A couple weeks ago, I decided I wanted to visit a friend of mine who lives in Grand Forks, North Dakota. I live in Minneapolis, and it’s around a 5 hour drive, which I have made before. With gas prices being so high I calculated that it would cost me around $170 worth of gas to make the trip, which seemed to be a bit much.
Because of this I looked into other options such as the Amtrak, which operates out of the St. Paul Union depot. This could’ve been an option- however, it has ungodly hours between the two cities
Then, I looked into flying- at first, I looked at flights from MSP to GFK, but Delta was charging $270 for a midnight flight. Fargo wasn’t much better at around $250. However, I remembered there was a tiny airport just 45 minutes from Grand Forks, in Thief River Falls, MN (TVF).
Denver Air Connection operates twice daily flights from Minneapolis to TVF, which are subsidized by the government. They use a Fairchild-Dornier 328 JET with 30 economy class seats, and they were offering the flight for just about $100. This was a no-brainer.
So, I booked my flights and a few weeks later, I headed to MSP. To my surprise, Denver Air operates out of Concourse B. This is unique, as all airlines that aren’t part of SkyTeam operate out of Concourse E (beside DAC apparently).
Concourse B at MSP is probably the strangest part of Terminal 1. It’s situated on an “island” where you have to take a tunnel under the taxiway from Concourse A. Delta exclusively operates CRJ200 flights from there to places like Wausau, Wisconsin, and Bemidji, MN.
My gate, B16 was at the very end of the concourse, and was completely decked out in Delta logos- it seems as thought DAC just borrows it.
Our plane was waiting, and soon, all 9 of us passengers boarded. I wasn’t expecting any service on this flight, as it was only about 50 minutes. However, once we were up in the air, we were offered full 20 oz bottles of water or soda and king size candy bars and generous bags of chips, all brand name. The seats were also surprisingly comfortable with ample legroom. I wouldn’t have complained if the flight were hours more.
DAC also offers 2 free checked bags as well as a free full size carry on which is gate checked and a personal item. I was very impressed.
We took off and had some nice views as we flew almost directly over downtown Minneapolis
Shortly after, we began our descent into TVF
We basically parallel parked adjacent to the terminal and walked across
For the return to Minneapolis, I had an early morning flight, which wasn’t great for sleep. However, this gave me nearly a private jet: only 3 passengers including myself. I got to the airport to check in, and was told that TSA security would arrive in half an hour.
Eventually, I made it through security and walked directly to the plane. I was greeted by the same flight attendant I had a few days earlier and found my seat. We flew back in seemingly no time. Overall, it was an awesome experience with an awesome airline. I hope to fly them again soon.
