LaGuardia to Minneapolis | Delta 737-900ER Economy
Flight Details
Origin: New York City (LaGuardia)
Destination: Minneapolis/Saint Paul
Flight Number: DL1112
Scheduled Departure: 5:40 PM EDT
Actual Departure: 6:05 PM EDT
Scheduled Arrival: 8:09 PM CST
Actual Arrival: 7:50 PM CST
Airline: Delta Air Lines
Aircraft: Boeing 737-900ER (N878DN)
Flight Time: 2 hours, 27 minutes
Cruising Altitude: 34,000 feet, 32,000 feet, 28,000 feet
Server: Expert ig šš
Hello from New Yorkās LaGuardia Airport! I had a lovely 4 hour layover on my way home from a great vacation on Marthaās Vineyard. Iāve been to New Yorkās two other big airports - JFK and Newark, but this was my first time at LGA. I have to say, itās a really impressive airport. Itās clean, modern, and airy. The size is manageable, and navigation is easy enough. It reminds me a lot of MSP, actually, just smaller. Huge shoutout to @Delta174J for giving me a huge guide to connecting at LGA!
Our plane arrived right on time in from Palm Beach, Florida at Gate 86. LGA is a really great place to plane spot, with tons of huge windows looking out onto the airfield. As we were preparing to board, we got delayed by 25 minutes due to weather in Minneapolis.
25 minutes wasnāt a huge deal, and we were soon boarding. I was in seat 22A, right over the wing with a great view of the spoilers and flaps.
Because of some weird thing with check in, I was seated in a different row from the rest of my family, in the window next to a lovely man and his wife. The man, Tom, was a political analyst who works on contracts with a number of big media companies.
The seat was pretty comfortable, though you could tell it had seen better daysThe adjustable headrest that was advertised only moved on one side, and was suspiciously sticky (that was rectified with some Clorox wipes). There was an additional delay of a few minutes once we were on the plane because of a missing bag that was supposed to be checked but never ended up in the cargo hold, but we eventually pushed back and got our engines started for our taxi out to Runway 13 for departure.
LaGuardia is not known for its lengthy runways, and this was a completely full flight with extra fuel due to the weather. We went Flaps 25, which I never have seen on departure before. There was an issue with the tug about halfway through pushback, and we had to wait for a few minutes while they got us a different one.
With that situated, we taxied the length of the runway and lined up with the runway. The engines ramped up, and we rocketed out over Flushing Bay. It was perfectly smooth on the climb out, and we caught a good look at Manhattan as we looped around West.
As we made our way up to FL340, I started to explore the IFE. Thereās a decent number of options in terms of movies and TV shows, as well as the basic map and flight information. A cool little thing I noticed was that on the map, the aircraft icon was Deltaās 2024 Paris Olympics livery.They offered a whole range of Live TV channels, but only two (CNN and HGTV) seemed to work. Clicking on the others sent me back to the home screen. WiFi was offered, and worked OK. It was enough to use FlightRadar24, but that was about it. The flight attendants began their first service. I got a water and some almonds, as well as complimentary earbuds. They said snack boxes would be offered later, but nothing ever came of that and they just never showed up. The crew was very attentive and kept refilling waters throughout the flight.
The flight became kind of chaotic and people were talking quite loudly after the news broke that Trump had been shot at his rally. My seat mate was taking tons of hushed phone calls and frantically emailing. The whole āvibeā of the flight shifted to a sort of uncertain buzz.
Over Michigan, we encountered the first batch of storms. The seatbelt sign was flipped on, but we only got some light chop for about 10-15 minutes. Despite the bumps, the flight attendants did a second drinks service (I just had some more water).
As we crossed Lake Michigan, things got a little worse. A powerful thunderstorm had passed through Minnesota that morning, and dumped inches of rain, massive hail, and brought high winds to the region. We deviated to avoid the worst of it, but still flew through the northern edge of the system. It started out with some light turbulence, and increased to pretty sustained moderate. The flight attendants all took their seats. After a good 5 minutes being tossed around, we dropped for a good 5 or 6 seconds. People were screaming and food went on the ceiling. My dadās coffee spilled into the aisle. We ābottomed outā hard and an overhead bin first class popped open. We quickly began descending to FL280.
The captain informed us that they were looking for some smoother air, and were hopeful that things would be better a little lower. Things pretty much smoothed out from there, and the flight attendants started making their way down the aisle checking on people. Luckily, everyone had been buckled in and there were no injuries, just some motion sickness.
We exited the storm and began our approach into Minneapolis. In very Minnesota fashion, the captain gave a very long apology as we made our way into the fray of the evening rush. The downwind leg was really long, going all the way up towards Maple Grove (far north side of the metro) before turning base. We got some great sunset views over the lakes and downtown before touching down on 12R.
Welcome to North Americaās best large airport for the 7th year in a row! Feels nice to be home. We taxied past a huge row of widebodies here for the night, as well as an Air France 772 pushing out for Paris. Despite our delay in New York, we arrived at the gate ahead of schedule. There was initially some confusion when a team of paramedics boarded, but it was apparently for a separate medical issue unrelated to the turbulence.
We deplaned and headed to baggage claim, where it was discovered that they lost our suitcase. The Delta agent was very nice, and she confirmed what we suspected based off information from our Air Tag, that the suitcase was in Houston. They located it, and, as of writing, itās on a flight from IAH.
Seat: 7/10
Crew: 10/10
Food/Beverage: 7/10
In Flight Entertainment/Wi-Fi: 4/10
Landing: 8/10
Total: 36/50 (72%)
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