Review of Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to St Louis in Premium Eco

Reminder of my routing :

• Basle - Amsterdam KL / J, Fokker 70: http://flight-report.com/en/report-6366.html
• Amsterdam - Detroit DL / J, Airbus 330-300: http://flight-report.com/en/report-6378.html
• Detroit - Chicago DL / F, MD -88: http://flight-report.com/en/report-6399.html
• Chicago - Atlanta DL / Y, A320: http://flight-report.com/en/report-6441.html
• Atlanta - St Louis DL / Y, MD90: Lambert, here I come!!
• St Louis - Detroit DL / Y, B717-200
• Detroit - Chicago DL / F, A319
• Chicago - Minneapolis DL / F, E175
• Minneapolis - Seattle DL / F, B757-300
• Seattle - Fairbanks AK / F, B737-900ER
• Fairbanks - Seattle AK / F, B737-700
• Seattle - Paris CDG DL / J, B767-300ER
• Paris CDG - Basle AF / Y, ATR72

The guy I chatted with on my previous flight was going to Nashville, I could spot his MD88 as well:

And my MD90 : (ex-Japan Airlines)

Boarding will be launched, as usual, on time, with priorities strictly enforced:
Here some shoots of the cabin and the PSU:

I choose the seat 36A in purpose, to see and listen to the sound of the engine and to have unlimited legroom. Just in case you are flying on the MD90 and like to be seated at the back, the row 37 is the last row with a view. Rows 38 and 39 have the window blocked by the engine, row 40 has no window.

The service door is just in front of my seat. It is called service door, because at its beginnings, the MD90 had a rear galley, usually located instead of rows 34 to 37 AB. Galley that has been removed by Delta, as the service is reduced to the point that a second galley not needed is.

A side story here: all catering truck drivers hated this particular door. Because of the close proximity of the engine and the angle and shape of the wing, accessing here needed quite good skills. This was valid for MD81 to 83 + 88 and DC9-50.
Next to us was a 757-200 and its winglet:

On time push-back and a bit of spotting:

We gave way to some planes, our captain needed to make additional checks on some instruments. Nothing special, but he wanted to be sure. Shortly after, we took off.

That's the tail door. Another side story here: o/b DC9's - MD80's & 90; B717 and B727, there is a tail door with integrated stairs. As deploying the stairs in case of emergency would be too time consumming, the manufacturer included a slide. In order to be able to inflate the slide with the stairs retracted, the tail cone needs to be jettissoned. The video here after is self explanatory:

Rear lavs:

The cabin from the back:

Drinks : cranberry juice and…. pretzels ou pretzels. Again !

In no time we were starting our descent to STL, where it was as cold as MDW!