Working again, Arlington Texas: Delta 717 Main Cabin and Delta A321 Comfort Plus Review.

A few days at home after our lovely family vacation, I’m back on the road for work. I really don’t mind this. I’ve been traveling for work for nearly a decade now, and it’s almost relaxing for me to be on the road. Don’t get me wrong, I love being at home, but it’s nice to break up the routine.

This is a somewhat unusual trip for me, I don’t often work outside of the East Coast, but it does happen sometimes. I’m traveling on a Sunday afternoon today. I’ve probably reviewed a 717 exit row seat a dozen times here. What can I say, I fly a lot of those little buggers. The A321 has also been on here a lot. Though I don’t think I’ve reviewed my favorite Economy seat here yet. I’ll get into that here soon enough.

With more and more people flying again, the airports and planes are starting to get more crowded. I saw that plenty on this trip. When booking this flight I had a few options, I could fly into Dallas Love Field or Dallas Fort-Worth, I also had the option of taking a direct flight on American Airlines. DFW is not my favorite airport, but because I was going to Arlington, it was closer so I chose it. I also decided to go with a Delta flight and a stop along the way in ATL. Yes, this is a bit slower, however it does get me in earlier, was cheaper, and AA has been having some serious operational issues lately. Anyway, let’s get into it.

In This Trip

1 :Working again, Arlington Texas: Delta 717 Main Cabin and Delta A321 Comfort Plus Review.

     1.1: GSP Airport
     1.2: Delta Boeing 717 Exit Row Review
     1.3: ATL Airport Transfer
     1.4: Delta A321 Comfort Plus Exit Row
     1.5: Final Thoughts

2: Working again, Arlington Texas: Aloft Dallas Arlington Entertainment District Review

3: Working again, Arlington Texas: Delta A321 Economy and Delta 737-800 Exit Row Review

GSP Airport

Exciting News!(not really) Greenville-Spartanburg Airport has opened up a new economy parking lot. And when I say new parking lot, I mean they made a new entrance into the same old parking lot. I assume this is mostly for traffic flow reasons, but I’m still questioning the logic of the airport. They are adding more parking lots and garages but refuse to add some sort of public transit option. A bus twice an hour would be great, I live downtown Greenville and I’d much rather take a cheap bus than drive and park or taking Uber/Lyft.

After the walk from the now very far away parking lot I was curbside. Due to Covid, the airport is no longer running the parking shuttles, not that I used them anyway. Just something to keep in mind if you have luggage or cannot walk the half mile.

GSP Airport Security

Security was quiet on this Sunday afternoon. GSP has transitioned to not needing a boarding pass. Just scan your ID and that’s it. I kinda like this process, don’t need have my phone out.

Delta 717 waiting at the gate at GSP

I was much earlier than usual though my ride down to ATL was already at the gate. The lounge there at GSP is still closed, so I just waited for my flight at the gate.

Delta Boeing 717 Exit Row Review

Soon enough we boarded.

Delta 717 Exit row seats

I chose a window seat in the exit row on the 3 seat side of the plane. Usually I’d chose the 2 seat side, however, this flight wasn’t that heavily loaded and there was a middle seat open so I’ll gladly take that trade.

Delta 717 Exit row seats leg room

When selecting an exit row seat on the 717, the furthest rearward row is usually better. Good legroom and doesn’t have the bolt upright, non-reclining, seats that usually occupy the first row of exit seats or even the row in-front of the exit seats.

No in-seat entertainment, that’s just fine on these short flights. The tray table is also in the arm rest making the seats a little bit more narrow.

Well, this makes the world feel somewhat normal. I’m sitting in a 717 exit row going on a 3 day trip to Arlington. It’s only a 33 minute flight today so we needed to push back and wait for our landing slot into ATL. Pretty common in the BC times, not so often during the Rona, but seems to be creeping back in. 

Away we go, beautiful day for a flight. Anyway, this was an unusually late schedule trip, I only booked this last night. I haven’t booked my return yet, so I might try the direct AA flight for the return.

Delta 717 Economy Cabin

This plane isn’t particularly full but not what I would call empty. I got my own exit row, pretty great day for me. We pushed back from the gate, the pilot told us all about our flight and the weather. 

After we took off, because it’s such a short flight there’s no service. But we did get a great view of Greenville on our South West departure. We also got wonderful views of lake Keowee and the nuke plant. Lots of boat traffic on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. 

After just a few minutes at altitude, the pilots announced that we were beginning our decent into ATL. Scheduled to land just a few minutes early, perfect for my 38 minute connection. 

On the ground early for my short connection. No lounge or snacks for me today. I need to make my way down to the E concourse.

