A few months ago, as summer began approaching us, I began looking at itinerary opportunities to go on my annual trip to Delaware to visit family (which I've taken several times before and reported about - you can find some past trip reports below).
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I'm normally partial to flying Delta so I began looking there, and found something that caught my eye. Ever since COVID started, DL had interspersed widebodies on the SEA-ATL route (mostly 767s, although the A332, A333, A339, and A359 have been on it too), which was much more than prior to COVID when the only regular widebody was a daily 763 during the winter months. I lucked out and found an itinerary to BWI via ATL with 767-400ERs on the SEA-ATL and ATL-SEA flights, and booked that. I was excited for this for a number of reasons - this was my first time on a 767, the aircraft operating my flight would be in the new cabin with refreshed IFE and seats, and the 767-400ER was a rare visitor to Seattle prior to 2020 so it was a nice novelty to fly on it from there. My full itinerary for this trip is as follows:
6/29/21: DL 845, dep. SEA 12:50 am, arr. ATL 8:30 am
6/29/21: DL 853, dep. ATL 10:30 am, arr. BWI 12:24 pm
7/13/21: DL 827, dep. BWI 1:27 pm, arr. ATL 3:22 pm
7/13/21: DL 339, dep. ATL 5:42 pm. arr. SEA 8:06 pm
On the day prior to my flight, I woke up early to ensure that I'd be sufficiently tired by the time my flight left, and packed my suitcase. At the time, the Pacific Northwest was experiencing a serious heatwave with temperatures reaching 108ºF/42ºC on the 28th (for reference, summer temps in Seattle are typically in the 70s and 80s and triple digits are exceptionally rare), and my house had no AC so I mostly hung out in my basement and drank copious amounts of ice water to cool down. Early in the afternoon, my dad heard online that some roads in the state were buckling due to the extreme heat so we decided to leave a little bit early at about 7:30, so that we could grab a late dinner near SeaTac and that I could still check in early.
My dinner; we went to a restaurant near the airport called 13 Coins and I got a Monte Cristo, which was decent.
After eating we headed over to the airport at about 9:15. It was bumper-to-bumper at the arrivals road, but departures was relatively empty, which makes sense considering the hour. My dad dropped me off, and I printed my boarding passes at a kiosk then checked my bag.
Security was quick too, with little to no waiting. Somewhat embarrassingly, I forgot to take my Kindle out of my backpack so the TSA agents had to inspect that, but that only took a few minutes.
Since I had 3 hours until my flight left, I opted to walk around and explore the airport somewhat to kill time and to be active, in the hopes that it'd tire me out and help me sleep. I exited security at Concourse A, and first walked over to Concourse B, then took the train to the South Satellite where my flight would be departing from.
Sunsets tend to be especially late during summer in the Pacific Northwest, and this day was no exception. I had just entered Concourse B at 9:48 pm and saw the orange light illuminating the mountains, and couldn't resist the opportunity to snap a picture.
Entering the S Gates.
The angle isn't great, but here's Aeromexico parked at gate S10 prior to its 10 pm flight to Mexico City.
Here's a Delta Connection E-175 that was sitting overnight, and then a Delta 767-400ER in the background which operated the earlier 9:55 pm redeye to Atlanta.
Also, here's a United 737 MAX 9 parked on the other side of the concourse. This was somewhat peculiar since United typically parks at Concourse A, though to be fair the S Gates have also been used for overflow for American, Alaska, and Southwest who don't normally park there as well so it's nothing new.
After some time, I decided to walk down Concourse A, and got some photos along the way.
Here's the departures board, in case you'd like to zoom in and take a gander at that.
A was pretty empty at this hour too. If my memory serves me right, the only flights leaving from there at the time were United redeyes to Newark and Houston that were preparing to board, and some Delta Connection flights to Portland and possibly Medford that were just wrapping up boarding.
I also walked around Concourse C and D a bit, which serves Alaska and American flights, and that area was fairly busy with regional flights and redeyes heading out for the night. After that, I headed back over to the South Satellite at around 11-11:30ish. More people had shown up then, and my plane had pulled into its gate after its flight from Atlanta.
My apologies for the angle problem again, but my plane to ATL is on the left. Registered N829MH, this 767-400ER was delivered to Delta in August 2000 and has flown with them ever since.
An American A321 parked at a neighboring gate; I'm pretty sure it was headed to Dallas-Ft. Worth.
