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Archive for May, 2008

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55 Years of International Service

Published May 15th, 2008 in delta.com, History | 5 Comments →

Did you know this month marks 55 years of international service for Delta? Click on this map to see our first international routes in the Caribbean and South America. Delta acquired these routes from Chicago and Southern (C&S) Air Lines, when the airline merged with Delta on May 1, 1953. The combined airline was known as Delta-C&S until 1955.

This 1953 paper drink coaster promoted Delta’s new service to Havana, Cuba. Our other first international cities were Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica; Cuidad Trujillo (today’s Santo Domingo), Dominican Republic; and Caracas, Venezuela. We also acquired service to San Juan, Puerto Rico from C&S Air Lines.

In 1953, Delta served 7 countries. Today, Delta operates service to more worldwide destinations than any airline with Delta and Delta Connection flights to 305 destinations in 58 countries. Delta has added more international capacity than any major U.S. airline during the last two years and is the leader across the Atlantic with flights to 38 transatlantic markets.

Marie Force

Archives Manager

2 minutes of fame down, 13 more to go

Published May 14th, 2008 in SkyMiles, Sponsorships | 4 Comments →

When you travel as much as I do, and I am sure some of those reading this, you never expect to receive a pat on the back for doing your job. Well call me very pleasantly surprised, even call me blown away. Getting the call from Delta to throw out the first pitch at Fenway Park before my beloved Red Sox trampled the Tampa Bay Rays was amazing. Definitely one of the moments I will always remember.

Again, part of my job for Akorri, a software vendor of performance and utilization management software, is traveling to different regions of the country and occasionally the world to set up sales teams and get regions off the ground. Knowing this includes a “healthy” amount of travel I try to make sure I get where I need to go in an economical yet timely manner … trying to minimize wear and tear. Delta has been there for me.

Been loyal for a reason

I guess being relatively loyal paid off, flying Delta 200,000+ miles out of some 300,000+ miles flown last year. As it stands, as I write this on a flight tonight, I have flown over 75,000 miles on Delta this year already. Again, service is a big component of why I fly Delta, but so is going to the places I need to go too. So being selected to represent all “road warriors” that fly Delta was an honor. It also put a bit of stress into my usually cool demeanor (so I am told).

The Call

Got the call from Delta while on vacation and the family had flown Delta to visit the kids grandparents and Uncle in Florida. When ever I get a call from the 404 area code could be two things; a buddy who lives there or I start to think there may be a travel issue with my flights. To my very pleasant surprise it was Delta asking me to throw out the first pitch, there was no hesitation. So now the pressure starts to build.

The Plan

My goal was to practice my pitch prior to the May 3rd game … well things did not quite work out for me in this part of my plan. I flew home from the west coast on Thursday night red-eye out of LA. Got in and after spend a few hours with my kids left before a day full of meetings. Got home later that night, spent quality time with my wife which did not include any pitching side work. Saturday was just the next day, and had little time to practice, besides it was raining.

Plan B … relax

So had to go to plan “B” aka try and relax. Not so easy when you keep thinking about the fact that 25,000 plus plus fans would likely be in their seats. In my job I am up in front of people speaking constantly, groups of all sizes, this was very different.

You get to Fenway Park at 6pm and they walk you down on to the field where you can watch the remainder of batting practice from the field, see the players come up to stretch and loosen up for the game. Note that the people I picked to go with me, my Wife Kristen, neighbors Kurt and Tara. Kurt who is a road warrior, Chairman’s Club on US Airways, and has been for a long time, remarked after taking the video from the field that there are a lot of positives being with Delta based on our comparisons of the two companies loyalty perks. Oh yeah he also did his best to make me even more nervous leading up to the pitch – thanks Kurt!

Now my nerves are in hyper drive for 45 minutes leading up to the pitch. One by one the guys you watch from the stands come out past you, Big Papi, Manny, Pedroia, Ellsbury, Beckett and Youkilis … given they are the reining World Series Champions it is quite amazing. Talk about feeling out of shape. Plan B consisted of me throwing the ball from the mound and neither bouncing it in front of home plate or sailing it into the backstop.

