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 3^rd, 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 22^nd 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 22^nd. 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.

The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival recently wrapped up in New York City, and Delta Air Lines had a starring role!

As the official airline for the Festival again this year, I’m proud to say that this is just one of many sponsorship platforms that Delta uses to demonstrate positive change in the communities we serve; and, New York is certainly no exception. As many New Yorkers know, The Tribeca Film Festival was founded by actor Robert De Niro and others following the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan with an annual celebration of film, music, and culture. For those outside of the New York City area, TriBeCa is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan. The name is an acronym for Triangle Below Canal Street.

It was indeed a privilege for me to represent Delta Air Lines, as I presented the best actor and actress awards during the Filmmaker Awards ceremony last Thursday evening. Over the weekend, we participated in the Tribeca-associated Delta Family Festival Street Fair on Greenwich Street. Great times were had by all! As you can see, a few of us even met the original cast of the movie ‘Gotta Dance.’ It just so happened that we chose their movie at a private screening for our premium customers on Saturday afternoon and then we bumped into them walking down the street right after!

The 2008 festival ran from April 23rd through May 4th, and included 121 feature films and 79 short films representing 41 different countries. Among them were 53 world premieres, 6 international premieres, and 30 North American premieres.

At Delta Air Lines, our passion for New York is stronger than ever. Supporting the community through our significant role in the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival is just one of the many ways that we demonstrate our dedication and commitment to this great city.

Thank you for your support of Delta Air Lines. We appreciate your business.

Brian T. Rutter

Director - Sales & Marketing

New York

Hello,

I’m one of the very fortunate 40 Delta employees who were chosen as volunteers for the Habitat for Humanity (HFH) build outside of Mumbai, India, Nov. 12-15.

I can’t wait to get there and meet everyone involved — from my peers, to the passengers that will join us (for the first time), to the locals but mostly the families who will be living in the homes we build.

To be able to work with and get to know the actual families who will live in the homes we build is going to be the highlight of my week. Their smiling faces will forever be etched in my memory.

To me, Delta’s Force for Global Good, a program that unites Delta employees and customers in support of philanthropic and socially-responsible efforts throughout the world, and HFH creates the perfect partnership.

Beyond giving back to the communities that we serve and providing families in need a decent place to live, it gives employees, and now passengers, an opportunity to volunteer to do something that makes them feel good and to see the results of their hard work.

We’ll work together as a team (something we are very used to doing at Delta) in a very different setting than at the airport, in the office or onboard our aircraft. Our team spirit and sense of pride is going to be contagious.

It’s amazing to me that we have passengers who feel such passion and loyalty to us that they also want to represent Delta and do good things in the global community. And, to donate their time and hard earned SkyMiles to participate is honorable.

I think they’re in for a real treat! They’ll see first hand the bond that we share simply because we work for Delta. Most of us don’t know each other, but we’ll interact together as though we’re old friends. When we come together on a mission, there’s no stopping us. I have no doubt they’ll fit right in!

This is going to be one spectacular journey.

Michelle
Fort Myers, FL