Review of Delta Air Lines flight from Barcelona to Atlanta in Economy

A visual of my entire journey from Barcelona to Salt Lake city via Atlanta & Phoenix which would cover a total distance of 6678 mi/10748 km. This trip report will cover the first leg of this long journey.

Introduction

Welcome everyone to another trip report series! This trip will be from my journey back from Spain to my hometown of Salt Lake City. I had booked this as a RT with DL but only from PHX to BCN as flights directly from SLC on DL are quite steep at this time of year. When I saw the same trip a few hundred dollars cheaper taking a flight from PHX I quickly booked my connecting flights that would reposition me there, one way there on SW (which you can find here) and the other on AA which would be my last flight of this journey.

Barcelona

After spending a few weeks exploring Andalusia, I decided to spend the last few days of my trip in Barcelona. Over the years I've been to this beautiful city and it's one of my favorite major European cities thus far, the others being Lisbon & Amsterdam. 

Even though I came here in March, I got quite lucky as the few days I was here it was sunny and clear the entire time with the average temperature being around 65F. 

Although I would have wished I came here later in the season where the weather would of been warm enough to enjoy the beach. Nonetheless I had a fantastic time here in this city and hope to be back soon.

Metro to Airport

It is sadly go-home day and I'm here at the metro station where I'll be heading straight to the airport from where I was staying here in El Poblenou neighborhood.

This was the price of a one-way fare to the airport.

Although you can take the public metro to the airport from anywhere in the city, it's not the fastest. Just to give you some perspective, from where I was staying (El Poblenou) to the airport my journey will consists of two transfers/3 trains and a totally travel time of 1 and 25 minutes which is quite long IMO considering the airport is considerably close to the city (distance wise).

Taking the metro is still the best and cost affective way to the airport but just give yourself a good amount of time and be aware of your surroundings. 

About an hour and a half or so later I finally made to the airport.

Check-in

Welcome to Josep Tarradellas Barcelona- El Prat airport!

Let's go ahead and get checked-in 😉.

My flight is DL 195.

I was able to easily find the DL check-in desks. It was quite busy as there was another DL flight bound for JFK leaving an hour before ours.

Thanks to by DL gold medallion status (Skyteam elite plus) I was able to utilize the Sky Priority lane.

Check-in was very smooth and in total took no more then 5 minutes to print my boarding passes and drop off my bags.

The agent that checked me in also mentioned that I could use the fast-lane security which was another nice benefit. 

Security control was super smooth and I was airside in just 5 minutes.

Next I had to make my way through passport control.

Passport control occurred without incident however there was a large queue with only a few officers processing around what seemed like at least 70 people. In total it took around 35 minutes. 

The next and last hurdle that was in front of me was the extensive duty free zone before finally reaching the gate area. 

I finally made it to the gate area and the first gate I came across was the Delta JFK bound flight which was on final boarding call.

There's the JFK bound flight which will be identical to the aircraft I'll be taking today which is an Airbus A330-300.

My aircraft

And here's my A330 that'll be taking me across the Atlantic to Atlanta today.

Some information about my plane:
Flight number: DL 195
Aircraft: Airbus A330-323
Registration: N806NW
Delivered: March 23, 2004 (initially to NorthWest Airlines)
Age: 20 years (at time of flight)

This Airbus A330-300 is configured in the international premium heavy four cabin configuration with 34 Delta One, 21 Premium Select, 28 Comfort+ and lastly 140 Main Cabin seats. However, some time in between when I took this trip and now, Delta has now classified these exit row seats as Comfort+ (43 A,B, H & J). But at the time that I booked and took this flight, my seat was still just considered just regular Main Cabin seat.

This would actually be my first time ever flying an Airbus A330-300 series with DL. The only other time I've flown on one was on a -200 series and was a domestic flight between SLC and JFK a few years ago when DL used to use wide-body aircraft between the two cities.  

Plane spotting

Since I had just over 30 minutes before boarding would start I decided to take this time and do a bit a plane spotting.

Here comes an Emirates Boeing 777-200(LR) arriving from Mexico City before continuing it's trek to Dubai in a few hours; flight time from Mexico city 10h 15m.

An American Airlines Boeing 777-200(ER) arriving from New York City (JFK); flight time: 6h 50m

A LATAM Boeing 777-300(ER) arriving from Sao Paulo (GRU); flight time: 10h 15m

Boarding

Made it back to the back to the gate area right as boarding would be commencing.

Today we'd be departing out of E73.

Boarding began right on time and I boarded with Sky Priority group.

A friendly FA greeted me at the boarding door and directed me across to the second aisle. The main economy class cabin is configured in a standard yet spacious 2-4-2 abreast seating configuration. 

My seat

Here's my seat for the next nearly 10 hours, 43J. 

Placed at each seat was a pillow and plastic wrapped blanket which would come very handy on this long flight.

Legroom at this seat is amazing and practically unlimited, now I see why DL changed these seats to Comfort+ 😅. Despite there being an emergency slide against the wall on the door it was honestly not an issue at all.

