Airports, Airlines, Aviation

Delta 1382 – DEN to ATL


Delta 1382 – Flight Background/Tickets

For this particular Delta 1382 flight from Denver (DEN) to Atlanta (ATL), I’m flying for business. I’m stopping over in Atlanta on my way to the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) conference in Miami, where I’ll be presenting. In Atlanta, my goal is to conduct some sales training activities for my other travel job.

I booked the trip through our Concur Corporate Booking Tool (CBT), and was able to get non-stop legs on various carriers combined in one reservation. It did take a big of finagling to get this specific combo of non-stop flights, as the Concur CBT kept trying to push me to a single carrier end-to-end for the itinerary, even though no single carrier could get me the non-stop flights I wanted for each leg. In the end, the multi-city trip ended up costing $606.70 in Economy class (K), and I ultimately was able to get what I wanted, including a reasonable departure time for the Delta 1382 flights out of DEN:

  1. May 11, 2015 – 1155AM to 434PM DEN to ATL (Delta DL1382)
  2. May 12, 2015 – 645PM to 844PM ATL to MIA (American Airlines AA4407)
  3. May 14, 2015 – 8PM to 1028PM MIA to DEN (American Airlines AA57)

I would have preferred to fly United since that’s where my Silver status and the majority of my frequent flier miles are. However, there were just no convenient flight times. In any case, I was able to use my AA credit card to book the flights, so will at least be able to take advantage of double points for the AA flights.

We left from Gate C44 in DEN.

Delta 1382 – Departure Airport/Check-in/Boarding Process

As usual I used The Parking Spot to leave my car and conveniently take their shuttle to the DEN West terminal for check-in. Since they only drop-off on the West side, I had to walk across the terminal to the Delta kiosks at East for check-in. I purposely didn’t check in the night before for my Delta 1382 since I was assigned a middle-seat, and there didn’t seem to be any better free inventory available. My strategy of waiting until check-in at the airport to locate a better seat usually works; however, not this time. Even at the Delta check-in kiosk, within 2 hours of my flight, Delta was forcing me to buy a paid ancillary seat upgrade to move to Premium Economy or an Exit Row, even though both of these available seats were middles as well.

You can read our previous review of DEN here – it’s really one of my favorite airports, and a model airport internationally (check out this tweet).

DEN Airport

Surprisingly, this time around, even with TAS Pre-Check, there were long lines at both security access points. I have never experienced a line just to get past the TSA Pre-Check ID checkpoint. The line was about 10 people deep to the ID checkpoint, and then about 6 people deep for the luggage and body scan. The 3 people in front of me and I got selected annoyingly for “random” checks, which meant a chemical screening with a hand wipe. How can it be random when it’s 4 people in a row? Sigh.

On my way to Terminal C Gate C44, which I rarely fly out of because United is all Terminal B, I stopped at one of my favorite Denver (Highlands) restaurant Root Down to pick up a salad and a coffee for the plane. Remember, never buy bad airplane food again with tripchi! The tripchi app will roll up all restaurant recommendations for you and let you know what’s nearby. Try it here.

The line for the Root Down take-out was pretty long, but I didn’t mind waiting. In any case, Root Down is one of the restaurants we’d love to feature promotions and offers for in our app, so I used my wait time to talk about this opportunity with the manager.

I got to my gate about 15 minutes prior to boarding, which gave me enough time to call my mom (day after Mother’s Day), quickly check e-mail, and finish my delicious Root Down coffee.

I also was able to go up the Gate agent and exchange my cramped middle seat for a more spacious exit-row middle seat. Even though my strategy didn’t work at check-in, at least it worked at the gate!

The boarding process started a little late, and since the flight had checked-in full, I knew it was going to be a scramble getting my carry-on in to an overhead. Luckily, I was Zone 1 boarding (just after first class and Priority), so actually didn’t have any problems. Boarding seemed particularly inefficient today though, because there weren’t any obvious lines for people to queue up in, and it was pretty much a free for all. I wish more airlines would implement Southwest style boarding.

Delta 1382 – Flight Details

Delta 1382 Boarding Pass
Delta 1382 Boarding Pass
  • Route: Denver to Atlanta
  • Airline: Delta 1382 – Delta’s IATA code is DL
  • Departure Gate: C44
  • Arrival Gate: E1
  • Scheduled: 11:55 AM
  • Actual Departure time: 12:08 PM
  • Boarding time: 11:15 AM (estimate)
  • Scheduled Arrival Time: 4:35 PM
  • Actual Arrival Time: 4:18 PM
  • Time in flight: 2h 16m
  • Baggage Claim: N/A (carry-on only)
  • Aircraft type: Boeing B757-200, Tail number 684
  • Distance traveled: 1,306 miles
  • Class: Economy (K)
  • Seat: 26E (was supposed to have 28E)
  • Load factor: 100% full
  • Average Ticket Cost: $188.12

Delta 1382 – Interior/takeoff

As this Delta 1382 flight was using an older B757-200, the interior wasn’t much to look at- older seat styles that were pretty threadbare. The seating configuration was a 3×3 with long aisle in the middle. The overhead bin was large enough to stack your suitcase wheels in, allowing more room for everyone’s bags.

