Review of Delta Air Lines flight San Francisco → Minneapolis in Economy

China 2019 (and D.c. too)

delta air lines flight 1411 sfo to msp operated by boeing 737-900er

After picking up my two suitcases and putting them onto a cart, I began to walk over to the baggage recheck area. However, as my bags were only checked to MSP, I had to get them rechecked to Fargo. Since they couldn't do that at the International Terminal recheck area, I had to go to Terminal 1 and Delta's counters. 

I walked through the hallway following the signs until I reached the elevator for the AirTrain. The AirTrain is nice as it is pretty fast, free, and you are allowed to bring carts on board. There are two lines, the Red Line going one direction, and the Blue Line going the other so hope you don't get on the wrong direction, but it is a loop.

After one stop, I got off the station and walked over the bridge and took the elevator down to Terminal 1. Delta's check-in at SFO consisted of a lot of self-service kiosks.

A nice agent was able to help me and got my bags tagged for me using the kiosk. I dropped them off at the counter and headed off to security. The checkpoint looked pretty depressing, but I was able to get through it quickly with TSA - Precheck.

Delta was the main airline operating out of this section of Terminal 1, but American also had a couple of gates here.

Delta 757

The terminal was decent enough with higher ceilings, natural light, and enough amenities and seating. Delta also operates a Sky Club in San Francisco. My gate was at the end of the terminal with no good access for viewing the jet. As my boarding pass had Main 2 on it, I would be the last group to board the plane. I didn't have to wait too long until boarding began.

My flight was operated by N808DN, one of Delta's older 737-900ERs, and it had not been retrofit with the split-scimitar style winglets at the time, sadly. This plane also had the older generation pivot bins, as opposed to the newer style Space bins, which are much larger and can carry two more bags.

There were two men sitting in the seats next to me, so I had to squeeze bye. Leg room was average, and the seat had a headphone jack, USB port, and power outlets between the seats.

I took a look at the My Flight section of the IFE screen. It's nice how Delta is the only airline to consistently offer seatback entertainment on its narrowbody aircraft compared to UA and AA. The only planes without seatbacks were the retired MD-88s, the MD-90s, and Boeing 717s.

I had two windows, however one was severely scratched and you couldn't see clearly outside at all.

Doors closed at 3;49, and pushback was at 3:52. The safety video screened which was a newer one I hadn't seen before.

We had a slow taxi to Runway 1R where we made it at 4:07.

The engines spooled up, and headed down the runway, away from sunny California.

San Francisco Bay

Flying over Oakland International (OAK)

As with the other US airlines, Delta offers an extensive entertainment selection with many movies and tv shows. I decided to watch some episodes of Modern Family, first.

At cruising altitude, the flight attendants came around with a wide variety of snacks. I chose Biscoff cookies and a Kind bar (which I thought they had Clif) and had a Coke to drink.

I don't remember what exactly happened after the meal service as I pulled down the blinds and went to sleep as I was exhausted from having one hour of sleep the past 24 hours. When I woke up, it was dark outside, and we were starting to descend into Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Final approach

We landed and pulled into Concourse C at 8:22 PM CST.