If you have experienced our recently upgraded 747 BusinessElite cabin, you may be in for some déjà-vu. We are proud to show off a few of the enhancements of the first flat-bed A330-300 to enter service, ship 3301.  This development means that we now have flat-beds flying on every wide-body fleet type. Our 777s, 747s, and 767-400ERs have been completed and our 767-300ERs are well underway. Our entire A330 fleet will be completed by summer 2014.

While flat-beds often get the spotlight, there are a whole host of improvements and upgrades to look forward to throughout the aircraft:

BusinessElite

• 34 seats in a 1 x 2 x 1configuration
• Seats are angled toward the windows at outboard locations and toward each other in the center
• New seats are wider than those they replace
• 180º fully flat bed (bed length is 78-80”)
• Direct aisle access with no rear-facing or middle seats
• Electronic seat controls with adjustable lumbar support
• 110v AC in-seat power + USB power
• Adjustable personal LED reading light

Economy Comfort

• 32 seats at 35” pitch & 6” recline in a 2 x 4 x 2 layout
• “Slim-line” seat provides more personal space
• 6-way adjustable headrests
• 110v AC in-seat power + USB power

Economy

• 227 seats at 31-32” pitch and 4” recline in 2 x 4 x 2 layout
• “Slim-line” seat provides more personal space
• 6-way adjustable headrests
• USB power

Personal On Demand Entertainment

• 15.4” screens in BusinessElite; 9” screens in Economy Comfort & Economy
• 350 films
• 130 hours of TV
• 95 hours of premium programming from HBO & Showtime
• 5,000 digital songs
• 27 games
• Moving map

Cabin Enhancements

• New BusinessElite lavatories
• Updated carpet color – a darker, richer shade of blue
• New bulkhead “Sky Diamond” laminates reminiscent of the Sky Club backwall
• Redesigned Economy Comfort & Economy seat covers with additional comfort padding
• New placards and signage.

Thanks to all of the amazing folks throughout Delta who made this mod happen. We hope you like our latest improvements and we look forward to bringing you more down the road. We’d also love to hear any feedback you have, so let us know what you think!

Aaron Sohacki

Product Manager – Aircraft Customer Experience

I am happy to report that Delta had an exceptional year in 2012. Our team of 80,000 aviation professionals led the airline to the best operational performance in its history with the most on-time arrivals and lowest cancellation percentage. It’s a real testament of the Delta team’s dedication and efforts to make sure you’re in good hands whenever you fly with us.

Their diligence and tireless efforts meant more passengers made it to their destination on time and without interruption. This infographic tells that story.

Day in and day out, Delta people have your back. We look forward to serving you and exceeding your expectations again in 2013.

Thanks,

Dave Holtz

Vice President, Operations Control

Their mutual love of travel, meeting new people, and exploring new places never gets old for them. On the job, they have worked flights in the United States, to and from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Africa and many of the major European cities. In 2011, they even celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary on a crew layover in Madrid.

During their off time, they also love to explore new destinations like a photographic safari in East Africa, hiking in New Zealand, touring Sri Lanka, skiing in the Alps, swimming in the South China Sea, white-water rafting in the Andes, walking in Death Valley and cruising the Mediterranean.  Together they have explored over 50 countries. Amazingly, airports and airplanes are still fun for them.

Their two most memorable trips were participating in Delta’s International Habitat for Humanity builds in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and El Monte, Chile.

This Valentine’s Day they will spend apart working flights to separate continents. When they return, they look forward to sharing their new discoveries.

Alex and Ed also have two adult children who also share their love of travel.

Congratulations Alex and Ed!

After a recent Delta flight, a musician’s vintage 1965 Gibson ES-335 guitar was broken during the baggage handling process.

We safely transport millions of customers and their luggage each day, and incidents like this are extremely rare. Our policies and procedures are designed – and more importantly, our people are committed – to take great care of the items customers entrust to us.  In fact, less than 1% of baggage is reported missing or damaged.

We understand that’s little consolation when it’s your item that has been lost or damaged. Delta has been in touch with this customer to apologize, and we’ve worked with him to resolve the situation.

We encourage musicians to carry-on their instruments whenever possible, however, this flight was on a smaller aircraft that didn’t have storage space in the cabin for the guitar.

As always, we appreciate your concerns and outreach and look forward to continuing to better serve our customers.

Thank you,

Laura McGill

We have your back, and we intend to make 2013 even better for you.

While safety and reliability are what you expect from Delta, we believe you also deserve a comfortable, convenient and friendly travel experience – one that allows you to maximize your time on the ground and in the air.

We continue to invest in technology that allows you to connect with us in the manner you prefer. This $120 million investment includes the first phase of a new delta.com website that will simplify your journey and give you greater control of your travel experience. We continue to improve the speed of our kiosks, allowing you to check in an average of 18 seconds faster, and we’re adding more of our popular recharging stations at top airports to make it easier for you to stay connected.