ATL Airport Transfer

We arrived into the C concourse and I started my journey all the way to E. Funny enough the flight to Dallas Love field was departing from the gate next to where I arrived. It wasn’t leaving for more than an hour so my flight to DFW was the better option for landing earlier.

After the train I walked into the E terminal. C to E isn’t worst case, but walking each terminal end to end is a little time consuming. I still very much like a short connection. I really don’t like spending time in airports.

Delta A321 Comfort Plus Exit Row

After a very brief connection I walked on to the plane. I wasn’t the last to board, but I was towards the end.

Delta A321 Comfort Plus seating

The plane is pretty full, I was hopefully that the seat next to me would be empty, but unfortunately someone boarded right before the door closed. Yep, right next to me. 

Delta A321 Comfort Plus legroom

This is the best Comfort Plus seat in the fleet. There’s an absolute pile of leg room, so much that you can just walk around the person next to you. There are also only two seats, so no middle seat and if you’re traveling as a couple, these are the seats to have.

There is power, both 110v and USB under the seat. There’s also your neighbors toes and my hairy leg.

Delta A321 Comfort Plus Cabin

Almost entirely full flight today. The only down side to these seats are the lack of in seat entertainment in the seat back. It’s in the armrest so you cannot partake during takeoff and landing. Not a big deal to me. Another note is avoid the exit row on the left side of the plane if you like a window view. There isn’t one at all. Leg room is good, but there’s absolutely no view.

We soon pushed back and taxied to the runway. Jet blue departing near by and another B6 plane waiting for a gate. The E concourse (Along with F) is mixed use gates, no airline controls them unlike much of the rest of the airport.

Away we go. Caught a C-32 sitting at the Delta maintenance ramp. Not an uncommon sight, Delta has an excellent Tech-ops department and tons of 757 experience. Had a pilot point this out during an announcement once.

We soon were pointed West in an attempt to catch the sun. It started to be a little rough the the pilot noted that. The service was delayed because of that.

Delta A321 Comfort Plus Entertainment

I didn’t mind as I settled into an episode of 30 Rock. These little screens are pretty great, I might even prefer them to the in seat screens. There’s also a USB port on the screen that I eventually used to charge my phone.

Delta A321 Comfort Plus Snack Service

After about a half hour they started the drink service. I just had water and nuts. I like almonds, but I miss the cheese-its. 

It started getting a little rough flying at this point. Nothing bad, just bumpy. We were flying though some clouds that soon broke. 

We eventually caught the sun and made for some epic photos. What a lovely day for some flying.

Delta A321 Comfort Plus sunset view

Just as there was in South Carolina, plenty of people out on the lake on this hot summer Sunday. The flights from ATL to Central Texas aren’t that long, just long enough for a short movie and a drink.

DFW, everything is bigger in Texas. Not always better, just bigger, DFW is no exception to this. Absolutely massive airport.

At the gate here next to a Alaskan 737-900. Shameful to say, I’ve never flown Alaska. Heard all good things, but because I live in the South East US, I just don’t have much use for an airline based out of the PNW. I would like to try them someday, perhaps on an adventure to the West Coast.

Into the Terminal and on the way to the very far away rental car facility. It’s huge, had no cars, and takes forever to get to. DFW, I’m just not a fan of you.

Final Thoughts

From end to end these flights were just what I needed. On-time(slightly early actually), comfortable, and clean. That’s all I really want out of a domestic flight. I got some lovely views on this hot Sunday afternoon, both of the lakes and of the clouds.

The short connection time in ATL makes this single stop competitive with the direct flights offered by AA. The AA flight landed later in DFW, of course it left later, but I wanted to land earlier. The DL flight was right when I wanted it to be. As I said before, I haven’t yet booked a return flight so maybe I try AA for the return(spoiler, I don’t).

The right hand side A321 Exit row Comfort Pluss seats are the best C+ seats in the fleet. I’d gladly fly there any day of the week. All in this was a very boring trip to Dallas, I’m ok with that.

6 thoughts on “Working again, Arlington Texas: Delta 717 Main Cabin and Delta A321 Comfort Plus Review.

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  1. I’ve spent a great deal of time in airplanes over the years.
    Most of that time was over water, specifically the Atlantic Ocean, either going to or coming from some place in the Middle-of-the East
    (Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Israel, Jordan…well perhaps you get the idea. I am an expat who has worked in lots of dangerous desolate places)

    Anyway, this is not about me.
    I just wanted to comment and say I enjoyed your post.
    Has been a while since I took to the sky.
    I miss it.
    Believe it or not.

    I once flew Iraqi Airlines from Baghdad to Kuwait back in ‘08…
    But that is another story…

    Cheers,
    -Lance Marcom

    1. Lance,

      Sounds like a fantastically interesting lifetime you’ve had.

      If I don’t fly for a few months I miss it, you’re not alone. Thanks for following along!

      -J

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