We’re off on another ski trip, but this time we’re headed somewhere new. Though I have skied many times in the past, all of my trips have been to Colorado and, unless you pay the astronomically high prices to fly into places like Vail, Aspen and Telluride, you find yourself flying into Denver and then driving a few hours up to the resorts. Therefore, we settled on Park City as the mountain is just a 45 minute drive from Salt Lake City
Booking
I found some decently priced flights that worked with our schedule, leaving Thursday night and returning Sunday which would allow us to minimize our time away while maximizing our ski days as we both had Friday off. With Delta SkyMiles being extremely hard to find value in, I booked our tickets with cash using my Platinum Card from American Express, which gave me 5x points on airfare.
Check-In
Delta operates out of Terminal E at DFW which is great since it means you don’t have to play guessing games with where to park and where your inbound flight will land. I prepaid for parking online and soon we were in the terminal headed for the Delta desk.
There was nobody in the SkyPriority lane and within minutes we had our bags tagged and boarding passes issued. The friendly agent also informed us that our flight was slightly delayed due to a late inbound. Upon arrival at security, both the CLEAR and TSAPre lanes were wide open, and we made it through security in under a minute. After a short walk, we hopped on the SkyLink and made our way over to Terminal D and the American Express Centurion Lounge.
Lounge
While Delta doesn’t offer lounge access on domestic tickets. I can enter the Delta SkyClub up to three hours before departure with a same day Delta boarding pass thanks to the AmEx Platinum. However, since we already had a slight delay, we headed over to the American Express Centurion Lounge DFW for a more substantial meal though the place was packed so we grabbed some food and made our way back over to the SkyClub in Terminal E prior to boarding.
Boarding
At T-40 we walked down to gate E15 to find that they had just started with Pre Boards. First Class and Diamond Medallions were invited to board, followed by Comfort+.
Delta Air Lines
DL 2505
DFW-SLC (Dallas/Fort Worth International – Salt Lake City International)
Seat: 11C (Comfort+)
A320-200 (N325US)
Scheduled: 7:10p-9:11p
Actual: 7:44p-9:23p
Boarding was efficient as the crew was trying to make up as much time as possible because of the earlier delay. Towards the end of boarding a couple of passengers got into an argument with one of the flight attendants and had to be removed which led to us pushing back 35 minutes late.
Seat
Our Comfort+ seats had decent legroom for my 6’2” frame, though I am always surprised by the fact that Delta doesn’t designate the Exit Row as C+ as well since I find that it has much more room than the rest of the C+ seats on the A320.
There was also a large, crisp IFE screen in each seat back which is always a plus. Though these A320’s were inherited from the Northwest merger and this particular airframe was over 30 years old, the interiors still felt nice and new.
In-Flight
We had a quick taxi over to the west side of the airport and took off to the North, before turning to the Northwest. We hit some slight chop during the climb but after that we had smooth sailing. Once we hit our cruising altitude, the FAs sprang into action. They first came through with the snack basket, followed by a beverage and additional snack service.
It’s worth noting that of the Big 3 US airlines, Delta does the most to differentiate their extra legroom product. While American (Main Cabin Extra) serves complimentary alcohol, people seated in MCE board with Group 5 if they don’t otherwise have status. United is even worse as an Economy Plus seat only gets you Group 3 boarding and no free alcohol. Not only does Delta provide free alcoholic beverages and an expanded snack basket selection, those seated in Comfort+ are allowed to board before many Delta frequent fliers.
Once the service was complete, we had roughly 1h 45m left in the flight and I spent the remainder of the time working on this trip report and watching episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Arrival
We landed in SLC at the far end of the B gates which gave us an extremely long walk to Baggage Claim. After a 15–20-minute walk we arrived at baggage claim to find our bag was already waiting on us. From there, we headed to the National section in the garage and grabbed a 2022 Mini Cooper Countryman with only 1500 miles on the odometer.
Summary
Of the big 3 US airlines, Delta still has the best extra legroom product on the market. Though they tend to operate an older fleet, they invest heavily in those planes and the interiors are in great shape. Comfort+ is still my go to seating choice for short/medium haul flights.