By summer we will complete our largest project – renovating and expanding Terminal 4 at New York’s JFK International Airport to create a world-class facility fitting for the world’s largest travel market.

No other US airline is investing as much as Delta in facilities and improvements on the ground. We’re not stopping there.

By the end of this year, full flat-bed seats with direct aisle access will be the standard for our BusinessElite cabin onboard all of our widebody international aircraft. New and expanded cuisine, amenities and in-flight entertainment will allow to you relax and feel refreshed upon landing. If your travel requires a greater level of productivity, we hope you will take advantage of onboard Wi-Fi or streaming content. We’re pleased to be the largest provider of in-flight Wi-Fi in the world and look forward to expanding further by offering Wi-Fi access aboard international flights beginning in 2013.

If you love the look and feel of new aircraft and the smell of new leather, you’ll be pleased to experience beginning in the third quarter two aircraft types that are new to Delta’s fleet – the Boeing 737-900 and Boeing 717. These aircraft are part of our strategy to fly larger, more fuel efficient planes while reducing smaller regional jets. These new aircraft offer more first class seats for our premium customers and help us conserve fuel and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

We have a busy but exciting year ahead of us as we continue to improve our products and services to meet your travel needs. The on-board product – seats, aircraft, in-flight entertainment – are an important part of the experience we provide to you. Equally as important is the opportunity to make your journey that much better through the gracious service of Delta people worldwide.

We look forward to continuing to build a better airline for you.

Thanks for flying with us.

Richard Anderson

I want to give you an update on our efforts to address a negative experience a Marine had on a recent Delta flight and our efforts in response to this incident.

We have made several attempts to talk with this customer directly. We have yet to be able to reach him, but I have left my personal cell phone number with people who have agreed to pass it along to our customer. If given the opportunity, I’d like to personally apologize and attempt to make up for this experience.

When we learned of this event we immediately began a thorough review of what happened and how it happened. We found that in our haste to accommodate his request for an earlier flight than originally booked – one that was already being boarded when he arrived at the gate – we clearly missed opportunities to better serve him.

At Delta, we feel a deep obligation to support our nation’s servicemen and servicewomen who fly with us daily, and we will continue to do what we can to make this right.

We’re sorry for this service hero’s experience. And we are using this unfortunate and unacceptable incident as an opportunity to revisit and reinforce the standards that our more than 80,000 employees worldwide embody.

Thank you again for your concern,

Allison Ausband, vice president – Customer Care

We attempted to reach the customer as soon as we became aware of the situation, but so far have been unsuccessful in speaking with him directly.

An internal review is already underway to understand what occurred and take appropriate action. What is clear is that we did not care for this customer the way we should have. This incident doesn’t reflect the care with which Delta people serve our customers every day, and it doesn’t reflect the high regard we hold for those who do and have served our country.

We have the utmost respect and admiration for our active duty military and veterans who make tremendous sacrifices to protect and sustain the freedoms we enjoy every day; and our Delta team is typically very good at showing their respect through various means of recognition. Unfortunately, we failed in this situation. We strive to exceed expectations with every customer, and particularly regret when we fail a member of the military or person with a disability. We are taking this isolated situation very seriously and doing what we can to make it right with the customer.

Our efforts to do better for our customers are constant, but incidents like this one always make us pause to revisit service standards. We are doing that now; and will make this as right as we can for this customer, which will help to prevent situations like this in the future.

Thanks for voicing your concerns,

Allison Ausband, vice president – Customer Care

This requires a strategy beyond buying shiny new planes and plotting the course on the map. Connecting globally means finding great partner airlines around the world – brands that have great networks of their own that fill in the white spaces on the Delta map.

Delta has just announced our next steps for connecting more dots on the map with more frequency for our customers: We’re forming a joint venture with Virgin Atlantic Airways, pending government approvals. It’s the latest in series of steps we’ve been taking to build a truly global airline network. The partnership combines the strengths of two U.K.-to-North America networks to offer 31 peak-day round-trip flights connecting the U.S., Canada and Mexico to the U.K. In New York, that means nine daily round-trips flights to Heathrow instead of just three – something we know makes a world of difference for our business customers.

As seen in the verbal sparring between carriers, competition at London’s coveted Heathrow airport is fierce.  There is no free entry or expansion because take-off and landing rights, called slots, are tightly controlled, extremely expensive and rarely available. The solution: Delta and Virgin Atlantic partnering to offer customers a greatly expanded network at Heathrow despite the limited access to slots.

We’re no novices when it comes to making these partnerships work. Our joint venture with Air France-KLM began more than a decade ago and was the first of its kind. We’ve also recently made investments in GOL and Aeromexico, which provide vital connections throughout Latin America. We have a joint venture with Virgin Australia that better connects the U.S. to Down Under. And, we’ve partnered with Alaska Airlines to offer a strong Western U.S. gateway in Seattle.

