Knowing that many of you are being affected right now by severe weather (and seeing lots of chatter on our social media channels about hurricane Irene), we wanted to provide you with an easy How To guide to address  some of your rebooking questions. We hope this helps and as always, thanks for your patience as we work to get you to your final destination safely.

Q: What’s the best way to rebook a cancelled or delayed flight?

A: The fastest and easiest way to rebook is on delta.com.

There are many cities being affected by weather right now, so be sure to visit the Flight Status & Updates page on delta.com to check on your specific city. Remember, if your city has not been marked as affected, you cannot rebook online and need to call 800-221-1212 for assistance.

If you purchased your ticket from a travel agency or online travel site, you may need to contact that agency or site for assistance. Alternatively, if you are a Delta SkyMiles member make sure your contact information is up-to-date so we can reach you with updated travel information if needed.

Q: What’s the best phone number to call for help rebooking?

A: Our reservations assistance line is 1-800-221-1212.

Q: What if I can’t reach a customer service agent immediately by phone?

A: Because of the severe disruption the weather has caused, we’re experiencing an extremely high volume. While our call centers are fully staffed, you may still encounter a wait as we work to rebook customers and particularly those with travel plans occurring within the next 24 hours.

If you can’t get through to an agent right away please try back shortly. Because of the volume of calls it may take a few tries to get placed in line.

Q: If I want to get help through Twitter, what should I do?

A: Follow, tweet and direct message us at @DeltaAssist and an agent will follow up with you shortly. Please know that as with our other outlets, @DeltaAssist is also experiencing high volumes, so you may receive a response from a Delta Assist agent using @Delta.

Q: What else can I do to prepare for a possible delay or cancellation?

A: Check your flight status and weather advisories frequently and sign up for Delta Messenger to receive real-time alerts.

———

I hope this helps answer your questions about the rebooking process. Thanks for your continued patience and we look forward to helping in any way we can!

Liz G.

Delta Social Media

Update:

Thanks to your efforts more than 40 million SkyMiles have been donated to help relief efforts in Japan. Now, we’re working with Gogo Inflight Internet to provide complimentary access to the Red Cross Website so you can help donate money and miles next time you’re flying with us. Plus GoGo is matching your contributions up to $15,000 so this is a great time to give back.

We appreciate your continued support for Japan and those affected.

 ———–

First and foremost we want to share our deepest thoughts and prayers with everyone whose lives have been impacted as a result of today’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan. As you can imagine, this has been a major event for us given our 1,200 employees in Japan and the thousands of customers who count on us to travel to, from and through Tokyo every day. We know there are a lot of questions and concerns about how this event may affect you and your loved ones, and we’ll work to address some of your concerns here.

Our first priority is ensuring our customers and employees in Japan are safe.  As soon as the earthquake hit, our operations team immediately went to work ensuring that all our aircraft were safe.  While in many cases this meant diverting, delaying or cancelling from our original schedule, we are fortunate that no employees or customers were injured at any of our facilities or on any of our flights in Japan.

Our reservations experts are also reaching out to customers to notify them of the impact this has on their travel plans. If you are in need of immediate reservations assistance you can call make changes to your travel without fees at delta.com, call us at 1-800-221-1212 or reach out to our agents in Twitter at @DeltaAssist. You will continue to find the latest updates from us about the status of flights at delta.com at http://bit.ly/DL_updates.

Many of you have also asked how you can help, and we’re proud to say The Red Cross has long been a valued partner of Delta. If you want to help by donating to the relief efforts of the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami, go to the Redcross Website. You can also text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific.

Christina R.

Duty Manager – Customer Focus

Delta Operations Control Center

As an Airport Customer Service (ACS) agent, I get a lot of questions from customers about what exactly it takes to get their Delta flight off the ground. And with the busy holiday travel season fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to give you a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the life of your Delta flight.

Many months ago, your flight was planned for and assigned an aircraft. Then it was placed up for sale on delta.com and other sales channels, assigned a flight crew and, more recently, assigned ACS agents.

From here, it’s all about execution. We know you want to get where you’re going on-time, and that’s our highest priority (next to safety, of course). How does this happen? Among many things, our colleagues in maintenance sign-off on overnight checks (to make sure all components of your aircraft are working as they should), pilots conduct their own walk-around inspections on their aircraft, and flight attendants prep the cabin for boarding and ensure cabin safety equipment is in order.

We also make certain that checked bags are securely loaded, and after boarding we check that the important weight and balance information is properly given to the flight crew for the optimum operation of your aircraft.

It may sound simple, but the whole process is actually quite complex! But at the end of the day, when we close the door and push the aircraft back with our ground vehicles, it’s of great satisfaction to me and my colleagues to know we’ve met the call of the day and sent you on your way to your holiday gatherings.

Thanks for making Delta a part of your Holiday season. Happy Holidays and I look forward to seeing you next time you’re in Atlanta!

David G.

Airport Customer Service