We’ve just recently remade the in-flight safety video! You’ll see it onboard very soon. Stay tuned, and I’ll give you all the details about filming and the cast (who were actual Delta employees!).

Chris Babb
Manager - Global Product Development
In-Flight Entertainment

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This December 17^th came and went without notice, but it was a special day. That day in 1935 marked the first flight of the venerable Douglas DC-3.

Five years later, on Christmas Eve 1940, Delta flew its first revenue DC-3 flight with “Ship 41.”

Since I’ve been lucky enough to fly this fully restored, original in every detail, DC-3, I thought I’d write a little about the “Ship 41” in Delta’s Heritage Museum.

“Ship 41” was actually the second of five DC-3s purchased by Delta. The first arrived November 29, 1940 and was used to train pilots for the next DC-3s to arrive. “Ship 41” arrived on December 23, 1940 and carried passengers the next day. Three more planes were delivered in the next 10 days. These and the additional DC-3s Delta purchased flew in revenue service until the early 1960s.

Here are a few pictures of Delta’s award winning, 1940 DC-3 known as “Ship 41.” I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Tailwinds, Robin

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Happy New Year!

Your submissions to Planeguage have been terrific – keep them coming! A consistent observation (OK, complaint) involves the passenger who aggressively, without warning, reclines their seat into your lap. Trust us, we hear you.

Our latest addition to Planeguage is called, “Domino” and we hope the short kindly reflects the mayhem that could ensue if an entire row fully reclined their seats simultaneously without warning.

We hope you enjoy it and more importantly, we hope that your fellow passengers will stop, think and look before they recline their seat next time.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you!

Jaime
General Manager
Marketing

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Greetings!

I work in the SkyMiles department and I’m responsible for generating new partnerships that allow members to earn more miles with the program.

We’ve seen a great response to the new partners that we added late last year such as Shutterfly and Teleflora. I am very excited about all of the things that SkyMiles has in store for 2008. We already have some great new partners on the way!

The program’s success comes solely from everyone taking advantage of the numerous ways for you to earn miles. I want to make it easier for everyone to earn miles in your everyday activities and purchases. I would love to get some additional ideas for future partnerships from you, our loyal customers. You can be as general as a new category that we don’t offer or as specific as your favorite brand.

I’ll make sure to keep everyone posted in the coming weeks and months to share our progress.

Mike
SkyMiles - Partnership Marketing

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There are a number of fare watching tools available online that push customized fares directly to you based on parameters you create.

From what I’ve seen so far, you typically have three ways you can receive this information: RSS feed, email notification, or a desktop widget you have to download.

I’ve read a few articles online about the various tools in the market today and their pros and cons.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be pulling together some high-level requirements and would love to get some feedback. How do you fare watch? What types of parameters should trigger a notification to you? Special requests, features, wish I could, etc. ?

In the meantime, here’s a little poll I put together:

I’ll be sure to keep you posted on any new developments.

Jacob
Product Manager
delta.com & self-service

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It’s been a long time since I’ve bought a travel organizer, years in fact.

I can still remember wandering the stacks of my local Barnes and Noble trying to find a perfect holiday gift, finally settling on Abroad by Julianne Balmain. I pored over the book’s witty advice, perfect for my friend, with such sayings as, “Go Zen, grasshopper. Pack Light. Lighter. Really.” and “Found paradise? Stay there and enjoy. There’s no law that says you have to keep your original itinerary.”

But, despite many high points and definite gift potential, I have yet to purchase another travel organizer. Personally I tend to prefer less formal approaches to travel planning, forgoing printed materials for internet searches and friend’s recommendations, flight attendant favorites and advice from taxi drivers, as well as any other ‘experts’ that happen to cross my path.

Thus far, my approach has treated me well. During a recent surfing trip to Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR), my friends and I discovered the most wonderful restaurant through our hotel’s managers, a couple from the Netherlands no less.

We chatted all evening, nibbling on grilled fish on white linen tablecloths by candlelight while listening to the waves crash into the nearby shore… still with sand between our bare toes from the walk over!

What is YOUR travel planning routine, your most helpful or least helpful strategies, tactics and sources? Have you made any New Years Resolutions regarding travel planning? If so, what features could allow Delta to better assist you in planning your next business or leisure trip?

Wishing you all very happy travels in 2008,

Katie
Interactive Marketing

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Northwest Airlines did what a lot of taxpayers would like to do. It knocked $380 million off its tax bill.

The IRS said in 2005 that Northwest owed $392 million in back taxes. But bankruptcy court filings show Northwest got the IRS to settle for a $12.6 million claim in Northwest's bankruptcy.

Northwest has been settling the last of its bankruptcy claims since exiting Chapter 11 protection in May. Federal Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper has not yet ruled on the IRS settlement, although no one has objected. Read more

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