Delta Air Lines 757-300 economy class San Diego to Atlanta

01. Introduction: I swear I’m not a Delta fanboy!
02. Delta Air Lines 757-300 economy class San Diego to Atlanta
03. Delta Air Lines A321 economy class Atlanta to West Palm Beach
04. Delta Air Lines MD-88 Comfort + (premium economy) West Palm Beach to Atlanta
05. Delta Air Lines 767-400/ER Comfort + (premium economy) Atlanta to San Diego

Hopping on an airplane to go and visit family for Christmas is a different kind of travel compared to what I’m used to. I’m pretty much a solo traveler most of the year, and jetting off to the far corners of the earth by myself has always been the kind therapeutic escape that I need to “reset” my body and mind from the stresses of daily life at home. They say there’s no need for vacations if there’s nothing to escape from, but I haven’t reached a point in my life yet where my day to day life at home matches the tranquil serenity found on a tropical island resort. But I’m working on it.

My wife would be accompanying me on this trip, and while it’s nice to have her along, it means juggling heavy luggage and standing in long lines to check in at the airport. It also means that I end up in middle seats since she gets to choose the seat assignments. Not because she enjoys being mean to me, but she prefers aisle seats and I end up being wedged in the middle if I’m feeing husbandly and want to sit next to her. But I’m willing to take one for the team to make her as comfortable and happy as possible, and these little inconveniences don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things anyway. It’s nice to travel with her for a change.

travel luggage — Traveling with luggage is not something I do often! These poor suitcases have been around the world a time or two though – and they have the battle scars to prove it.

It just felt weird walking into the airport that morning pushing two large suitcases while jugging a small handbag. SANspotter is definitely out of his element here.

DL1692
San Diego, CA (SAN) – Atlanta, GA (ATL)
Friday, December 23, 2016
Aircraft: 757-351
Registration: N590NW
Duration: 4 hours 9 minutes
Seat: 40E (economy class)

delta 757-300 side view drawing — Delta Air Lines 757-300 (N590NW) side view illustration by norebbo.com

air route from SAN to ATL — Our route from SAN to ATL this morning: ZZOOO1 IPL J18 GBN J50 SSO J4 EWM J66 ABI J4 MEI DUUCK PRICI VYPPR1

The check in process wasn’t all that bad this morning, as we didn’t have to wait in line for more than several minutes. I guess that’s one advantage to taking a mid-morning flight to avoid the early morning rush. My inexperience of checking bags showed quite clear though – after checking in at the kiosk (and confirming that we would be checking two bags), nothing happened after it spit out our boarding passes.

I was expecting an agent to come over and attach tags to the bags, but it wasn’t happening this time – it seemed we were being ignored. After a minute or two I walked over to one of the agents and asked for help. “You need to check in over here” she replied, pointing to another row of kiosks next to her. Oops. Ok, yeah, well this is what it feels like to be a travel noob I guess.

delta air lines check in san diego airport — Holiday decorations in full effect here at the Delta check in counters.

Ticketed passengers only beyond this point. I’m always nervous taking pics around security, but I escaped without incident this morning…

We timed our arrival to the airport pretty good this morning, allowing us ample time to relax in the American Airlines / OneWorld / Airspace lounge for a bit, and the flight was just about ready to board by the time we made our way back over to gate 48. That ended up working out pretty well because it was standing room only and we weren’t able to find a seat until just a few minutes until boarding began.

SANspotter airport selfie — Chillin’ in the AA / AirSpace lounge with a bowl of oatmeal.

N590NW San Diego airport — That’s our bird! N590NW getting prepped for the run to ATL this morning. Nice to see the 753 here in SAN, that’s for sure.

I was really excited to discover that a 757-300 would be operating today’s flight to ATL. My last flight on a 757-300 was a short hop from MSP to DTW on Northwest Airlines on September 28th 2003, and these aircraft have eluded me since then. There aren’t that many of them out in the wild anyway, so it was nice to see considering that it was listed as a -200 at the time of booking several months ago. The best part about that is that we were flying economy today, way back in the bowels of the aircraft – so we would definitely be getting the full “flying pencil” experience.

Delta 757-300 san diego airport — Close up of the old gal parked here at gate 48.

gate 48 san diego airport — Speaking of gate 48, it looks like it’s going to be a full flight this morning.

travel with apple watch — This is the inaugural trip with my Apple watch! Yep, the tech nerd in me was quite anxious to scan my watch at the gate.

gate 48 jetbridge san diego airport — Here we go – zone 1 has been called and we’re headed down the jet bridge to board the plane.

boarding delta 757-300 — She doesn’t look so long and lean from this vantage point.

Delta Air Lines 757-300 economy class — Glad I was wearing walking shoes – it’s quite a trek to the back of a 757-300!