Seat controls, the PTV and tray table are all located on the armrest.

The only huge negative about this seat for me was that the only window I had was terribly aligned and technically behind the seat. This made it very difficult and awkward to look out from. Had I known this before hand I probably wouldn't have chosen this seat. It was quite the contrary experience two weeks earlier on my flight from ATL to here where I flew on the B767-400ER (which you can find here) which had a near perfect window alignment on their exit row seats.

Nonetheless the window provided a nice view of the wing. 

The DL JFK bound flight had already departed and in came this United B777-200(ER) that took its spot arriving from Newark (EWR).

The seat pocket for my seat was located on the bulkhead about 5 feet in front me.

At least I have this tiny little window to myself 😅.

Boarding is complete and as I expected this would be a completely full flight to ATL today.

Shortly after, the FA's passed though the cabin offering complimentary amenity kits and headphones. The amenity kit consisted of an eye mask and a pair of ear plugs. 

Swiss Airbus A320 bound for Zurich; flight time: 1h 25m

Pushback

We pushed back from the gate right on time.
You can check out the entire pushback/taxi and takeoff sequence at the video below:

Looks like today will be a beautiful day for flying. 

Takeoff

We'll be departing out of runway 24R.

Until next time Barcelona!

Last views of the city.

The climb out was spectacular to watch as the weather was completely clear in Catalunya.  

We eventually reached cruising altitude at 38,000ft.

I forgot to mention this while we were on the ground but the overhead panel consists of both an individual reading light and air vent.

The FA's began the first service by handing out a full size bottle of water and a utensil sleeve.

The tray table slides out of the armrest and folds out. 

The utensils are made out of bamboo which in my opinion are not practical.

Lunch service

About 50 minutes into flight lunch was served. Choices were between pasta or chicken, I went with the latter.

The meal tray contained the entree (grilled chicken breast with potato gnocchi and steamed spinach), a side plate with different cheeses and olives & for dessert a tiramisu.

The main entree was very delicious and the chicken was cooked perfectly.

The side dish was also pretty good. I happen to like olives and cheese so no problem here 😅.

Right after the meals were served, another cart containing the drinks came by and I ordered a Jack and coke. 

Overall the meal was great!

After the meal trays were collected, the FA's passed though the cabin once again offering a choice of drinks. 

After that, the cabin lights were turned off so that everyone can get some rest.

Fast forward and I managed to get a few hours of rest.

Inflight entertainment

Here's a quick look at DL's IFE which is called Delta Studio.

There'a a great selection of movies, tv shows, music and games to choose from.

Not sure if it was just my seat but oddly enough my IFE did not have the iterative map which was very disappointing. It's usually my main form of entertainment on long haul flights. 

Mid-flight service

At around the halfway point of the flight, there was another service which consisted of a choice of drink and a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. 

The cookie was very delicious and could of easily eaten five of them 😅.

The loo

Shortly after that I took the opportunity and payed a visit to the loo.

It's a pretty standard economy class loo and it was at least clean which was nice. I did however notice that the loo's on the A330 don't have the floor to ceiling mirrors that are found on DL's 767s which is slightly unfortunate. I'm one of those that do appreciate a good outfit check every once and awhile.

On my way out of the loo I stopped by the galley to check out what snacks were available. 

Flying somewhere over the mid-Atlantic.

Decided to spend the rest of the flight enjoying some snacks and watching a few TV shows.

The cabin lights slowly were turned back on for the start of the pre-arrival service.

Pre-arrival service

This service began just over an hour before arrival. They tray consisted of utensil sleeve, the entree which in this case was a chicken pastry and a chocolate mousse for dessert.

Choices for the entree were chicken or veggie pastry.

The pastry was good although lacked filling.

The highlight of the meal was the chocolate mousse which was devine.

Shortly after the drink cart came by with the FA's offering a choice of drinks.

Overall the meal was great.

We are now flying over the continental US.

Possibly a wildfire?

Initial descent

That captain came on the PA to announce that we had began our initial descent into Atlanta.

Gainsville Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL)

To conclude the onboard service, the FA's thanked us for flying and handed us these chocolates which was a nice touch.

Landing

You can check out the entire descent and landing in the video below:

This afternoon we'll be landing on runway 27L.

Welcome to Atlanta!

Arrival at gate

We arrived at the gate 50 minutes ahead of schedule, well done DL!

Passing the mini comfort+ section which only consists of three rows on this A330-300 compared to their A330-900neo's that have 7 rows. 

Premium Select, DL's version of premium economy cabin that also consist of 3 rows but in a 2-3-2 abreast layout.

Off to good ole passport control.

After exiting passport control and re-clearing security below, I went back up stairs to grab one last look at my A330-300 that brought me here from Barcelona. Thanks for the safe a fun flight! Later tonight this aircraft will be departing all the way down south to Rio de Janiero.

This concludes the trip report, thanks for reading!