Review of Delta Air Lines flight New York Charlotte in Economy

Airline Delta Air Lines
Flight DL1618
Class Economy
Seat 20C
Aircraft Boeing 717-200
Flight time 02:15
Take-off 06 Oct 19, 11:45
Arrival at 06 Oct 19, 14:00
DL   #34 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 826 reviews
juddsol
By 471
Published on 14th October 2019

The wife and I had just spent the last week enjoy the best that America's North East has to offer and now it was time to return home. As we had used a Delta gift card our route would take us from Delta's focus city of Boston to hub at JFK then back to CLT.

Sit back and buckle up! Lets go flying!


Routing


TAble of Contents


Flight Info
Check In
Arrival/Transfer 
Sky Club
Boarding
Seat
IFE
Food/Beverage
In-Flight/ Landing


FLight Info


Airline: Delta Airlines (DL)
Aircraft: Boeing 717
Registration: N989DN
Delivered: 2001 via AirTran and SW
Route: JFK-CLT
Flight Number: DL168
Seat: 20C
Departure Gate: C61
Departure Runway: 22R
Scheduled Departure Time: 11:45
Actual Departure Time: 11:59
Scheduled Arrival Time: 2:00
Actual Arrival Time: 1:27
Landing Runway: 36R
Arrival Gate:  A9
Scheduled Flight Time:  2hr 15 min
Actual Flight Time: 1hr 28 min


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Check In


I checked in 24 hours in advance via the Delta app and nothing to report on that front. Standard as can be and with no issues.


Arrival


Delta leaves from Terminals 4 "B" gates and Terminal 2 "C" gates.  The only way to transfer between the two is the airside Delta shuttle called JITNEY. One of the gates to take this shuttle was right across from B55, where we just landed from BOS. We waited a good 15 minutes and luckily did not have a short layover. The actual ride over to Terminal 2 is less than 5 minutes and offers very good Delta wide-body spotting.  Terminal 2 is just regional and smaller A320 and B737 series aircraft. 

Terminal 2 is very old and very small so any gate is within a short 2-3 minute walk of the shuttle exit.



SKy Club


I still had some AMEX airline credit to use so I headed back to the Terminal 2 Sky Club and used it to get my wife in the lounge. 

The lounge had plenty of seats and was relatively quite at this hour. The food spread was similar to the Boston Sky Club as it was still breakfast time. This time a hot meat was available but it was just some overcooked Turkey Sausage. Terminal 4 has a larger Sky Club with more options as it is the terminal for Delta's South America and Europe JFK flights.  The Sky Club in Terminal 2 did have 4 shower rooms but I didn't see a lot of usage of them. The lounge did offer decent tarmac views but overall a very mediocre experience. 



Boarding


Boarding began a few minutes early at 11:09. Main Cabin 1 started at 11:16. When we arrived on board plenty of overhead space was left. 


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Seat


Delta's 717 are in a 2-3 config. Luckily row 20 is an exit row and the window seat is missing so my row only had 2 seats on the "C,D,E" side. The seat was standard but with no recline due to being in an exit row. I did not find this to be an issue but I almost never recline. The plane did feature the always wonderful adjustable wing headrest.


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IFE


Standard Delta Wifi. I did not try it as I wanted to read (sorry again). Seat back pocket had your usual: Delta Magazine, Wifi info booklet, Safety Card, and Sick Bag. This aircraft did feature a universal outlet/USB combo in-between the seats in front you.


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Food/Beverage


We had 1 beverage service on this flight. I chose a coffee and Biscoff Cookies. I was lucky and the FA gave me two packs of cookies!!! I love dipping them in coffee. Its a perfect combo.  The other choice was Cheez-its.


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In-Flight/Landing/Bag Pickup


We pushed back from C61 at 11:43. After a lengthy taxi to 22R we took off at 11:59. The flight was smooth until final approach into CLT. It seems CLT is always bumpy. However, we landed safe and sound on 36R at 11:27. CLT always offers a slow taxi and today was no exeption. We finally reached our gate, A9, at 1:40


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Baggage claim is a short 5 minute walk away. Delta has been trying to handle bags quickly and today was a good example of it. My bag arrived about 1:55 and I was on my way.



Thanks for traveling with me! See you next time!


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Verdict

Delta Air Lines

8.5/10
Cabin7.5
Cabin crew8.5
Entertainment/wifi9.0
Meal/catering9.0

New York - JFK

6.6/10
Efficiency7.5
Access7.0
Services6.0
Cleanliness6.0

Charlotte - CLT

7.2/10
Efficiency7.5
Access7.5
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.0

Conclusion

Another solid flight with Delta. They really are the best of the big 3 in the US. I always enjoy flying them and try to do it whenever possible.

They do need to fix their lounges though; very sub par.

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