The Pitch

Pictures are better than words…

YouTube Preview Image

As you can see in the video mission accomplished but I am still getting grief about the fact that I was low down towards the grass – was told to stay away from the rubber by the Red Sox folks. I have to thank Buffi from Delta for make sure myself and the others that were invited to the box had a great time. Truly memories that I will treasure for ever.

Want to become a SkyMiles member? Earn 1,000 extra bonus miles from this link if you sign up now. Learn more about program benefits here.

Rob Strechay

SkyMiles Medallion Member

Delta is proud to be the Official Airline of the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays.

Employee Appreciation at Delta

Published May 13th, 2008 in Community, Sponsorships | No Comments →

What’s up Delta bloggers. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind not only for me but also the Atlanta Braves. The last time I posted, I talked about making the decision to spend an ‘off’ day in either New York or Washington. The ballclub made the decision to go a day early to Washington, and I ended up finding myself on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club at Lake Manassas with John Smoltz and Tom Glavine. That’s a beautiful golf course just outside of Washington, D.C. in Virginia, which has held The President’s Cup over the years.

There are two great perks about being close to John Smoltz. The first is that he’s one of baseball’s greatest pitchers ever. Being teammates with him is a total honor. The other great perk about being on the same ballclub as John is that John has this unbelievable ability to get on the greatest golf courses in the world, and thankfully he lets me tag along. Next week, when we go to Pittsburgh to play the Pirates, he’s set me with a round of golf at Oakmont, a former U.S. Open course. Has anyone played there? I need some tips if I want to go out there and not make a fool of myself. But yea, John’s an incredible teammate and an even better person. (Not only do I want him on my baseball team for as long as he can play, but I also want him to stick around so he can help set me up with great golf around the country!)

Delta Day

Last week, before our game against the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday, May 3rd, I made it down to the Delta Block Party at the company headquarters in Atlanta. What a great experience. It says a lot about a company when you basically shut down the entire complex on Saturday and have an Employee Appreciation day. I spent time with not only members of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team who were there, but also with country star Josh Gracin, who performed for the audience. I had never met Josh, and I found out that he’s a serious Detroit Tigers fan. He clearly knows his stuff when it comes to talking baseball. It was just a great experience for me to be in the presence of a country music star (click for pic).

Thankfully the people at Delta set me up in a booth and I was able to interact with employees and autograph some items for employees and their families. Over the years, I had the opportunity to ‘sign’ some crazy stuff that people put in front of me. I always sign a photo with my name, and then my jersey number (#7) after it. During the Block Party, a really nice family approached me with a 5×7 photo of me playing high school football and asked if I’d autograph it. I had never seen that photo before in my life (I graduated high school in 2002) so it made me laugh when I took a look at myself as a skinny 17-year old. In high school I wore #12, so I figured this time I’d sign that picture with my name, and then #12 next to that. I got a kick out of that.

My favorite part of the day, however, was when Delta gave me about 200 tickets to the Braves – Mets game on May 22nd and had me just walk through the crowd passing out free tickets (Delta is also the official airline of the Mets). I tried to sort of fly ‘under the radar’ when the Josh Gracin concert was going on and pass out tickets to every kid I could find. So I’ll definitely be looking for the Delta section on May 22nd. Hopefully when I look up it will be a sea of young kids cheering for the Braves.

I had the chance to meet with Delta’s President, Ed Bastian, as well as Delta’s Vice President of Delta AirElite, Doug Blissit. Ed and Doug were great, great people. Doug and I actually spent a good bit of time checking out the new Delta AirElite plane – a sort of ‘corporate’ jet for Delta customers. I was blown away by how beautiful the plane was inside. Last year, my entire family and I flew to Bend, Oregon after the season for a golf getaway. The trip was great, but it was tough to get from Atlanta to the west coast of Oregon without having to make a few stops on the way. Now that Delta has the Delta AirElite, I’m can’t wait to look into seeing how I might be able to utilize that program. This could turn a difficult trip in terms of travel into a very, very enjoyable one. I’m definitely going to see what I can do with the AirElite program this fall. More pictures of me in the AirElite jet and at the Block Party here.

