The Details
- Flight: DL5602
- Aircraft: E175
- Class: Domestic First
- Seat: 4A
- Route: Indianapolis (IND)-Boston Logan (BOS)
- Distance: 868 miles
- Duration: 1hr 50min
- Departure: 6:26 AM
- Arrival: 8:16 AM
The Preflight
I was headed to Boston for the weekend to visit my sister at Harvard University and decided to use some remaining Delta flight credits. The flight cost $345 one way for the earliest option to Boston.
With a departure time of 6:00 AM, I arrived at the airport at the ungodly hour of 4:30 AM, giving myself enough time to park and get through security. I was airside by 5:00 AM. Fortunately, the Delta Sky Club opened at 4:45 AM, so I spent a few minutes in the lounge enjoying a cup of coffee before boarding began promptly at 5:35 AM.
The Embraer E175, registered as N237JQ, was a 16-year-old aircraft operated by Republic Airways, Indianapolis’s hometown airline, on behalf of Delta as part of the Delta Connection network. Originally delivered to Compass Airlines in August 2008, the aircraft was transferred to Republic Airways in March 2021 following Compass’s bankruptcy due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Flight
Onboard the E175, there were 12 Domestic First Class seats arranged in a 1-2 configuration across four rows. I was seated in 4A, the last row of the First Class cabin, on the solo side.
Each seat measured 20 inches in width and offered a pitch of 36 inches.
Features included a small cocktail tray integrated into the left-hand armrest and a bi-fold tray table stored in the right-hand armrest. Additionally, each seat was equipped with a 110V universal AC outlet and a USB port for charging devices. On the ground, each passenger was provided a water bottle, and pre-departure beverages were offered.
We pushed back at 6:11 AM and took off from runway 5L 13 minutes later.
Since this flight was under 900 miles, no breakfast service was offered. Instead, the crew provided a beverage service followed by a snack basket with a selection of packaged snacks. I had my usual Bloody Mary and grabbed a few snacks for later.
The hour-and-fifty-minute flight passed quickly, with most of the journey spent cruising above the clouds.
As we approached Boston, it was a beautiful morning, and the views of Boston Harbor during our sunrise approach to runway 4R were stunning.
We touched down at 8:16 AM and arrived at gate A11 at 8:27 AM.
Having flown both the American Airlines E175 and the Delta Air Lines E175 on the IND-to-BOS route, I found the service to be largely comparable, with no significant differences between the two products. The seats were similar in comfort, the food and beverage offerings were nearly identical, and the level of service was indistinguishable.