This Review article is part of a Narcity Media series. The views expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
A few weeks ago I was desperate for some sun after a long and rainy winter in Vancouver, so I decided to book a flight to Phoenix, Arizona.
The cheapest flight I could find was on Delta Air Lines, and even though I'd never flown on it before, I decided to give it a go. It didn't start out great, but the airline managed to turn things around and now they're honestly my new favourite.
I'm from the East Coast of Canada and live all the way on the West Coast, plus have a partner from Germany — so it's safe to say I have experienced a range of different airlines.
Air Canada is my go-to but because I was driving to Seattle, to fly to Phoenix, I had to say goodbye to my comfortable Canadian favourite, and hello to what WalletHub ranked as the best airline in the U.S.
I originally booked a round-trip ticket, but on the day of my departing flight Delta cancelled it. Off to a bad start already, I quickly booked a different ticket on American Airlines.
I was fuming, but because I wasn't able to fairly review my flight on Delta, because it simply didn't happen, I decided to wipe the slate clean for my returning flight.
When I finally was able to experience a Delta flight though, I couldn't help it — I fell in love.
Sorry Air Canada! I have a new favourite now, and here's why.
Booking experience: 5/5
The Delta website was super easy to navigate, allowing me to scroll through options for my flights with lots of availability. You can view the flights in a calendar, and compare prices, which I found really helpful.
The booking process on the Swoop website.Delta
The airline sent me useful follow-up emails with all of the information that I needed, and my roundtrip flight came to a total of $512 USD.
I didn't book on a budget airline, so wasn't expecting to get a super cheap price, and was happy with this. Although my first flight did get cancelled, Delta refunded me the cost of that one-way ticket.
There was nothing about the booking experience that I was missing or that they could have done better, so I gave it a super high score.
Check-in & boarding: 4/5
I managed to stuff a week's worth of clothes in my tiny carry-on bag, which made this process way smoother. Delta allowed me to check-in online 24 hours before my flight time, so I got to avoid wait times at the airport.
I did have a bit of trouble checking into my flight at first though. The check-in page wasn't loading properly and it took me three attempts to finally get checked in.
Once it finally worked, it was smooth sailing.
I arrived at the airport and got to walk right by the Delta Air Lines counter, and headed straight through security. It was all pretty normal until I reached my gate and had my first interaction with a Delta employee that day.
At 3:30 a.m. the employee was like a ray of sunshine. I've never been so impressed with customer service before, especially when it comes to airlines. He was cracking jokes over the speaker, making everyone smile despite the early wake-up calls we all had.
Boarding the plane.Morgan Leet | Narcity
This made the whole boarding experience so much better, as he sky-checked our carry-on luggage, scanned our tickets, and got us on our flight in no time.
The good vibes kept coming too, because we actually took off nearly 15 minutes early, which basically never happens to me.
Aside from some technical difficulties at the beginning, my check-in and boarding experience was perfect.
Seats: 4/5
The seats were pretty much what you'd expect on any airline. They had a decent amount of room for me to fit my bag underneath the seat in front of me, which is always nice.
Seats on Delta. Morgan Leet | Narcity
They weren't anything special, but also not especially bad!
Food & Drink: 5/5
They did have a menu that you could access by scanning a QR code, but no full meals were being offered. It was only a three-hour flight so it wasn't a big deal not to have a full meal available, and they had some great snack options.
Luckily the soft drinks were free, and we also got a complimentary snack too. Especially when I'm paying a decent amount, I appreciate anything free that I can get.
Free snack and drink on the plane.Morgan Leet | Narcity
Service & entertainment: 5/5
This was what impressed me the most about the flight. The Delta employees were all incredibly nice and helpful, which was a breath of fresh air.
TV screen on Delta.Morgan Leet | Narcity
There were screens on the plane and it was honestly the widest selection of movies and shows that I have ever seen. I'm not sure if Air Canada has just been slacking — but I was blown away when I could watch an entire docu-series.
Overall: 4.6/5 or 23/25
I'm not going to lie, I didn't want to like Delta. After they cancelled my first flight I was bitter, but I'm glad had a fresh start for the day that I actually got to travel with them, because I was amazed.
For a relatively short flight, they had everything I needed, and we even got to our destination early. In a time where it feels like flight delays are basically a given, this was pretty impressive.
The thing that really set them apart for me though was the service. Making me smile at 3:30 a.m. is a massive accomplishment, so they deserve all the gold stars for making it happen.
If you want to fly comfortably and don't mind paying a pretty penny for it, Delta is a great choice.