Boarding started at 12:10 am, and after boarding first class and Comfort+, economy was boarded by rows from back to front.
For this flight, I sat at seat 42G, in economy just behind the wing. The 767 seating is about an inch wider than on their narrowbodies, and while I'm relatively skinny I could easily notice the difference.
As part of their retrofit, Delta's 767-400ERs got these new IFE screens installed in economy, which are large and have decent touch sensitivity.
Legroom was passable, but ultimately nothing special (I'm 6'4'' though, to be fair).
We pushed back on time at about 12:45, and the safety video began playing as we taxied out.
Around this time, the mood lighting kicked in as well.
We taxied past an Air India 777-200LR, which had visited Seattle on the previous day for some reason.
At 1:03 am, we took off from runway 16L, climbing over the suburbs south of Seattle.
A couple of minutes into the flight, I decided to get some sleep, and put on eyeshades, a neck pillow, and blanket. Miraculously, I managed to get about 3 hours of sleep, and woke up at 4:15 am PT/7:15 am ET, about an hour prior to landing. I put on the moving map, and tried to doze for a little bit longer, but was mostly unsuccessful.
We touched down at 8:15 am and taxied to Concourse A. The windows fogged up rather quickly after landing, perhaps due to the high humidity, so I couldn't get many more window shots.
I disembarked, thanking the crew, and got a quick cockpit shot before I left.
One last look at N829MH parked at gate A2, prior to its next flight to Las Vegas, NV.
ATL was decently busy but not overly crowded when I was there. I was quite tired, so I grabbed an iced coffee and breakfast sandwich right after deplaning then walked over to Concourse B, where my flight to BWI was departing out of, to eat.
After eating, I explored the concourses a bit. I first went to Concourse C, where Delta and Southwest fly out of, then walked over to Concourse T where Delta, American, and United fly out of.
A Delta Connection E-175 parked at gate C40 heading to Chicago-Midway. I thought this was interesting since Delta used to almost never fly E-Jets out of ATL (prior to COVID they only did <10 flights from there IIRC), but in recent months they've become somewhat more prevalent out of there.
A small Delta lineup at the T Gates.
By then, it was getting closer to my boarding time, so I walked underground back to the B Gates.
N835DN was operating my flight to BWI this morning, a 737-900ER delivered to Delta in February 2015.
For this flight, I sat in seat 27A.
Legroom could have been better, but it was passable for a short flight.
We were a little bit late pushing back, doing so at 10:38 am, with the safety video playing in the background.
We took off at 10:48 am, climbing slowly.
All things considered, this was a pretty uneventful, quiet flight. The FAs came around with drinks and snacks, and we cruised for about 45 minutes. I attempted to sleep but was unsuccessful, so I mostly just sat and relaxed, looking out the window and watching the moving map, and before I knew it we were descending into BWI.
We touched down smoothly at 12:08 pm, then taxied to gate D23.
I then went to baggage claim, picked up my bags, and walked over to the parking garage to meet up with my family.
After a great 2 weeks with my family in Delaware that went by all too quickly, I was on my way home. I had the same itinerary in reverse heading home, and I was closely watching my flights on Flightradar24 to see what I'd be flying on. To my surprise, I found myself initially scheduled on N844MH from ATL to SEA, the SkyTeam special livery 767-400ER, then on N845MH, the BCRF special livery, but alas, I eventually was put on a regular livery 767-400ER instead. I wasn't particularly disappointed though, since it was better than no 767 at all. On my day of travel, we left Delaware at about 8:00 and got to the airport at about 10:30, which was early considering that I had a 1:30 departure but I didn't mind.
There was little to no line at Delta's check-in counters and at security, so I managed to get to my gate about 10-15 minutes after entering the airport.
I was flying out of the D Gates today, which is where every domestic airline sans Southwest and American fly out of, and is where US Airways used to fly out of when they had a hub at BWI. As the FIDS indicates though, the vast majority of flights were departing out of A, B, and C, so it was a ghost town over in D.
I arrived early enough to watch the 11 am BWI-ATL flight board and push back, which was operated by one of the last 737-900ERs left without split scimitar winglets.
I spent my time pacing around the concourse and sitting on my laptop, and around noon my 737-900ER pulled into the gate, predictably from ATL.
