If you’re traveling today be sure you’re on the lookout for the newly redesigned boarding pass! You’ll see it both on delta.com and at the self-service airport kiosks around the world.

Why the new design? It’s all for you! You’ll notice the design is more intuitive and easier to read, with your flight information more neatly organized. Now you can get all the boarding information you need by simply reading from left to right. Check it out:

We’d heard from many of you, as well as from our own airport employees, that finding the time you need to be at the gate was one of the most important features of the boarding pass. So, one of the major changes you’ll notice is the more prominently displayed and easier to findboarding times.

I’m sure you’ve noticed all the white space, too. We have plans for that in the months ahead! Soon be you’ll be able to use a single document for up to four flight segments – and that means no more looking for the right boarding pass on a multi-segment trip. Once those changes are made it will be easier for you to keep everything in one place, so stay tuned!

The redesigned boarding pass will be available at our ticket counters and airport gates soon. If you’re flying with us soon, please tell us what you think of the new boarding pass design. Even share a photo or comment with us on Twitter and Facebook – we’d like to hear your feedback!

Rick E.

Product Manager, delta.com and self-service

Happy New Year everyone! Since my last update, we’ve gone from one lonely Wi-Fi-equipped regional jet to 134 as of today (Jan. 6, 2012). So now you have more opportunities than ever to keep in touch with work, friends and family, update your status on Facebook, flip through your favorite websites and check your flight status on delta.com (and remember, access to delta.com is ALWAYS free).

Delta and Delta Connection by the numbers—some interesting factoids:

• A majority of Delta’s two-class regional jets are now Wi-Fi-equipped

• 100% of Delta’s domestic mainline fleet features Wi-Fi

• 95% of the Delta Connection E170 fleet features Wi-Fi

• 89% of the Delta Connection CRJ700 fleet features Wi-Fi

• 39% of the Delta Connection CRJ900 fleet features Wi-Fi

• 6% of the Delta Connection E175 fleet features Wi-Fi

• Delta currently operates 576 Wi-Fi-equipped mainline aircraft and 134 Wi-Fi-equipped regional jets

• The 710 Wi-Fi-equipped Delta & Delta Connection aircraft represent about 50% of the world’s entire Wi-Fi-enabled fleet

• Delta operates nearly 3,000 daily domestic flights with Wi-Fi; each day nearly 400,000 customers fly on Wi-Fi-equipped Delta planes

Wi-Fi on RJs also means yourDeltaTravelerPassis now a better value than ever, with unlimited access on all Delta & Delta Connection-equipped flights for just $34.95 a month.

As you can imagine, coordinating installations on multiple fleet types across seven different carriers, while maintaining a very busy flight schedule is quite challenging. That said, I want to thank our Engineering team, the Gogo technical teams responsible for the Wi-Fi installations, and our Delta Connection partners for all their work to get this great product onboard. We’re well on our way to completing the entire two-class RJ fleet of 255 aircraft by this spring.

We hope you like the product upgrades we’re rolling out and as always, your feedback is welcomed and encouraged. We’d love to hear from you!

Chris B.

Sr. Product Manager

Customer Experience

Earlier this month Delta employees operated the Santa Express, whisking children away on a fantasy flight to the North Pole to see Santa Claus! The lucky children who got to experience this fun-filled evening were from the El Centro de la Raza and Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program of Puget Sound.

Peter Ruskin and I were asked to be flight leaders of the Santa Express last June. We picked our crew, 8 other flight attendants from theSeattlearea, who all had a special love of helping children. To get ready. we purchased decorations and planned activities for the flight– some of our crew even enlisted their own children (reindeer antlers and blinking red noses) to help out!

We rewrote our safety demonstration to The Night Before Christmas to start out our flight in the Holiday spirit. For ‘take-off,’ our pilots and ground crew made use of a high speed tug that taxied us around the airport and then parked at a remote area where we had lunch and watched two volunteer entertainers sing and play guitar. Our local pilot group purchased copies of If I could Fly An Airplane for each child onboard—they loved it! The book is about a child’s first flight on Delta and was written by A flight attendant, Lauren Lemos who autographed each copy. We read it using the PA for all the kids onboard.

Before ‘landing’ at the snowy and cold North Pole we served hot chocolate and passed out baseball caps for the children to wear and keep their heads warm while visiting Santa.

This flight was all about hope and joy for the children onboard the flight and employees who volunteered their time. As flight attendants, many of us view an airplane as our home in the sky. We view ourselves as a family. To be able to open up our home, decorate it with Christmas cheer and fill it full of excited children was a wonderful dream realized.

We’re happy to share the spirit of the season with this special group of passengers. Have you ever done something to make the holiday season brighter for a group of children? We want to hear your stories.

Susan V.N.

Seattle-based flight attendant