Trip review: Flying Delta domestic first class for $95 + 7,000 SkyMiles

In late April 2023, I found cheap award availability between Seattle and Denver on Delta Air Lines. With the end of ski season, I guess the demand for visiting such a beautiful city (and the beautiful state of Colorado) died down, which is a shame for the people missing out on it, but a huge win for me!

I had a little over 10,000 Delta SkyMiles left in my account from my Amsterdam trip. As one of my coworkers says, you gotta spend those SkyPesos ASAP before Delta devalues them yet again. So when I found round trip award tickets for only 14,000 SkyMiles, I immediately transferred 4,000 American Express Membership Rewards points from my Amex Platinum and secured these tickets.

A few days before the flight, I was told that I could upgrade to first class for only $95 each way. Given that I don’t have “real” SkyTeam status, I had no chance of being upgraded by virtue of status, so I decided I had to do it this way. I had also chosen to use my Amex Platinum’s $200 airline incidental fees on Delta this year and I was pretty sure I could just use that to cover these upgrades.

Cabin, seat, and amenities

The Boeing 737-800 cabin was dated. The seats were large but old. The plane was also old, as is typical with Delta’s “service first, equipment second” strategy.

I looked above me and saw that this plane was probably from the 90s or early 2000s, optimistically speaking.

The flight was outfitted with free fast Wi-Fi for all Delta SkyMiles members though, which was really nice. If I didn’t have my own device, I could simply use the large IFE screen in front of me. This is really nice compared to American Airlines’ BYOD-or-tough-luck approach.

The flight attendants handed out earbuds (for free, naturally) so we could use the IFEs.

Speaking of the flight attendants, they were really nice of course. This flight was delayed by a few hours due to weather. The original crew got stranded in Las Vegas, so this was a substitute plane brought in. The substitute crew was brought out with a few hours’ notice locally from Seattle. The substitute captain came out into the galley and spoke to us to explain the situation as if he were the purser. That was such a nice gesture; he was speaking directly to us in the walkway rather than from the cockpit! (By the way, that captain made one of the smoothest landings I’ve ever experienced.)

Meal service

This flight was supposed to occur during dinnertime, so we got dinner catered for this flight.

I started off with a glass of sparkling wine before meal service. For this meal, I preordered the beef cheeks a few days before the flight. The sparkling wine was good, but my meal was better. Unlike the quality of food I got for my Delta One suite experience, this food was actually quite delicious and I was not disappointed at all.

After my meal, I had a great selection of snacks to choose from to keep me satiated. Although I don’t have pictures of them, I can reassure you they were yummy and interesting. (It wasn’t just Cheez-Its and pretzels.)

Final thoughts

Overall, the flight was great! Given that the delays were due to weather, I was not at all angry at Delta. They did a great job given the circumstances. They didn’t cancel the flight as I feared. The seat beside me was empty, making for a very enjoyable experience for me. And for an essentially free flight, I had a lot of fun.

Also, check out my review of my return flight on the new Airbus A220!