Review of Delta Air Lines flight St Louis → Detroit in Premium Eco

Reminder of my routing :

• Basle - Amsterdam KL / J, Fokker 70: http://flight-report.com/en/report-6366.html
• Amsterdam - Detroit DL / J, Airbus 330-300: http://flight-report.com/en/report-6378.html
• Detroit - Chicago DL / F, MD -88: http://flight-report.com/en/report-6399.html
• Chicago - Atlanta DL / Y, A320: http://flight-report.com/en/report-6441.html
• Atlanta - St Louis DL / Y, MD90: http://flight-report.com/en/report-6447.html
• St Louis - Detroit DL / Y, B717-200 Another Pretzel flight !
• Detroit - Chicago DL / F, A319
• Chicago - Minneapolis DL / F, E175
• Minneapolis - Seattle DL / F, B757-300
• Seattle - Fairbanks AK / F, B737-900ER
• Fairbanks - Seattle AK / F, B737-700
• Seattle - Paris CDG DL / J, B767-300ER
• Paris CDG - Basle AF / Y, ATR72

I left you as I arrived in STL, and I must admit, STL was a little deception. The A concourse, where all DL flights are leaving is a bit of a let down. Padawan made a very good FR about STL, more in depth than mine. It can be found here, but in french only, sorry: http://flight-report.com/fr/report-6175.html

I am going to tell you why I disliked STL.

The A Concourse has a very poor food offering, no souvenir shops as you often find almost everywhere in the US, WIFI is not free of charge after the first 20' and not very stable and last but not least there are not enough power plugs. I could have gone to another terminal, but in order to do that, you need to go back landside and pass TSA again as shown on the map here after:



That's a view of the A Concourse:



On top of this everything, a very, very poor spotting:



However, STL has a very nice history that could easily be called Rise and Fall with the once-booming TWA hub. And a first fall as TWA has been purchased by AA, and the big fall as AA closed its STL hub. More information here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert%E2%80%93St._Louis_International_Airport

The departure board:



My plane lands on time, and the boarding is called shortly after. As usual SP and seating priorities are strictly enforced. No pictures of my plane, it was already dark outside, and the terminal light did not help at all.

As a compensation, here is the cabin of my B717-200:



I had choosen to be seated at the back on purpose, primarly for the same reasons as my previous flight. Seatguru indicated 20B as green seat, individual, more legroom and favorite. So long for the legroom, as showed on the pictures. It was an individual seat indeed, but there is not a single inch of additional legroom and worse, there is no recline. A much, better seat is 21A. Unlimited legroom and recline:



My friend, the safety on board card:



The only external shoot I could do as it was night:



A very handy acess to the USB and power plugs, and of course, WIFI is available:



Take off on time and I pay a visit to the B717 loo:



Service is ………… pretzels … What else ? Again, that was the only choice on that flight.



I almost forgot to tell you something funny:

As I stepped in the plane, I heard a very low tone voice in the galley, that reminded me someone. But I could not see the person as the galley curtain was closed. Then there was the welcome speach, and I recognized Kelly, the purser I had on my DTW - ORD flight (here: http://flight-report.com/en/report-6399.html)

While she performed the on board service I told her that I flew with her two days before. She looked at me and started laughing out loud. Oh yes, sweetie, I recognize you now, but you were travelling first, didn't you …? We'll chat a while in the galley and she'll offer me a cocktail of my choice. She said to all crew member passing by that I was the french guy who flew with her two days ago.

We really had a good time, it is so unusual to see the same cabin crew again nowadays.