01. Introduction: Farewell to the domestic Delta Airlines 767-300
02. Delta Airlines 767-300 first class San Diego to Atlanta
03. Delta Airlines 737-900/ER first class Atlanta to Orlando
04. Delta Airlines A321 first class Orlando to Atlanta
05. Delta Airlines 767-300 first class Atlanta to San Diego
It’s really hard to fathom that we won’t be seeing Delta 767-300’s in San Diego much longer. The’ve been a highlight of my spotting adventures here at SAN ever since I moved here in 1997, and they certainly will be missed. For those of you not in the know, Delta flies domestic-configured (non-ER) 767-300’s to and from SAN on a daily basis from ATL and occasionally DTW. Those domestic birds will be retired soon (within a matter of months I believe), and unless DL starts using internationally-configured 767-300/ER’s to San Diego, that’s it for the daily 767’s.
The soon-to-be retirement is what made this trip more special to me. I’ve flown on countless DL 767’s between SAN and ATL over the years (you can read my last trip report here) , but knowing that this was likely my last time was kind of a bummer. Oh well – that’s progress for you.
By the way, I shot some video during the course of the flight, and here is what I managed to put together. Check it out, then make sure to come back and read about all the details down below!
Now, on with the trip report…

Luckily I managed to grab an Uber ride at 4:40am to get me to the airport (I wasn’t expecting to get one so early), and once there I was able to breeze through security in no time. I was expecting the crowds to be downright nasty since this was a holiday weekend, but for the most part, it seemed like a normal Saturday morning to me. Nice!



DL1592
San Diego, CA (SAN) – Atlanta, GA (ATL)
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Aircraft: 767-332
Registration: N1402A
Seat: 5C (first class)
I had a bit of time to kill before the flight started boarding, so I found a quiet spot at gate 48 to sit and relax for a while (and snooze a bit, since it was so early still). But I didn’t have to wait long, and I finally wandered down to the very crowded gate 51 about 10 minutes prior to boarding.





I boarded as soon as they called for first class, and I thought I was one of the first on the airplane, but first class was pretty much full by the time I got onboard. My seat was in the very last row of first class, strategically selected for the photo ops from that vantage point. Knowing that this would likely be my second-to-last ever DL non-ER 767 flight, I wanted to have a seat with a view of the entire cabin so I could get decent pics along the way. There really isn’t a bad seat up there in first class, but the only downside to being in the last row is that I would be one of the last to eat. Oh well – that’s the sacrifice I had to make in order to make this trip report complete!









I don’t fly Delta all that often anymore, and its not often I recognize flight attendants, but right away I was happy to see Marsha working the front cabin today. She’s worked several of my Delta flights to and from SAN over the years, and I’ve got to say that she’s one of the best in the business. Happy, energetic, and she addresses all passengers by name at most every interaction. Truly a class act.
Breakfast orders were taken from the front of the cabin right before pushback, with the choices being an omelet or oatmeal. Either one sounded good to me, which was a good thing because they only had oatmeal left by the time they reached me in the last row. Other passengers weren’t as happy about that, and most refused breakfast altogether when they found out that the omelet was no longer available.
I was already regretting my choice for an aisle seat as we were taxing out to the runway – it looked to be a beautiful morning out there, and I was really itching to get pics of the departure. I’ve been doing these trip reports for years now and it seems weird to me when I can’t take window shots on a flight. Weird – but it’s the truth.
The hot towels were distributed immediately after take off, followed by a quick beverage service before they started serving breakfast. They didn’t serve snacks with the drinks, but I couldn’t tell if that was planned or if they just ran out of time. They did seemed rushed trying to get breakfast put together, though it was a slow enough service that the first three rows had already finished with their meals by the time they even served mine. That’s not a complaint or anything – I’m just stating that as an unfortunate consequence of choosing a seat in the very last row of the cabin.



An overwhelming feeling of sleepiness overcame me immediately after breakfast, and I pretty much slept for the remainder of the flight. It wasn’t quality sleep though – those domestic-style first class recliner seats aren’t all that comfortable, so the best I can ever do in those things is just nap on and off. In all the tossing and turning I did for the last two hours of the flight, I did see the flight attendants come around with the snack basket a few times (as well as offering continuous drink refills), so I’d say the service was pretty good on this flight.