It was a long walk way back to row 40, which ended up being the last row before the bulkhead which separated the two sections of the economy cabin. I’ll be honest when I say that these were not ideal seats, thanks in large part to the fact that the mid cabin lavatory was right behind us. To make matters worse, these seats didn’t recline. And did I mention that I was in a middle seat? We hadn’t even left SAN yet and I was looking for an escape.

Delta Air Lines 757-300 economy class seats (40 D, E, F).

delta 757-300 economy cabin — We’re not even all the way at the back, but it sure feels like it!

delta 757-300 economy seats — The feeling is a bit claustrophobic way back here…

delta 757-300 mid cabin lavatory — Row 40 is right up against the mid-cabin lavatories. Not the most ideal place to be on a long flight.

delta 757-300 economy seat pitch — Seat pitch was pretty tight, but not too uncomfortable.

Delta Air Lines 757-300 seat-back video screen. Nice and large!

Delta Studio welcome screen — Nice friendly greeting from Delta Studio.

delta studio aircraft detail screen — But of course this is my favorite part of Delta Studio. #avgeek

delta 757-300 wing — Might as well take advantage of the open window while I have it. This is the view outside. Exciting, huh?

delta 757-300 safety card — Let’s take a look at the safety card while we wait for boarding to complete. This is the front cover.

delta studio please wait — “Please Wait”. A common phrase when boarding a 757-300.

There were many animals aboard today’s flight and it ended up happening that two ended up in the same row and they were not getting along. The flight attendants needed to move passengers around to resolve this matter before we could push off the gate, so that put us a few minutes behind schedule.

departing SAN delta 757-300 — It feels so weird not sitting in a window seat. I normally take a ton of pics of the departure sequence for each flight, but this one is the only one I got today. Sorry!

They wasted no time in getting the service going just after takeoff, starting with the pay-for-food cart first, followed by drinks and snacks. Of course it was a long while before they reached our row, and I was sure they would be out of the one item that looked good to me on the menu, so my hopes weren’t very high as the flight attendant asked if there was anything she could get for me. Thankfully the chicken wrap I had my eye on was in abundant stock, and I was happily stuffing my face a few minutes later with one heck of tasty (though expensive) meal.

delta chicken wrap — The food-for-purchase cart arrived first, so I spent $9 on this chicken wrap. Hope it’s good…

delta air lines chicken wrap — I’m happy to report that it was very tasty! Not quite $9 tasty, but pretty good nonetheless.

delta economy class snack — The drink and snack carts arrived long after my chicken wrap was gone.

I must have been tired from lugging around our heavy bags all morning, because I managed to sleep decently for the next two hours, interrupted only by my head falling forward into my lap every 5 minutes due to lack of recline in the seat. It’s an uncomfortable way to nap for sure, but I was sleeping deeply enough to have some crazy dreams in between head bobs.

delta air lines 757-300 economy class cabin — The view of the cabin after lunch.

mid cabin toilet delta air lines 757-300 — Delta Air Lines 757-300 economy class mid-cabin lavatory.

delta studio in flight map — Still quite a ways to go at this point.

I woke up for good just as the sun was setting behind us, and my seat-mate at the window was getting some really nice pics of it all. The aviation photographer and trip reporter in me couldn’t stand being denied views like that for very long, and I ended up handing my phone to him, asking if he could get a couple pics for me. Thankfully he was more than happy to oblige, and I appreciated his kindness.

delta air lines 757-300 wing sunset — Huge thanks to the guy in the window seat who took this pic for me. I couldn’t have done it any better!

Turns out that he was a UCSD student on his way to meet his girlfriend (who he hasn’t seen in 4 months) in Florida for vacation. She was coming from cold and snowy Boston, and they were both looking forward to the warm weather in Daytona Beach for a few days. I don’t blame them at all – Florida can be quite nice in the winter time.

A second drink and snack service came through the cabin with 50 minutes of flying time remaining, but the flight attendants seemed very rushed (and distracted) and ended up forgetting to ask us if we would like any snacks to go with our drinks. Oh well – we were just about to land anyway so no big deal.

delta air lines second snack — Our booty from the second snack service.

delta air lines wi-fi — There’s not much to take pics of while sitting in a middle seat on a dark airplane. Here’s the overhead Wi-Fi logo. Woo hoo!

Landing is a very anti-climatic experience when not sitting in a window seat, so my apologies for not being able to provide you a nice sequence of landing pics for this flight. It was dark though, and there probably wasn’t much to see anyway, so you’re not missing much.

We docked at the gate several minutes ahead of schedule thanks to a hefty tail wind pushing us across the country today, but getting off the 757-300 does take a while if you’re seated in the back like us.

deplane 757-300 — Nothing to do but wait.

delta air lines 757-300 seats — No need to stand quite yet – it’s gonna be a while.

delta air lines 757-300 interior — We’re freeeee!

Once free of the bowels of the flying pencil, we set off in search of some food to bring onto our next flight, which was departing down to West Palm Beach in a little over an hour…

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