Recently we launched the new SkyMiles three tier program on delta.com to improve Award ticket shopping. While this release does not focus specifically on the calendar issues outlined by Drew, we are aggressively investigating ways of eliminating the discrepancy completely.

In yesterday’s world, a domestic coach Awards flight started at 25K miles. Within the low fares, the next level ticket started at 37,500 miles. If low level tickets were sold out for one leg, the next level would start at 50K miles. As of today, the same flight still starts at 25K. However, the next level ticket is 32,500 miles, and if all the low level tickets are sold, the next redemption level starts at 40K miles and upwards. As a result there are three times more options now.

In order to do this, the calendar needed a new interface.

Originally, the design called for the mileage amounts associated with the lowest available level to be displayed on the calendar day. The days with the lowest availability were marked in blue much the same way the lowest fares are marked on the select flights page.

For the calendar, we get data in the form of indicators letting us know the lowest level that might have availability. We built a web service to get the mileage amounts. The interface combined these two pieces to 1- display the amount on the day, based on the indicator and 2- calculate an estimated cost (in miles).

We decided to use a tri-colored calendar with text indicating the lowest mileage level available as “Low, Med or High.”

Several other enhancements will help the page load faster:
• the code to write out the calendar has been optimized
• the code used to re-display the trip duration has been streamlined
• Javascript consolidation means the functions to run the page are in cache and do not need to be downloaded on page load
• square corners and white backgrounds require less memory than the previous layout

Shani Nizan
delta.com

Taxes and fees for award travel are the responsibility of the passenger and must be paid at the time the ticket is booked. Award travel seats are limited and may not be available on all flights or in all markets. All Delta SkyMiles program rules apply. To review the rules, please visit www.delta.com/memberguide.

If you’re an aviation collector or you’ve always wanted to be, bring your family and friends to the Delta Air Transport Heritage Museum at World Headquarters to check out the Atlanta Airline Collectibles Show and Sale this weekend.

The show, open to the public, will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday October 18th. This is the one day of the year the museum is open to the general public without prior reservations.

More than 30 vendors are expected for the event, selling aviation-related items ranging from airplane seats to models and playing cards. You’ll also have a chance to tour Boeing 767 “The Spirit of Delta” and shop at the museum store.

Admission to the show is $5 for adults. Children under 12 will be admitted free. Visitors should enter through a special gate on the south end of the World Headquarters campus, off Woolman Place, near the Renaissance Hotel, the official hotel of the Show.

For more information about the event, see the Delta Museum website and this Atlanta Journal Constitution story.

Marie Force
Archives Manager

Do you ever wonder if there’s a way you can find out what your personal impact is on the environment? Did you know that you can mitigate your impact by offsetting your carbon footprint?

If you’d like to find out how every facet of your life (car, home, trips) affect the environment, we’d like to share with you a few websites which can help you map your personal carbon footprint.

Delta offers our customers the option to offset the carbon emissions of their flight by donating money to The Conservation Fund. The Fund is a leading environmental nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting land and water resources. Customers who purchase a ticket at delta.com can choose to contribute $5.50 for domestic roundtrip flights and $11 for international roundtrip flights to be used by The Conservation Fund to plant trees throughout the U.S. and abroad. You can access their Go Zero® Carbon Calculator here to estimate your emissions.

A company called Native Energy is the exclusive carbon offset provider for the book and movie An Inconvenient Truth. You can visit their website to calculate your carbon footprint based on the type of car you drive and how much heat and electricity your home uses. You can also choose where your offset money goes: either to wind energy, methane capture, or a mixture of both. Their website also has a feature through which you can calculate your footprint from traveling, either by driving, flying, or riding the train/bus.

If you’d like an even more accurate footprint, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also has a calculator on their website which takes about 10-15 minutes to fill out, and it goes into in-depth details about your power bills and transportation. It also adjusts your footprint based on other factors such as whether you recycle certain products.

If anyone else knows of a good carbon offsetting tool or would like to suggest something about Delta’s offsetting program, then please respond to this blog!

Kelly Stiegel
Environmental Health Co-op