I'm a Delta regular and have been doing the London to ATL route for several years. A couple of years ago I stopped travelling through Gatwick because it was simply unenjoyable. The shuttle to North Terminal was under construction, there was no priority security lane and Delta did not have a decent lounge and used the awful ServiceAir shared lounge. I'm happy to announce things have changed! Now its not quite LHR standards where SkyTeam has a private check in area for Sky Priority and Business class and where they've also built a new lounge but honestly I don't miss any of the LHR features and prefer the LGW experience in a few areas.
Check in was quick and easy, I imagine this is always the case since Delta only operates one flight from LGW, so no need to show up early for queues. Also, the lady checking me in was lovely and pleasant, very non UK customer service :-). As a platinum SkyTeam member I was given fast track access to the priority security lane. There was only one person before me but also only one lane open, and in typical UK airport fashion there's no place for you to start prepping yourself and your bags before the x-ray machine, so during airport rush hour I can imagine its not actually that quick, I was fine for me on a Wednesday morning though. After some duty free shopping I headed to the lounge. Delta still shares a lounge here but its the new No1 airport lounge or something similarly named. It was lovely! It had a small cinema, game room, computers, children's play area, spacious bathrooms, and a great food selection. For breakfast the offering was warm croissants, breads, cheeses, meats, yogurt parfait, fresh fruit, I was pleasantly surprised.
Overall a great experience and I won't be avoiding flying out of LGW with Delta in the future. read more