Our Saturday afternoon journey from Chicago to Salt Lake City on a Delta Air Lines 737-800 in economy class was smooth and productive, with the kids really enjoying the seatback screens and Biscoff cookies and me enjoying the free high-speed Wi-Fi…a very drama-free flight.
Delta Air Lines 737-800 Economy Class Review (ORD-SLC)
We bought $134 basic economy tickets from Chicago to Burbank via Salt Lake City on Delta…I have no idea why, but the price was significantly cheaper than on United or American and I welcomed the opportunity to take the kids on a flight where we knew there would be seatback screens.
I’m increasingly willing to roll the dice with basic economy tickets when traveling with the kids…the points are not worthwhile for the extra $50 and airlines make a good effort to seat families together. During check-in, Delta auto-assigned the kids and me in one row with my wife directly across the aisle.
My plan was to check out the Air France lounge before the flight with my SkyTeam ElitePlus status from SAS and Heidi’s Priority Pass (or least review the pathetic Swissport Priority Pass lounge), but we ended up getting a late start and arrived at the airport just moments before boarding began.
In fact, by the time we cleared security boarding had begun and we immediately boarded the flight.
Delta Air Lines 2377
Chicago (ORD) – Salt Lake City (SLC)
Saturday, June 13
Depart: 5:00 PM
Arrive: 7:33 PM
Duration: 03hr, 33min
Distance: 1,250 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 31D (Economy Class)
Stepping onboard, we found our way to the back of the plane where our seats were in row 31, just three rows from the back.
Seat
Delta’s 737-800s have 26 premium cabin seats (four rows in a 2-2 configuration) and 144 seats in economy class, including 36 Comfort+ seats (in rows 10-15) with extra legroom (34 inches). The rest of the cabin, including my seat, had 31 inches of pitch and 17 inches of width, with a recline of three inches.
Each row has universal A/C outlets between seats and a USB-A port on the monitor.
The windows were scratched/old, but thankfully the cabin was cool and there were individual air vents.
Wi-Fi + IFE
Delta offers complimentary Viasat Wi-Fi onboard and I was hoping to get a jump start on Monday’s work so that I could take Saturday evening and all of Sunday off…it worked well and Wi-Fi has become the single most important feature to me on a domestic flight (other than a lie-flat on a redeye). Kudos to Delta for leading the industry with free Wi-Fi. While this was by no means as fast Starlink, it was functional enough that I got a lot of work during the flight.
Seatback monitors contained movies, TV shows, live TV, games, and music and while there was a lot to choose from, for whatever reason I did not see much of anything that appeared to me.
Free headsets were provided.
Food + Drink
Shortly after takeoff, beverages were offered along with a choice of snack. Current choices include:
- Cheez-It Original Baked Snack Crackers
- Lotus Biscoff Cookies
- MadeGood Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bar
- Rold Gold Tiny Twists Original Pretzels
We all got Biscoff cookies and I gave mine to the kids.
I’ve said before that I’m very snobbish when it comes to coffee but also snobbish when it comes to water and I really like the Fever Tree club soda on Delta. I wish Delta would use plastic cups…I don’t like the paper cups.
I think Delta misses out by not offering heartier food for purchase (like Alaska Airlines and United Airlines) on these flights, especially with a 5:00 pm departure, but we came prepared with a grocery bag full of treats: mixed nuts, beef sticks, apples, carrots, and rice cakes.
Lavatories
This Delta 737-800 dis not have mid-cabin lavatory. Instead, there were only two in the back for all 144 economy class passengers, which was not a great ratio and there was a lot of foot traffic to them.
It seems Delta does not put ashtrays in its lavatories, unlike AA and UA, which I thought was a requirement?
Service
Flight attendants were efficient and kind – no complaints about service.
CONCLUSION
Chicago O’Hare was congested and we were delayed in taking off and also landed late in Salt Lake City, but our connecting flight was only a few gates away.
This was an excellent economy class flight on Delta…I’d say the only room for improvement would be for Delta to offer some more substantial food for sale on flights of this length.
Oof. Basic. 6’1″?! Ashtrays!?! LOL.
And yet we survived!
By the grace of… happy for you 😉
Alaska Airlines offers food for pre-order on flights of this length
Yes, AS offers food for pre-order on flights that are 3 hours long. You can reserve fresh meals and signature snack boxes on flights over 775 miles (which generally covers 3 hours of travel time). Passengers in all cabins can pre-select their meals using the AS mobile app or website from two weeks up to 20 hours before departure.
An ordinary flight where a UA B737-800 performed its mission well…
* Corrected Comment *
An ordinary flight where a DL B737-800 performed its mission well…
For aviation enthusiasts → DL currently has 77 B737-800s (average age: 24.9 years) in its fleet.
Do you think having elite status with delta gives the system of nudge towards seating you all together?
My status is with SAS. I don’t think it mattered – I think Delta just actively tries to avoid headaches by seating families together, even on basic tickets.
How ‘humane’ of them.
Why would you expect ashtrays when smoking is illegal on every flight?
Because they’d rather have cheaters use an ashtray that throw it in the trash.