Review of Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam in Economy

DL 160 : mINNEAPOLIS TO AMSTERDAM

Hi! Welcome to this trip report, it is only my second, after a long hiatus, but I thought it'd only be fair if I continued where I had left off and complete the MSP-AMS-DEL-AMS-MSP roundtrip. This was my outbound flight out of Minneapolis, and this flight in particular caused no issues during the whole booking process during which I wished to change my dates, it was the onward AF flight. More about it in the booking section.
Apologies in advance for not being chronological with these reports.  

Feel free to read my previous trip report here: 

Booking

This trip was originally planned to go from MSP to CDG to DEL to AMS. But because the difference was only $28, I changed my departure dates since I wanted to return home a few days sooner. Regretfully, Air France called to inform me that there was overbooking for the aircraft from Paris to Delhi. They proposed to put me on a Delta flight that leaves MSP and travels to Delhi on KL871. But instead of spending 5.5 hours in Paris Charles De Gaulle, I would have to spend them in Amsterdam Schipol. A reasonable suggestion, I told myself.

Minneapolis st paul international airport, Minneapolis

The winter of 2022 was quite harsh in Minnesota. It dropped to a bone chilling -39 C in Minneapolis. A couple of days after departing a massive snowstorm swept around, and flights were cancelled for the next 2 days or so. So I was a little lucky in that respect. I quite like Minneapolis St Paul International Airport actually, because there are plenty of counters, and self check in kiosks, and security is rarely painful. Within no time I had deposited my bags and made my way air side. 

I was able to get a few clicks of the beautiful birds on the icy taxiways. 

In hindsight I might have overestimated the Christmas rush at the airport, because I showed up at 11am for a 3:20pm flight, which meant I was airside by 11:30am. 

I took the people mover to the part of the concourse which had my gate G1. 

If you are ever around Minneapolis Airport, I'd recommend checking out Lee Ann Chin, its my favorite chinese takeout before a flight. It isn't jawdropping good, but it does do the job, which is also where I grabbed lunch during this trip. 

I made my way towards the gate area. Under the bleak sky, there she was, our beautiful Airbus A330-243 being prepared to take to Amsterdam. This looked like a full flight. 

Around 2:30pm, boarding began. It was conducted in an orderly manner using zones. 

A view of the seatback

The seat is alright, but I wasn't a fan of the legroom to be very honest. I could feel my knees almost hitting the seat in front. Additonally, since this was an older A330, there was also an annoying entertainment box at the bottom that took up about 15% of the width to keep my feet in. 

At about 3:25pm, approximately 10 minutes behind schedule the doors were closed, the captain introduced himself to us and announced a flight time of exactly 8 hours tonight. Soon, we pushed back and went to the de-icing station. 

This process took about 45-50 minutes. 

After de-icing was complete we taxiied to the runway and departed an hour behind schedule. Now note that my connection time was over 5 hours so I wasn't really concerned about it. 

As we climbed out over the beautiful winter landscape, I realized it was the first time I'd witnessed de-icing too! 

Soon, the sun set and we were treated to a beautiful wing view. 

Choice of movie for the evening? 83, great movie if you haven't watched it. Should read up on some cricket backstory however, if you're not familiar with the sport. 

About an hour into the flight, the crew brought dinner service around. The choiecs were the usual chicken or pasta. I went with the Chicken which was accompanied with risotto and what seemed like collard greens? I couldn't really tell. Along with it, was a salad, and I took a Coke to wash it down. The risotto rice was alright, and the collard greens were passable, but the chicken was really tough. And it wasn't very flavourful. So, in conclusion dinner wasn't a great meal. They did hand out salted caramel ice cream however, which kind of saved the meal, it is my favorite flavour. 

I tried very hard to get some sleep, but I struggled to do so. Soon we were near the coast of the United Kingdom. 

Manchester, England

What I surprised about was the singular meal service on this flight. It was 8 hours long, so I expected some sort of breakfast. Perhaps it was the early scheduled arrival time of 6:45am? Or maybe the crew just forgot? Who knows. 

We were approaching Amsterdam, it looked like a gusty morning with a lot of rain through the night.  

Apologies for the hazy pictures. 

We landed in Amsterdam at 7:50am, about 1h 5m behind schedule. The 

We taxiied to the E gates and deplaned soon after. 

One advantage while travelling via Amsterdam instead of Paris or London, is that you do not have to go through security within the terminal again, if you are travelling from the United States to India like me. Instead, you can simply walk from your arrival gate to your departure gate which simplifies the process quite a bit. This doesn't apply to the outbound flight however, the rules followed in Paris and London apply there. But this is something I thought was worth mentioning. 

Amsterdam Schipol has a somewhat below average reputation because of how crowded it is, given that all the passenger traffic converges in the middle of one concourse. This is a little annoying and seating with power sockets is very limited. I would highly recommend using one of the lounges in the area. 

Delta Airlines is often considered the best of the big three american legacy carriers, and that is an opinion I do agree with, but unfortunately, in the grand scheme of things, they are somewhat average. The seat was alright, the legroom a little iffy, the entertainment screen was a win, the food was below average and the crew was very nice and hospitable. All in all, I would fly them only if they offered a convenient connection for a relatively cheap price. And definitely not fly them for the atrociously high fares they charge in the winter months. 

Thanks for reading! 
Signing off 
KL 872