Delta is OK by me
I had my first trip on Delta Airlines last week and I have to say that the overall experience was positive. Kudos to the many local people who worked so hard to get this added air travel option for the North Coast. Chief among them was Gregg Foster, previous executive director for the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission. The others who helped include the Eureka Chamber of Commerce and the many businesses and individuals that purchased $2,000 "travel bank" advance airfare cards to prime the pump and convince Delta Airlines that we were serious and committed.
For sure, the hard working staff at the Eureka/Arcata Airport are still trying to adjust to the added service and logistics. Technical glitches include the inability for passengers to pre-print boarding passes at home before flights, therefore requiring all passengers to stand in line for regular boarding tickets. Then there is the difficulty of coordinating three major early morning flights at the same time. Within 15 minute intervals Delta departs for Salt Lake City, Horizon departs for Los Angeles and United leaves for San Francisco. Just getting all these passengers ticketed and security screened, and their baggage stowed is a huge effort.
I was flying on a last-minute trip to Washington DC to do a one-day workshop with international judges, and I was able to handle the whole thing in two days. This was largely attributable to the ease of flying into and out of Washington/Reagan airport instead of Dulles (which is significantly farther away from DC). And I was able to do this with only one connection through Salt Lake City, as this is one of Delta hub airports where lots of connecting flights are available.
As an all-too-frequent business traveler, I now have the dilemma of choosing between United and Delta, and keeping the balance such that I maintain elite flying status on both. This is necessary because of easy upgrades and stand-by priorities. There are just too many things that can go wrong with (especially multiple connection) flights these days and 99% of my flights are for business purposes that are usually inflexible.
I admit to being surprised at how busy the Salt Lake City airport is, at least in the Delta terminal. It seemed much more busy than San Francisco, and on par with Denver or Chicago.
My wife is fond of saying, it's a poor rat that only has one hole to crawl into. This local added air service now gives this rat another hole, and I'm grateful to have it.
Chris Crawford
Photo credit = Delta Airlines