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

Introduction

Hello everyone,
I took this flight heading to Baltimore, MD to visit family. I live in the Seattle area, and visit relatives in the southern Delaware area every summer, usually 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
I've already written a report for my SEA-SLC flight; a link to it is attached here if you haven't checked it out yet. https://flight-report.com/en/report/43107/delta-air-lines-dl1985-seattle-sea-salt-lake-city-slc
Now with that out of the way, let's get to the report itself.

SLC Airport

I had landed in SLC on-time, parking at gate D2 shortly before 9 am. After deplaning from my SEA-SLC leg, I made sure to check out the connections board in the terminal, so I'd know where to go. If you can't see it, my BWI flight was departing out of gate C6.

Looking down Concourse D. I made sure to get lots of photos of the terminal, knowing it'd be gone in just a few years.

The view in between concourses D and C, where the majority of Delta's mainline flights at SLC are. The 767 was heading to BOS, the A220 in the middle to DFW, and the A319 and 737 side-by-side to AUS and BWI (my flight).

Looking at the departure/arrival board.

Concourse C.

Delta Flight 1189: SLC to BWI

I got to the gate at about 9:10, about 5 minutes before boarding. The gate agent was kind of funny for this flight, doing a "Bueller? Bueller?" impression when paging a passenger. I later boarded at about 9:35 with the Main Cabin 2 group.

A closer view of the plane taking me to BWI, N3754A, a 17.9 year old Boeing 737-800. It arrived in SLC from DEN earlier that morning.

The SLC-based cabin crew on this flight was a bit on the senior side and all-male (the first time that had happened to me). During boarding, one of them complimented me on a Delta plane pin I was wearing.

Outside view from seat 21A.

Unfortunately, the cabin had seen better days, with older (though comfy) seats, and an older IFE system that was usable, but didn't have as much content or as good touch sensitivity as on my SEA-SLC flight. Though old IFE is better than no IFE, I suggest that Delta consider redoing the cabins of these old 738s, if they plan to keep them into the 2020s.

Legroom is okay.

Boarding wrapped up a bit early, so we pushed back before schedule, while the safety video played, as before.
Taxiing past the Delta hangar again.

There was a bit of a takeoff line, after which we took to the skies at 10:16 am heading southbound, then east. SLC's altitude was evident here, as we had a bit of a sluggish takeoff roll.

For this leg, I chose to watch The Internship on the IFE. I'm not a movie nerd, but it was just okay. Good enough to pass the time on a flight, but I probably wouldn't want to watch it at home.

Cabin service started over Colorado, first with the BOB menu, then the snack/drink cart. I purchased a Luvo chicken wrap for about $8, and it was good.

After I ate, I continued watching The Internship on the IFE, intermittently checking the moving map, listening to music, or just relaxing and trying to nap. The crew came through the cabin once or twice offering water, a nice touch so that people could stay hydrated. It was a bit rough over the Rockies and western Maryland, but the flight was mostly smooth and unremarkable.

Near the West Virginia-Maryland border, we started descending into the hot, hazy Baltimore area.

We touched down at 4:02 pm EDT, with a 2-hour time change.

Pulling into gate D23, next to a Delta MD-88.

Cabin shot while deplaning.

Looking back at N3754A before its next flight back to SLC.

After that, I went to baggage claim to pick up my checked bag, and met up with my relatives shortly thereafter, getting out of the airport by 4:35. If you're interested, the FR24 stats for my flight is also attached below.