Economy Cabin in Delta 1382
Economy Cabin in Delta 1382

We pushed backed a little delayed, but made up the time in-flight.

Delta 1382 – Seat

Well, what can I say about a middle exit-row seat? At least it wasn’t my original non-exit row economy middle-seat, so in that sense it was a step up. Since I booked my flight fairly last minute, most of the food free inventory was already taken up so I was really stuck with a middle-seat no matter what.

Delta 1382 Seats
Delta 1382 Seats

The interesting thing about this particular exit-row configuration was that there were two tray tables. The one that came out of the armrest itself (which I’m used to for exit-row seats), and then another one in the seat-back…which I have actually *never* seen before in an exit-row configuration. I was able to effectively double my tray table space and spread out my lunch and my laptop all at once.

Double tray tables in Delta 1382
Double tray tables in Delta 1382

As it’s an exit-row seats (with an exit-row seat behind it), this particular seat doesn’t recline, which is fine with me since I just worked the entire flight anyways.

The seat did have an entertainment system in the seat-back area, which came with options to watch, listen, play, and even submit feedback on the flight experience to Delta. However, the thing I liked most about the in-flight service was actually the safety video. Well done, Delta! It was hilarious, and I really enjoyed the man with women’s hands complete with nail polish. How many ironic scenarios can you catch in this video?

Delta 1382 – Meal/Purchased food/Drinks

The meal service consisted of beverages (soda, water, juice is free, alcohol paid of course) and free peanuts, pretzels, or cookies. I forgot what it was like to get a free snack onboard – United and many other carriers in the US abandoned this practice more than 5 years ago (except of course for JetBlue. Since Delta is based in Atlanta, it’s a Coke products carrier – which suits my taste. Delta also had a decent looking buy-on-board menu, but since I already had my beet salad from Root Down I was good to go.

Delta 1382 – Crew/Service

The crew was surprisingly friendly. Nobody had a stick up their ass and everybody had a smile on their face. The crew was helpful, friendly, and professional. The gate agent who found me the better middle seat and boarded us was also extremely friendly and bubbly. Drink service was prompt despite warnings of turbulence.

The only complaint was the exorbitant price for Wi-Fi onboard, through Gogo. For a two hour flight, Gogo was charging $21.95 – or I could purchase 30 minutes of access for $6.00 (still ludicrous). Compared to United, which is typically on the order of $6-10 for the entire flight, Delta’s offering through Gogo was just a rip-off.

Gogo Prices on Delta 1382
Gogo Prices on Delta 1382

However, I did enjoy Delta’s “My Flight” portal, which was accessible through the browser and didn’t require Gogo Wi-Fi to be purchased.

Delta's My Flight
Delta’s My Flight

It had a nifty flight tracker with a slick map display, and real-time flight information.

Delta Flight Details

Delta Flight DetailsDelta also offered a “Delta Portal” with entertainment options, including TV shows, Movies. Some content was free, while some (like “Jersey Boys”) cost money ($6 for this example). I was able to watch a TED Talk called “Stop Bad Meetings” – a very good use of 6 minutes of my time.

Delta Studio
Delta Studio

I was also able to find a bug with the Delta Portal. One of the Web Series videos, Planes, Trains & Automobiles “Staycation – Miami” came up as “Staycation – Brooklynn” when clicked. The Brooklynn one also came up as Brooklyn, so unfortunately the Miami edition was just missing (unfortunate considering I would actually have gotten something out of it given that my conference was in Miami).

Delta 1382 – Overall

The flight itself was very comfortable, despite a little turbulence after take-off. Meal/drink service was prompt and the flight attendants were friendly. My seat was comfortable and the addition of the second tray table really helped my business productivity. The only thing that would have improved the seat would have been a charged. However, the hilarious safety video compensated for any shortcomings the older cabin offered.

I gave this Delta 1382 flight a solid A-. The slight downgrade from an A to an A1 is simply due to the older cabin design, and worn look and feel on the plane.


6 responses to “Delta 1382 – DEN to ATL”

  1. […] Have you flown Delta lately? Chandra got to try Delta again after a 3 year hiatus on flight 1382 from Denver (DEN) to Atlanta (ATL) for a recent business trip. We gave the experience an A- and were reminded how painless flying can really be if done right. Not only was service good (they even serve free snacks!), but the entertainment delivery (hilarious meme-filled safety video as well as the in-flight entertainment system – Delta Studio) over-delivered. Read more here. […]

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