Review of Delta Air Lines flight Atlanta → Los Angeles in Economy

Hello everyone, this is the second part of my California trip.

On our previous chapter, I had arrived from Bogotá on a rather nice flight on behalf of Delta. I had expected a swift connection, as I had before, but this time it took a wee bit more time. Yet, it was a rather efficient and relaxed entry into the US of A.

One of the cool features of ATL, is the stunning view when exiting the TSA check


I had expected our immigration and connecting formalities not to take long, and originally planned to have a burger at the Varsity at F-concourse. But since that didn't happen I went instead to our departing concourse: B, as in Bravo.

When going up to the Concourse, I spotted the plane type we would have taken between BOG and DFW


We had lunch at Chik-fil-A, another famous local branch. I felt a bit guilty of supporting a corporation that openly stands against what I believe in but it tasted good. The food court was crowded so we went to our gate and ate our meals there. The international councourses aside, I find ATL's concourses to be really dark, there aren't enough windows and the ceilings are too low. The sheer amount of people around doesn't help.

But I was distracted by the fact that I got an email offering me a new job, and I was really excited about it. I was also checking on my friend who was travelling through FLL, I managed to talk with her and did OK. Time flew while I chatted with my mum and GF telling them about how the trip had been so far and the new job deal.

The gate was so crowded that I couldn't do my favorite activity: spotting, but I managed to take this picture of our ride across North America ( I was really excited about going to the West Coast for the first time).


Boarding was called and chaos broke free…I had never seen that in the US. I found it really stupid that people just stand up waiting for their zone to be called, fortunately agents were enforcing the zone order. I was carrying suits so I was eager to secure space for them.

Upon entering it showed that our plane had been refurbished and looked pretty modern. I was expecting the classic 80s cabin, that I find charming…but I guess I'll have to ride AA to get that feel. It also had DL's newest Y-seats and felt OK. Except for one thing, my seatmate was a huge guy, thus I felt cramped between him and the wall. But other than that, nothing beats the 767, it is as spacious as you can get on Y class.


It was the first time I rode on a 767 with winglets, those things are huge!


We were pushed-back on time and on we went to the runway…It didn't take too long.

The way ATL is built, how it adapts to the hilly terrain of Atlanta, never ceases to impress me! As we went up to Georgia's skies, the view is a humongous amount of DL planes. I bet there were more planes there than in the whole of Colombia! (ok maybe that's exaggerated, but still the difference musn't be much) I was also impressed by the amount of Mad dogs still hanging around there. T-tail paradise!


The plane calmly cruised across the country, and the sunset provided calming views


The first time I saw the Mississippi!


By this time, around 1-1.30h after take off we were offered our refreshments, I chose Apple Juice and the cookies. The other option were pretzels. BTW the FA on the other aisle was HOT!, I felt stupid at a point as I couldn't stop staring at her during the security announcement. My seatmate ordered something from the menu, a sandwich…it looked diminute, and I felt glad that I ate at ATL and didn't wait for the flight to have something for lunch.


I spent half of the flight watching the fault in our stars or something like that…it was ok. Afterwards the PTV decided to crash and it was uncontrollable. The volume controls were out of control and nearly left me deaf a couple of times. I felt really frustrated and angry, but tiredness also kicked in so instead of fighting my nasty electronic companion, I used my iPad for some music and sleeping. At some point I managed to get the system to the moving map and I kept checking the places we flew over. The sprawl of cities like Phoenix was amazing.


The FAs passed regularly handing out drinks, which I appreciated as my throat tends to dry up on planes. My seatmate had digested his meal and let me know about it tacitly, it was so gross I had to use my hoodie as a mask. So between being gazzed and a non working IFE, I chose to sleep.

I woke up when the Captain announced descent, and then one could see the huge sprawl that LA and its metro area is.


We had a rather hard landing, using full reverse thrust and brakes, and eventually we made it to our gate, something that took its fair time as we couldn't reach it without being tugged.

As soon as we descended I turned on my mobile phone to check on news regarding the new job, and to call my mum. The free WiFi was good, better than ATLs which seemed not to work with android devices. Our bags came out well in no time, and then we were off to pick our friend at Terminal 3. We waited there for her for a while, it is an awful place, more like a third world airport. We then took the bus to the Hertz centre where we picked our car in no time. And then the long ride to our hotel, that greeted us with a crappy experience, but that's another story.