I had about 3 and a half hours before my connecting flight to SAN, so I decided to take the Plane Train down to the new F concourse for lunch. I was looking for something light and healthy, and I thought I found it at an Asian restaurant called the Pei Wei Asian Diner. I ordered Japanese chicken teriyaki thinking that it sounded like a reasonably healthy choice, but was disappointed when it ended up being deep fried chicken in very salty sauce. I’m a picky eater, but I was hungry so I ate it anyway. Oh well.
DL1967
Atlanta, GA (ATL) – San Diego (SAN)
Friday January 3 2014
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300
Seat: 3D (first)
I spent time wandering around taking pictures for the rest of my layover, staring in concourse F and working my way one concourse at a time to the T gates. I got a few decent pics, but nothing really notable.
I made it all the way back to the T gates with 10 minutes to spare before boarding started, and I’ve got to say that for a fully loaded 767-300, boarding was fairly orderly. I didn’t have to machete my way through the throngs of people hovering around the boarding door, which hadn’t been the case for all of my other flights during this trip.
Once onboard, I was met by Marsha – the same (awesome) flight attendant who worked my SAN-ATL segment last Saturday. Alright! I quickly settled into seat 3D, and first class was only half full at this point despite them saying it was going to be a completely full flight. The plane slowly filled up, and as a matter of fact, the seat next to me (3C) was the only one that remained empty up to two minutes before the boarding door closed. It was at that point that the guy who was to occupy that seat came huffing and puffing onto the aircraft, clearly an indication that he had been running through ATL to make this flight.
The problem was that I could sense this guy was just going to explode if he couldn’t tell someone about the ordeal he had been through in order to get here. After my last segment, I was in no mood for conversation – I just wanted to sit in quiet solitude and work on this trip report. I made sure to bury myself in my iPad (with earbuds in my ears), trying hard not to make eye contact with him. He was figity and restless, sighing heavily as he sucked down his first scotch and water – there was no way I was going to get sucked into conversation this time! Gee, can you tell I’m a bit of an introvert?
Unfortunately, it seemed as if everyone else in the the cabin had tons of energy as well. A quiet environment it was not, and my head was quickly starting to hurt listening to all the yelling across aisles and other shenanigans going on around me. I was quickly starting to get irritated.
We were #4 in line for take off on 26L, and I was happy to see that my fellow first class passengers had settled down a bit as we took off and climbed out of ATL.
Service was phenomenal (as expected) with Marsha onboard. I was addressed by name at every interaction, and I never had to wait for anything. She, along with another very good Asian flight attendant, provided friendly and attentive service that was on par or better than most other international business class flights I’ve taken – it was that good.
Drink service began 10 minutes after takeoff, and I strayed from my normal water or orange juice and ordered a diet Coke with lime.
Since Marsha had taken meal orders before departure, the main entre followed shortly after the drinks. The two choices this evening were beef short ribs with mashed potatoes, or a vegetarian pasta dish with artichoke. Given the fact that I have been eating quite heavy for the past week in Florida, I opted for the pasta. It was a fine choice, though not exactly light. Desert was a small cup of mango sorbet.
I watched Despicable Me (again) during the dinner service, then started watching Disney’s Planes once that was over. It was difficult to watch due to the fact that I don’t have noise canceling headphones, so I gave up on that within 5 minutes and picked up where I left off on this trip report.
With still over an hour and 30 minutes left to go until arrival at SAN, I decided to check out and nap for the rest of the flight, skipping the second service.
The rest of the flight was completely uneventful, and we touched down just a few minutes behind schedule. After that, it was a short taxi over to the very last gate (51) at Terminal 2 West, and I made my way to baggage claim.
Overall, I was very satisfied with the flights on this trip. The problem is that I’ve done it so many times on Delta that I have nothing to compare it to. Next time I’m going to shake it up a little and try something new.
greg argendeli
Here is an update just about 4 years later. I took the same trip (ATL->SAN) on Delta First Class in June 2018, about 8pm. All boarding was done through the main front door. I arrived about 20m prior takeoff for seat 1D (I think, first row, first officer’s side), a VERY cramped seat.
No pre-take off drink offered, though I did see that others DID have drinks. When I asked a cabin attendant about this, the reply was “Sorry, you arrived too late”
Meal service: available on the flight, but not for me. Again, when asked why others were being served, the response “it looked like you were sleeping when we came for serving, so we skipped you.” No offer made to provide service at that point.
Beverage service: water or soda,just like economy. I asked for the whole can of Coke.
Deplaning: the throngs of people behind first class were already in the aisle before the doors opened, no chance to get out early.
At no time was I referenced by name, introduced to any flight attendant. Thank goodness there was space above my seat for my suit, there was no assistance in getting it into the wardrobe areas.
When I contacted Delta, I just received a form letter back, no offer for compensation, discount on future flights, miles.
Price paid for this flight: LIST (not an upgrade) , $889.
NEVER AGAIN.