by 
Once a year the head office (HQ) summons our field office to a sales meeting. It’s usually in Seattle, but for some reason this year it was being held at a suburban resort outside of Atlanta. I work with another gentleman in the office named Paul and we would be attending the meeting together. Paul doesn’t like to travel. Not one bit. If he could get out of this meeting he would, but he can’t, and so we attend together. Paul lets me handle the flight arrangements. He knows I’ll find an easy comfortable way to travel and he’s good with that.
Introduction: Sales Meeting With HQ
Review: Delta Domestic First Class Sacramento to Atlanta
Review: Delta Ground Services Atlanta
Review: Atlanta Evergreen Marriott Conference Resort
Review: Delta Sky Club Atlanta F International Concourse
Review: United Club Denver – West Location
Review: United Domestic First Class Atlanta to Denver to Sacramento
Typically, he and I would fly the direct flights to Atlanta on Delta, but this wasn’t going to work on our way out. The round trip flight was running $823 coach, and that didn’t include a direct flight back. We had to return late on a Tuesday, and Delta only has a morning direct on that day. After doing some research I found a connecting outbound flight that was very affordable. It was SMF-SEA-ATL. This wasn’t the most direct route to Atlanta, but both segments were upgradable with regional certificates. In additional the SEA-ATL segment was an international lie flat A330 with reverse herringbone seats. Not a bad way to travel for 4.5 hours. Paul would squawk at having a connection, but he would forget about that once he saw the lie flat seats. It would also give us a chance to check out a couple lounges in the Seattle airport, which was on my agenda.
Looking at return flights Delta didn’t give us many good choices. A coach Delta flight was pricing about $625.00. Not all flights priced out this high, but ones that would work for Paul’s particular travel times did. I looked at other carriers (since we had to be on a connection anyway) and found a decent United flight in first class for $357.00. Normally I would have a preference for Delta for my last year of Medallion status, but because of the Paul factor and the attractive price, this was too good a deal to pass up. Also the United flight would give me a chance to review their product. The final itinerary looked like this:
SMF-SEA-ATL / Delta first class with RUC certificates – $197.00 per person
ATL-DEN-SMF / United first class – $357.00 per person
Total cost was $554.00/pp and we would be flying upfront for the entire trip. With this itinerary I had perfectly orchestrated our trip. Paul is a nervous traveler and at least now handling him would be easy, or at least easier.
The Friday of our departure finally came and Paul was giving me a ride at 8:00am. Paul’s one of those individuals that is early no matter what, so at 7:45am I went out to the driveway halfway expecting Paul to be waiting. He was. I don’t really mind it because it makes travel days less eventful for the both of us.
As we were driving to the Airport I checked my phone and had received a notification from Delta that our flight was going to be delayed by 90 minutes. Shoot, that would put our connection in Seattle at a tight 35 minutes. For myself that would be fine, but it did have the potential to freak Paul out a little. I also checked the direct flight that we had passed on earlier. First class was wide open (thank you FCM) and so I called the Medallion line to see what Delta could do.
The service representatives on the Medallion line are usually great, and even though I had a legal connection in SEA she accommodated my request for Paul and I to be moved to the 12:55pm direct flight. We decided to have breakfast on the way to the airport and burn a little time. During breakfast I received another notification from Delta.
Another delay
One of Delta’s strengths is it runs an operationally tight ship. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been delayed on Delta and now it was twice on the same morning. I checked our other options and decided it was best to stay on the direct flight. Paul and I finished breakfast and proceeded to the airport. Check in was smooth and we were processed and through security in about 5 minutes. The ticket agent had mentioned that our plane had a mechanical issue and had recently left Atlanta. It looked as if our 3:20pm delayed departure time was going to stick.
Once we got airside in the terminal I checked our time. It was 10:45am. Paul is also one of those individuals that can sit still for about 2 hours max. How was I going to keep him from going stir crazy for a 4-hour wait? I realized the answer most likely included alcohol. It’s not that Paul is a heavy drinker, but he does enjoy wine and I figured a couple glasses would relax my fidgety counterpart. The one problem was that Sacramento Airport does not have an airport lounge. Not one. In addition, Terminal A doesn’t have that nice of facilities, or at least I didn’t think it did.
We walked the very short walk from security to main part of the terminal. The last few times I had been in Terminal A it had been a construction mess. Much to my surprise the construction mess was gone and Terminal A had been transformed into a decent little terminal. Terminal 2 is a linear concourse with center connection point. Directly after exiting security you walk into the main connection point, and it has really been improved with seating areas and a new-large restaurant and bar, “The Iron Horse Tavern”.
New seating in SMF terminal A
More seating
River walk in SMF
Open seating by Iron Horse
Iron Horse Tavern
We had arrived about into the terminal at 10:45am. We picked one of the seating areas and relaxed and chatted for a while. Normally I would have also pulled out the laptop and gotten some work done but Paul doesn’t do that, and he likes to talk. After an hour or so of chatting we walked over to the Iron Horse to have some food and drink and kill some more time.
The Iron Horse Tavern has a bar area and sit-down restaurant. We took some seats in the restaurant by the window overlooked the airfield and I enjoyed a nice view of this American airlines A319.
Our view out the iron horse tavern
I enjoyed appetizer of Asian short ribs, Paul had the tomato soup. Both were quiet good. Paul also ordered a glass of Cabernet, followed by another. And then another, and then followed by a forth. He was really enjoying himself. Finally, on his forth class I realized we were going to chat the entire 2 and half hours. Finally, I had a glass of prosecco and tried to relax a little more.
At one point I did get up and wandered over to our gate A3. Everything looked good for a 3:20pm departure. In additional Delta had set up food and drinks, including Pizza, for those passengers waiting for the late flight. You have to give Delta credit for this nice touch. We finished our time at the Iron Horse and went to the gate.
Items put out at gate A3
Gate A1 on the way to A3
Gate A3 preparing for our late flight
In summary:
Sacramento International Airport Terminal A has received a nice face lift. Even though the airport doesn’t have any lounge to speak of, the terminal has a number of nice areas to sit and relax. On top of that, the Iron Horse Tavern is a good location to enjoy some food or drink before a flight. Even though this is my home town airport, it wouldn’t be my first choice to spend a 4-hour layover. Having stated the obvious, the experience exceeded my expectations.