The Season

I’m looking forward to the next few weeks for the ballclub. After our trip through the state of Pennsylvania, we come home for almost two full weeks (unheard of in Major League Baseball) and play the Oakland A’s, New York Mets, and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Those are three teams playing great, great baseball right now so we are going to find out pretty soon just how good we are.

Fly safely, and maybe I’ll see you in an airport soon!

Jeff

Delta is proud to be the Official Airline of The Atlanta Braves.

A Two Way Street

Published May 12th, 2008 in delta.com | 1 Comment →

In my first job after college, the fax machine ruled. Almost everything was done via fax, with the rest done through overnight delivery or traditional U.S. Postal Service. I even remember the first time I heard the term “World Wide Web”—I was at a board meeting of the North Carolina School of Science and Math Alumni Association, and I thought “I’ve got dial-up e-mail, but what are these people talking about?”

Now really, I don’t feel any older now than I did then. And I’m even driving the same car—(umm, I work for an airline!). But the way customers today do business, connect with others, buy goods, and carry out our daily lives has changed dramatically since I purchased my 1993 Honda del Sol.

Forrester Research recently reported at this year’s TravelCom conference in Chicago that 52% of U.S. households have Broadband, up from only 15% just five years ago. By 2012, they are projecting Broadband penetration to rise to 68% of the population. This has enabled today’s consumer to share experiences, plans, pictures, videos, and reviews with others—totally impacting the purchase decisions we make.

At the same conference, Forrester also reported that 19% of leisure travelers are reading traveler-written ratings or reviews monthly. Ten percent are reading travel related online forums with nearly as many (8%) visiting travel related social networking sites. Personally, I’ve had my own blog chronicling my travels since 2005, and a day doesn’t go by that I’m not on a social networking site, seeing what my friends are up to. They, in turn, can see where I’ve been, and what my favorite destinations are.

These facts are not going unnoticed by corporations. Recently, Financial Week ran an article entitled “Does Your Company Need a Corporate Blogger?” reporting that 11% of Fortune 500 companies now have Blogs, nearly tripling from just a couple of years ago. If you’re interested, you can find a list of Corporate Blogs here.

Of course, Delta has our Blog—allowing our customers and potential customers to look in behind the scenes—but also opening up that two way street, allowing you to give us your feedback.

The truth is we can use the Internet to simply sell tickets. But we can also use it to help you learn, plan, and dream about the places you want to go. For example, hopefully, you’ll be able to see video from my trip to Mexico City on the Blog soon. (That’s if my footage was any good—stay tuned!)

So let us know: how do you use the Internet for travel? How do you shop? Make plans? Organize with travel companions? Share your memories? And most importantly, what can we at Delta do to make the process easier for you?

Frank
Manager
Customer Insights & Analytics

Picture of the Week: Champagne Flights

Published May 9th, 2008 in History | 2 Comments →

Cheers!

This year marks 50 years of highflying cocktail service on Delta flights.

In 1958, Delta was actually the only major U.S. airline flying dry on its domestic routes. To attract more passengers over new routes to New York and the Northeast, Delta started limited alcohol service on March 8, 1958.

At first the service was only on non-stop flights between Houston and New York City. Only two drinks per passenger were served, and only in a short space of time before lunch or dinner. Those ordering a drink received small bottles from the flight attendants and mixed their own cocktails.

The self-service program was a huge success: 65% of Delta’s passengers on the Houston-New York route ordered alchoholic drinks in the first month.

By September, Delta had expanded drink options on luxury “Royal Service” first class Douglas DC-7 flights to 15 cities. Complimentary champagne came with the meals and cocktails were available for purchase. Today we serve a variety of signature cocktails as well as quality beer and sommelier-chosen wines you can choose to toast your business successes or a well-deserved trip with that special someone.

Here’s to you!

Marie Force

Archives Manager

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