To the surprise of no one, my last big trip of the year is a multi-week trip to the East Coast! In this case, I’ll actually be flying Delta back once again. I had expected to fly Alaska Airlines like last year on the direct flight to DC from SF, but that flight was, as per usual, extremely expensive. I had just about given up and resigned myself to a boring flight across the country, when a connecting flight on Delta popped up from SFO to SLC to BWI, with the SLC-BWI leg being a redeye. Spoiling the article slightly: the flight was available for $169 (or 12 600 miles) in economy or $499 in first class, and there was a confirmable regional upgrade available, which was quite the deal! Especially considering the direct flight was $500+ for standard economy.
Like most of my trips, it started with a BART ride to SFO airport, and I had a very quick stop at the check-in counter to check my bag and get a physical boarding card. Upon clearing security, I made my way to the Delta SkyClub in the C gates at SFO. This is a club I’ve visited previously, and it continues to be one of my favorite lounges at SFO.
They had a standard buffet on offer that I think might have been slightly Christmas themed because there was an above average amount of cranberries.
Our flight was showing a short delay while we were in the lounge, so I decided to take the opportunity to walk around the C gates and try to take some pictures of whatever planes I could see. Our flight ended up being delayed again shortly before we were supposed to board, so I just grabbed another drink in the lounge and waited. We ended up departing about 80 minutes late, but luckily that ended up being a delay of only 45 minutes for our arrival into Salt Lake City.
Because the delay started being a bit of a rolling delay, I ended up being at the boarding gate in time to board early, which I usually try to avoid.
To give everyone a point of comparison for a typical domestic first class experience between San Francisco and Washington DC, I’d recommend checking out this Alaska Airlines journey I took earlier in 2025.
You’ll notice that I’m using their old-style wired headphones to watch a movie (The Addams Family).
This flight wasn’t long enough for an actual meal service but rather just snacks since we were only in the air for about 75 minutes. And there were a lot of snacks to choose from (and the flight attendant even came by a second time).
After our short cruise over to Salt Lake City, it was time to stop briefly by the SLC SkyClub. I had intended to get pictures of both the new B gates SkyClub (which closed earlier) and the A gates SkyClub, but due to the delay, I only had time for a couple pictures, which didn’t turn out very well. It’s not unreasonable that the SkyClub closes at about the same time as boarding for the last flights of the evening, but it is unfortunate.
So I’ll have to do a more substantive review in a future post. That’s also part of the reason for combining these two flights into one post. But suffice it to say that at this time in the evening, there was virtually no one in the lounge, and only some remnants of food were on offer.
But luckily, it was shortly time for the second flight! Waiting on the seat was a sizeable pillow and blanket, which is way more than I was expecting for just a normal domestic flight. That being said, these seats were old and didn’t have adjustable headrests, so it was much harder to get comfortable than it would’ve been on the 737-900 on the previous flight.
Now, I think that this longer flight from SLC to BWI offers a meal service during the day, but understandably for a flight that is scheduled to depart at 11:59 pm, they did a minimal inflight service to reduce disruptions. I also put in the old-style headphones again just for consistency. A quick pre-departure beverage service was offered, along with pre-orders if we wanted anything in the air.
The focus on efficiency meant that we pushed back on time and actually ended up arriving early, which was great! Upon arriving in BWI, I made my way to an airport hotel that I had actually booked for the night before, with a late checkout of 4 pm that day. By the time I arrived at the hotel at 7 am, they were already serving breakfast, so I grabbed a bagel and cream cheese, went to the room, and then took a nap until about noon and started my day. All things considered, that strategy actually worked pretty well!
In summary, these two typical domestic flights were exactly what I wanted to get to the East Coast. Adding the stop in SLC definitely added to the journey time, but at least the delayed first leg didn’t impact the overall itinerary (minus not being able to check out the new B gates SkyClub). The ground experience at both SFO and SLC was up to Delta’s consistently very good standard (4/5). The newer seat on the 737-900 was noticeably better (4/5) than on the 737-800, which was just average (3/5). On both flights, the service was excellent when compared to the context (evening, delayed flight vs short overnight flight; 5/5). Both flights only offered a snack selection, which made more sense on the shorter flight; I feel like something could’ve been offered pre-arrival on the second flight (3/5 and 2/5). The free WiFi and seatback TV on both planes was great (4/5). Overall, the two flights get a 20/25 (SFO-SLC) and an 18/25 (SLC-BWI), which reflects that SFO-SLC is an important route for Delta and that SLC-BWI is just a normal route to a lower cost airport that’s just a bit hard to get excited about from any angle.
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