Flight routing
- 1
- 2New York (JFK) - Washington, DC (DC)
flight connection and lounges
Welcome to the second leg of this SDQ-JFK-DCA trip. Last report ended right after exiting customs, which is the same place where this report begins.
In the previous report, I mentioned that the check-in agent was unable to tag my bag all the way to DCA as I was traveling on two separate tickets. Most of the time this can be done but for some reason the agent couldn’t. Since I needed to claim my bag at JFK anyways, I just planned to get the tag at the connecting flights desk.
The baggage recheck agent refused to check my bag, claiming that they are not allowed to do so (which was clearly not true), so I had to go to the main check-in area.
Fortunately, the SkyPriority counter was completely empty. The agent was very sympathetic and told me that both agents went wrong: the SDQ agent could tag it with no issues, the baggage recheck agent at JFK was also able to do so, but it seems that they just chose not to do it.
Once my bag was checked to DCA, I went through security and headed to the Centurion Lounge, which I can access thanks to my Amex Platinum. There was a short queue, I was able to enter within 5 minutes.
Mid-morning and early afternoon departures from T4.
JFK Amex Centurion Lounge
Food selection has declined recently, I did not find anything interesting to eat.
The famous Speakeasy bar was already open.
After a drink or two, headed to the temporary “SkyClub Express” to grab a to-go meal.
There was a wide selection of pre-packaged meals and to-go drinks at the SkyClub Express lounge
Headed to the A gates
A new PriorityPass affiliated lounge opened in T4. Did not have time to visit, maybe next time.
Some spotting at concourse A
Delta did a really nice job in concourse A to replace the old Terminal 2, so now most regional flights depart and arrive at concourse A.
flight
Flight was departing from gate A15
Boarding was very organized and quick
The Esteban moment…
My seat for this short flight, 4A. I love the single seats on E175s, although the legroom isn’t that great. C+ on some aircraft like 757s and A220s have better pitch.
Departure with a slight delay.
Quick taxi
No wait for takeoff
Quickly after departure, drinks and snacks were served, but I skipped it since I already had my meal from the SkyClub: Honey turkey wrap and a banana
20 minutes later we were starting our descent into DCA
Andrews AFB
Approach
A very uncommon landing on runway 4
Quick taxi to gate B15
arrival
Hello DCA
National hall, which is now airside
On the way to baggage claim
Bags were delivered 22 minutes after arrival. Delta has a bags on time policy were you can claim 2,500 miles if your bag is not delivered within 20 minutes of arrival, so this was the case.
On my way to the Metro
And managed to get an extra legroom seat :)
Thanks for reading.
That whole bag situation is crazy, usually they can do it when it's separate tickets on the same airline, unless it's an "illegal connection" (i.e. too short). They can refuse when it's not on the same airline (though they used to do it within SkyTeam, but I believe they stopped). It just needs to be added manually in the computer for the tag to print out--but I suspect agents in SDQ were contracted employees and not actually direct-DL staff so may not have known or cared at all.
Food selection at the Centurion lounge may have declined (not sure), but it's still a heck of a lot better than most domestic lounges in the US. With real fresh/hot food, which is rare, outside of soup, in most lounges, though it has been getting better lately.
Looks like they didn't do a PDB service? That's a shame. I've flown this route many many times in F and the PDB is pretty much half of the service because it's such a short flight, so it's a shame when they don't bother.
Shame they weren't doing the river visual approach when you arrived at DCA, you would have been on the good side to get the good monument view.
P.S. I updated the Airline to Delta Connection this this isn't Mainline DL. Keep that in mind for future reviews on regionals.
Thanks for sharing!