Today, we’re returning to Atlanta on the reverse of a route we did one of our first trip reports on, flying from Santiago de Chile on an Airbus A350-900 of Delta Air Lines. The big Airbus twinjet is Delta’s current long-haul flagship, with the airline currently having 40 examples of the type in its fleet, with a further 19 on order. For the past couple of years these jets have been a somewhat common sight in South America, as Delta has strengthened its partnership with LATAM Airlines. Currently, the jets serve Lima, Peru, São Paulo, Brazil, and of course, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
Server: Solo
Airline: Delta Air Lines
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, Pudahuel, Chile (SCL)
Destination: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia (ATL)
Flight Number: DL146
Route: SCEL-KATL
Seat: 4F (Delta One)
Time En Route: 9 Hours 23 Minutes
Waiting to board our aircraft in Santiago. Appropriately enough, we’re flying to Atlanta on an ex-LATAM A350 once again. These aircraft are unique in the Delta fleet in that they still retain their 2-2-2 business class configuration, rather than the 1-2-1 on the A350s ordered by the airline.
Pushing back from Gate E6. While many travelers, us included, would prefer a single business class seat with direct aisle access by the window, the 2 in our row offer decent privacy for what they are. Of course, this is aided by the fact that Delta One on our aircraft this evening is fairly empty, so the seat next to us is unoccupied.
We’ve got a long taxi on the port engine to Runway 17R for departure tonight. Our seat gives us a good view of the inactive starboard engine’s fan disc gently windmilling while we taxi by Terminal 2.
Departing SCL. Off to the Peach State we go!
Climbing out of the capital of Chile, with SCL in the background. Further away, the outline off the Andes Mountains is visible in the gloomy. We’re settling in for the slightly over 9-hour flight to Atlanta.
Getting ready to get some sleep a couple hours into our flight over Peru. Despite our seat’s age, especially compared with the Delta One product on its 35H-configured aircraft, it still is very comfortable and should be more than enough for some shut-eye.
Pre-dawn descent over rural South Georgia. Our expectations for how easy it was to sleep in our seat were not only met, but exceeded, since it was uninterrupted from Peru to the Florida-Georgia line. Now that our flight is coming to a close, it’ll regrettably be time to say goodbye to it soon.
Dawn arrival on Runway 27L in Atlanta. Hartsfield-Jackson is starting to wake up for another busy day of flights, with Delta jets taxiing to and from the terminals, with a Southwest, Spirit, Frontier, United, American, or Alaska aircraft in the mix here and there.
Turning clear of the runway as we begin our taxi to the F Gates
Deplaned at Gate F2 after a typical wonderful flight with Delta. While the cabin was not what we’re used to in business class, it still was comfortable, fairly modern, and well-maintained, which many carriers’ legacy cabins are often not as new ones are rolled out.
