#949373 by pjh
19 Mar 2019, 16:16
Ash Wednesday dawned bright and calm for the first leg of our trip home from New Orleans. Though Mardi Gras night itself proved a little too much for us, the few days leading up to it had been excellent, particularly our storm struck bayou adventure, and it’s definitely a place we’d come back to. There’s still much to see, as basically anywhere that doesn’t sell alcohol closes from the Friday before Mardi Gras until Ash Wednesday.


There’d been a bit of a hiccup the day before, when the Delta engine simply refused to check us in. Mr Fretful was in my head again whispering downgrades and diversions, so I sent a Tweet to Delta after which all was sorted. I think it may have been because there had been a very minor time change which I hadn’t seen and accepted. After the reseating farrago on the outbound VS leg, I made sure that we were still in our pre-selected seats before confirming.

After settling the eye watering hotel bill, I ordered a (discounted!) Uber and we were being dropped off at the kerbside about 20 minutes later. I wish he hadn’t regaled us with tales of how cold it was Detroit though…

After dropping our hold luggage off, as we passed into security the agent looked at our passes, hollered “2 more for Pre Check” and shooed us along to the Pre Check lane. Which, per our luck, was actually busier than the main security but them’s the breaks and it was quite fun to not have to take my belt off.

Delta’s SkyLounges are nothing if not anonymous, and I’m struggling to recall much about the one at New Orleans. As it was before 10am, and champagne wasn’t on offer, I did hold back from the bar – though there were several people already there and one first name terms with the barman. I think the food on offer was the usual cereals, bagels, muffins, crisped bacon and sausage patties. There may also have been grits- I can’t confirm as my mind has an auto delete function where grits are concerned.

We passed a couple of hours doing not very much, but getting full value entertainment from the rather convoluted rules being applied in respect of entry to the lounge; certainly the fact that travelling Delta First domestically only does not automatically qualify the passenger for lounge entry was a surprise to many. Then there was a Diamond was told he could choose lounge access as an option, but he’d have to leave the lounge, go online, apply, be flagged as in receipt of the perk and then come back in.

The departures board in the lounge came up with boarding for our flight a little earlier than expected, and despite the gate being literally outside the SkyLounge Mr Fretful insisted we “set off now!” leading to a five minute wait at the gate. We departed on time, with an on time flight predicted and temperatures of -7C forecast for DTW.

This flight was to be on a 717, so in theory should possibly have been a little quieter at the front normal as the engines are rear mounted. It wasn’t.

Service as we’d experienced on Delta thus far, pleasant and attentive. As it was a 2.5hr flight there was a meal service. Food was ok, sliders or a chicken salad. When I first put my hand on the tray I thought it sticky and wondered about the level of cleanliness, but actually it seems to be a design feature to stop tableware sliding around.

There was no backseat IFE, but you could use the Wifi to stream the programme to your device. This time around I got it to work, though in the end opted to read or look out at the view. At first we were following the Mississippi north in the direction of Memphis seeing the river in flood, but then north of Nashville the landscape changed to one with a reasonable covering of snow.

Part of the cabin preparation for descent into DTW included the crew visiting everyone with a connecting flight, telling them which gate from which they were scheduled to depart. A quick glance at the in flight magazine showed that yet again it seemed we’d be involved in a trek from one end of the airport to the other…

… which, after one of the smoothest landings we’ve ever experienced (even MrsPJH was impressed enough to comment), proved to be the case. There is a monorail within the terminal, but it wasn’t operational the day we were there. We treated the trek as a contribution to what would otherwise be a very low step count day, and we did have around 3 hrs to pass before our next flight. There are a number of Delta SkyLounges, and we opted to head for the one closest to our departure gate.

Question for the more frequent connecting flyers out there. Is it normal that there is no outbound security when transferring flights from domestic to international?

Next leg....here
Last edited by pjh on 20 Mar 2019, 11:32, edited 1 time in total.
#949379 by gumshoe
19 Mar 2019, 17:17
pjh wrote:Question for the more frequent connecting flyers out there. Is it normal that there is no outbound security when transferring flights from domestic to international?


You mean at the connecting airport? Yes, that’s normal. You already cleared security to US standards when you caught your first flight so there’s no need to do it again unless you have to go landside or are connecting off an international flight.

Exactly the same applies in the UK - eg if you fly EDI-LHR-JFK on BA you’ll only clear security once, at EDI.
#949387 by pjh
19 Mar 2019, 19:51
gumshoe wrote:
You mean at the connecting airport? Yes, that’s normal. You already cleared security to US standards when you caught your first flight so there’s no need to do it again unless you have to go landside or are connecting off an international flight.
.


Thanks. I’d always assumed some form of “counting out” would take place as you actually left the country.
#949412 by hiljil
20 Mar 2019, 11:58
Thank you for part one of Homeward Bound. Things definitely looking up - except were you returning to a house in chaos rather than the calm needed after a TATL flight ?!
Last edited by hiljil on 20 Mar 2019, 19:36, edited 1 time in total.
#949426 by pjh
20 Mar 2019, 19:29
hiljil wrote:Thank you for part one of Homeward Bound. Things definitely looking up - except we’re you returning to a house in chaos rather than the calm needed after a TATL flight ?!


Yes we were. We’ve had to move out and start a period of grown up sofa surfing as today we’re now without water for a few days and they were knocking seven shades out of the house as they install the new load bearing steels....
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