the cart came to my row, I got ice water and the classic Delta Biscoff cookies. I checked on the moving map again, then chose to watch some Adam Ruins Everything.

Descent began over northern Utah, with excellent views of the Great Salt Lake. Anyone know why it has that red/green pattern in the second photo?

Getting closer.

At 8:43 am MDT, with a 1-hr time change, we touched down on runway 16L/34R. Like before, a landing video is attached below.

Clearing the runway.

Our taxi was rather long, during which we passed by both the Delta and SkyWest maintenance hangars. We parked at gate D2 just before 9 am, right next to Concourse E and the new terminal, which appears to be coming along quite nicely.

A good chunk of people seemed to be connecting onto other flights at SLC, since I heard other passengers conversing about it, so there was a light sense of urgency about deplaning quickly. Some connections I heard other pax talk about were to Cancun, Palm Springs, and San Antonio. Curious, I asked my seatmate if she was connecting here. She said no, she actually lived in SLC and was coming home from vacation on a KOA-SEA-SLC routing. I had visited KOA last year, so she and I chatted briefly about the Big Island until it was our turn to get up.
I asked the pilots if I could visit the cockpit, and my request was granted. They were friendly, and the FO gave me some Delta 737 trading cards to add to my collection. I didn't get a chance to take a photo of N929DZ at the gate in SLC, but it was going to Raleigh-Durham, NC next. After visiting the cockpit, I headed out to the terminal, looking for my gate for my flight to BWI, and more info about my connections and flight to Baltimore will be included on my next report, which will be coming soon. The FR24 stats for my flight are attached below as well, if you'd like to view that.