Review: Delta Shuttle E170 First Class | Chicago to New York LaGuardia

I have not been paid by any entity in any way (financially, benefits) to write the following post. This is from a trip that occurred in July 2018. Any airline, lounge, and/or loyalty program policies may have changed since then.

MFE-DFW, DFW-ORD, ORD-LGA

Airline: Delta Connection – Shuttle Service
Flight: DL 3804
Aircraft: Embraer E175LR
Registration: N263SY
Route: Chicago O’Hare (ORD) – New York LaGuardia (LGA)

I have not flown Delta in ages. As a matter a fact, I haven’t flown Delta since Continental Airlines’ time in the SkyTeam alliance, back when Northwest Airlines was still a thing and Qualifying Dollars as a metric didn’t exist (I HATE THIS METRIC).

Anyways, I found this flight for about $300 one-way to New York, which wasn’t great but wasn’t too bad, and it was a great way to review Delta’s domestic First Class product. Not to mention it was on the coveted “Shuttle” service, which you can read more about about here. I was excited to try this product, but I must’ve really tried to miss the flight because I took my sweet time leaving the Four Points by Sheraton O’Hare. In my defense, I was enjoying a delicious omelette at the Mirage Restaurant and Lounge.

Thanks to my first class ticket, I had Delta Sky Priority, giving me quick access to the counter where I had to drop off my checked bag, and I quickly breezed through security thanks to TSA Pre-Check, and got to the gate right on time.

UNFORTUNATELY (or fortunately), there was a ground stop at LaGuardia due to thunderstorms on the east coast, which hit the airport. What was initially a 15 minute delay turned into 20 to 30 minutes, and then we were allowed to board the flight.

Waiting at my seat was what I will say is the best first class pillow I’ve ever seen on a domestic, non-transcontinental first class route. I don’t know if it’s due to this being a premium route, but it was definitely high quality for a domestic flight.

We finally got settled in, pushed back, and began a pre-adventure to the runway. As soon as we got to the runway, we weren’t allowed to take-off due to landing restrictions at LaGuardia. When I looked out my window, I found a United B737-700 waiting with us. Turns out we were both leaving at the same time in the same direction, so we all suffered together.

United B737-700 going to LGA

After a 15 to 20 minute wait, we lined up on the runway and took off towards the Big Apple, being followed by United 1741.

Once in the air, I logged into the Delta WiFi network, which is operated by Gogo. My jaw literally dropped looking at the prices for this 2 hour flight to NYC! It was about $40 dollars, to which I said hell no, and proceeded to browse the movie selections and settled on using the free messaging function.

The free messaging function allows smartphone users to message on most apps, like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and iMessage. You need to have the Delta app downloaded before taking off though! If you want to know more about this, you can read about it here.

About 20 minutes after take-off, the inflight service started with our drink orders and a moist towel.

This followed by our food order, which in fact did not disappoint, despite this being a regional jet!

Despite being a cold dish, this salmon was the perfect lunch for the time of day. The only thing I would have personally done was had the rice cooked a little longer so it wouldn’t be so hard when chilled, but other than that it was great. And I couldn’t be happier of the view I had!

I then took the time to get some sleep up until 30 minutes till landing, which showed the aftermath of the rain that had hit NYC while we were waiting in Chicago.

And thus, another trip concluded, ending the Jetting to NYC series!

N263SY at LaGuardia’s Terminal C, Gate 42

Verdict

Delta Shuttle? Delta Connection? Whatever it was, it was fantastic. It superseded my expectations, especially since it was a 2 hour flight in a regional jet. The premium pillow and (not so premium) throw blanket were great, the bottle of water was great, and the lunch was phenomenal! The WiFi was ludicrously expensive, but the messaging function was a lifesaver!

All in all, I would definitely recommend this first class route on Delta, and would recommend Delta to anyone! It had been a VERY long time since I had been onboard with them, but this really showed me that they are a great airline with a great service at the front of the plane.

But I wouldn’t recommend them as an airline to devote all your business to, since they’ve been pretty inconsistent with their frequent flyer program (SkyPesos, anyone?) and have a history of implementing “positive changes” that 9/10 time hurt their most loyal customers.

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comment section below! Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it, follow us on our social media accounts located in the sidebar, and please share share share!

As always, remember to keep living life one trip at a time!

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