Once again during the landing I was having a really strong urge to be taking pics from the window to document the landing process. But being stuck in an aisle seat, all I could do was…well…pretty much wish I was sitting in a window seat!






And that wraps up what was probably my last ever DL non-ER 767 flight from San Diego to Atlanta. I still have one more of these flights (ATL to SAN – the final leg of this trip report), but it is still kind of sad to know that from here on out, it’ll pretty much be 737-800/900’s whenever I fly on DL out of SAN.
John
Hi Scott
It is great to see a new Trip Report, including you in the photo! Have you made a video too? I must admit the First class seating does not look too impressive considering the duration of the flight, what is the seat pitch in that cabin?
I have not flown Delta much, being based in the UK, all I remember are (very) old aircraft, quite shocking actually. My last few flights in the US were with AA, all of them on brand new A321’s.
SANspotter
Hey John, yeah, it’s been a while! Glad you liked my dorky photo. 🙂 Yes, I did shoot a lot of video footage for this flight, so now it’s just a matter of finding the time to edit it all. Hopefully I’ll have it up on YouTube within the next two weeks.
Delta is actually refreshing their entire fleet at the moment, and these non-ER 767-300’s are the next to go. Yeah, the seat pitch isn’t all that great (as with all domestic US airlines), but their new 737’s and A321’s are really modern and fresh. Trip reports for both of those aircraft are coming up soon!
SJCSpotter
SANSpotter, I have just found your website and really enjoy your travels. By odd coincidence, I have also flown on N1402A, back in June 2012 from SLC to ATL. I sat in row 4 (the seat right in front of yours). I agree the seating is a bit tight, but for nostalgia’s sake, I like to ride these since they’ll be gone very soon. The domestic -300s used to be 4 rows of 6 across with 42″ pitch, with the extra pitch making up for the narrower width of the seats vs. the Boeing narrowbodies and the once prevalent L1011 ‘Tritanic’. When DL re-rigged the cabin for video and added slimline seats in Y, they added a fifth row to F, but compressed the seat pitch to 38″, so it feels tighter.
N1402A is one of a handful of Pratt-powered ERs in this domestic config. I understand these will remain in the fleet for Hawaii service. All the GE-powerered domestic 767-332s should be retired by the end of the summer season 2016. When you’re riding in F on these, the preflight drink service can seem a bit rushed with 30 up front, smaller aisles, and all pax entering from the forward door, adding chaos to the proceedings.
My favorite DL 767s are the ex-Gulf Air international configs, with the center door. There are only 24 pax up front, and if the center door is indeed used for boarding, the preflight service is more relaxed. I see you logged N1501P recently, and I picked up N153DL from SFO to ATL last February.
SANspotter
Wow, thanks for the good info on the domestic Delta 767!! I also heard that there would only be a few of these things remaining after the summer travel season, and that N1402A would be one of them. Such a same to see these aircraft leave the fleet, but at least the remaining few get to spend their last days doing Hawaii runs. 🙂
iTripReport
Not that much of a Delta frequent flyer, but Im going to fly them on the 31st of October. Its sad to see that all their flights from SAN-ATL that day will be operated by the 739. So does this mean delta will also stop 757 service to SAN from ATL, or is it just because of the low travel season…
SANspotter
Yeah, it’s a bummer for us SAN flyers. I had a look at the fall schedule a few days ago, and all DL flights to and from ATL are 739’s. I’m not totally sure if thats just for the low season or not, but since they are notorious for always tweaking schedules, my fingers are crossed that the 757’s come back at some point. Better yet, I’d love to see internationally-configured 763’s with Delta One here! That’s a bit of a stretch, but with jetBlue bringing Mint to SAN next year, I’m very curious to see what DL (and the other majors) will respond with.
PsychicRailfanner
man it sucks i was looking forward to filming some! oh well at least i got a picture of one back in september of 2017!
SANspotter
It’s pretty amazing how fast Delta dumped those things! Just goes to show you that it doesn’t pay to procrastinate… 🙂