Boarding took some time due to it being a full flight and there being several gate-checked bags, so I didn't get on until 1:20, 7 minutes prior to our scheduled departure.
A closer look at N870DN, which was delivered to Delta in January 2017.
I was seated in seat 26A for this flight, a row in front of where I had sat from ATL to BWI. I chatted briefly with my seatmates who were connecting onto PNS, and they were friendly.
We pushed back at 1:33 pm, 6 minutes behind schedule, and taxied out to the runway as the safety video played again, then took off. This flight was mostly a repeat of my earlier ATL-BWI flight; the crew served snacks and drinks around southwest VA and I ordered cheap headphones from the crew since I only had AirPods with me. I decided to watch Mean Girls since I had never seen it and a friend recommended it, and alternated between that and the moving map.
We descended under cloudy skies, then touched down at 3:05 pm, 17 minutes before schedule. We were originally scheduled to park at Concourse B, but moved to the A Gates at the last minute and had to wait a few minutes for ground crews to arrive.
N870DN parked at gate A18, which would later fly to SEA at 7 pm, 2 hours after my flight.
ATL was busy again but not jam-packed. I had about an hour and a half before my SEA flight boarded, so I decided to walk over to the international gates to see what was happening there. It was a long walk, but I appreciated the opportunity to stretch my legs.
A Delta A350 parked at gate E17 before its flight to Amsterdam.
An A330-300 heading to ATH; a relatively new flight for Delta that restarted recently. The gate area was somewhat full an hour and 45 minutes prior to its departure time, which probably bodes well for its success considering how anemic international demand has been.
A Qatar A350 in the Oneworld livery heading to Doha parked at Concourse F.
Another A350 operated by Air France resting before its flight to Paris.
An A330-200 headed to Lagos.
A 767-300ER off to Bogota.
One last A350, this one was also headed for Paris.
At about 4:15, I headed back to Concourse A where my flight to SEA was departing, and took the Plane Train to save time. My flight didn't board until about 5, but I wanted to grab some dinner so I left early.
I got a burger and fries at Shake Shack, which was pretty good.
My gate area was crowded since it was a full flight so I couldn't grab a great shot, but here's the best photo I could get of my 767-400ER, N832MH, which was delivered in September 2000.
Boarding took some time again due to the need for some bags to be gate checked, but we were able to all get onboard and leave on time.
My seat for this flight, 46G.
We pushed back at 5:42 pm, and taxied out to the runway. Interestingly enough, when we passed by the hangars I saw a 757-200 registered N6706Q, which I had flown from Seattle to Detroit this past September.
Finally, we took off at 5:54 pm, climbing rather steeply with a good view of downtown Atlanta in the distance.
This flight was uneventful and smooth as well; the crew came around with snacks and drinks twice and there was periodic turbulence. I finished my movie from last flight, then watched some Friends while checking on the moving map every so often.
About 2/3 of the way through the flight my seatmate got up to use the restroom, and I took that opportunity to do the same and walk around the cabin a bit.
Finally, we began our descent over eastern Washington and turned on final approach near Everett, just south of Paine Field. Our approach gave us a nice view of downtown, though it was difficult to see with the light shining directly into the window.
At 7:31 pm we touched down on runway 16L, ending my trip exactly where I had started 2 weeks prior.
We had arrived about 30 minutes early and had to wait a little while for our gate, so we did a loop around the South Satellite before parking at gate A13 at the end of the concourse.
Eventually, we parked at 7:47 pm, and an FA asked if there was a doctor onboard. A few people went up to the forward economy cabin, and I was unsure what the problem was but we were able to deplane 2 or 3 minutes later so it must not have been major.
I grabbed one last shot of N832MH basking in the golden hour light, prior to its 9:55 flight right back to Atlanta.
After that, I walked over to baggage claim, met up with my dad, got my bags at 8:05, and was on my way out of the airport.
Conclusion:
All in all, I really enjoyed this set of flights from Delta. It was a nice treat to fly 2 767s domestically, and I wouldn't mind taking one on a longer flight in the future. The 737-900ERs were a bit tighter, but were acceptable for a flight as short as ATL-BWI. It's no secret that I'm a big fan of flying Delta domestically, and this trip did nothing to change that in my eyes; I'd gladly recommend them to anybody else as well. Thank you for reading my trip report and sticking around to the end! If you have any questions or comments feel free to reply; I'd appreciate the feedback.