Today,Delta’s joint venture with Air France-KLM includes Alitalia and offers great connections to Europe through major hubs in Paris,Amsterdam and Rome. But the New York to London market – arguably the world’s top business route – remained underserved. By teaming up with Virgin Atlantic, we’ll fill the London gap. And you’ll be able to book beyond Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic throughout the UK and throughout Europeon more than 95 Air France, KLM and Alitalia flights that carry the Delta code.

To make this even better for customers, our joint venture partnerships go beyond your ability to book via Delta on these flights. These partnerships reap benefits for flyers in the form of one-stop booking for corporate accounts and seamless connections that in most cases don’t require schlepping long distances between terminals as well as the ability to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and enjoy the benefits of airport lounges from Minneapolis to Manchester.

Our team is always on the lookout for the next great move to be able to carry you to more places worldwide. Our agreement with Virgin Atlantic is the latest step in that direction.

Video: http://bit.ly/VCCoff

Thanks,

Holden Shannon, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy

We’re slowly getting back up to speed at the airports here.

We’re running about 14 international and 70 domestic flights at JFK this afternoon.  A handful of regularly scheduled flights are operating into Newark International Airport tonight and we plan to run a full schedule tomorrow. We expect to be operating more than half of our schedule Thursday at LaGuardia.

After about 3,500 total cancellations since Sunday evening we’re all glad to have flights starting to come and go. At the same time, we’re all too aware that the airports are just one of many places that sustained damage. Our thoughts are with those throughout the Northeast U.S. who have been affected by this superstorm.

Thanks to everyone for your patience. Please stay safe.

By Henry Kuykendall, VP-Airport Customer Service at JFK

Coming from a family that has a history of breast cancer, I have been very diligent in going for all my screenings, so I thought. I always do my annual check-ups during the month of September but, in 2011 my check-ups were scheduled for December.

I went to my OBGYN and she gave me my annual check-up. She felt no lumps and gave me my referral for my mammogram. On the day the test was scheduled, I considered skipping the mammogram because I’d had one every year since 1977 — the year my sister, Phyllis died of breast cancer — and have always had a clean bill of health. But something told me to get up, and go for the mammogram. I proceeded to go for my screening.

I knew something was not right; they were taking picture after picture, and then sent me for a sonogram. About 40 minutes later, I was told that I needed to see a doctor right away. In the doctor’s office, she proceeded to tell me that she believed I had cancer and that it was very aggressive — possibly stage IV. I was dazed. All I could think of was how do I break the news to my husband, children, sisters and my 96-year old mother. This would surely kill her since she has already lost one daughter to this insidious disease.

The surgeon scheduled me for a biopsy the next day. She called me two days later to confirm her suspicions: I have breast cancer. I was shaking. I went home and told my husband. The expression on his face will be etched in my mind forever. I called my sisters. They were devastated for we had been through this 36 years before with my older sister Phyllis, a victim of breast cancer.

The next day I received a call from the doctor and she wanted to operate on me the following week. My mind was going 1,000 miles an hour. I needed time to think. I needed to be strong and get my thoughts in order.  I needed to protect my family and make sure they were taken care of.

My husband and sisters were adamant about me getting a second opinion. My sister, Barbara, gave me the number for Dr. Filardi, a highly successful and highly recommended breast cancer doctor. We went to his office together, as a team. It was now five days before Christmas. I walked in his office with my pathology reports expecting to hear how long my life expectancy would be (one month, six months, one year). Instead, I heard nothing but positive reinforcement:

“Mrs. Trimble this is not the cancer of 35 years ago, or 5 years ago, one year ago. Cancer is very treatable and from what I see here, so is yours.”

Oh my God, suddenly there was hope on the horizon.

I believe the only day I cried is when I got the phone call that I had stage II cancer. The cancer was in the right breast and in the lymph nodes under my right arm, but it had nottravelled anywhere else. I was extremely anxious to meet with Dr. Vinciguerra, the Head of Oncology at North Shore Hospital. In the meantime, I started to read everything I could on breast cancer and was alarmed when I read how many different types there are.  I did not know which one I had, only that it was aggressive.

Oh God, how do I tell my children and when do I tell them.

Christmas Day we are all together and I discussed with my husband that I would tell them after we were done celebrating and ready to go home. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. That is when the over- whelming feeling of strength came over me.  I was not going to succumb to cancer, I was going to fight and I was determined to win! When I told my youngest son Robert, he just said,  “I know you will be fine, you are the strongest woman I know, and you are a fighter.” That was all I had to hear. From that day forward I never would allow myself to have a negative thought about survival.

On January 18, 2012, my chemo treatments were started and they were administered every other Wednesday until April 25, 2012.

I cannot explain the feeling or what dimension your subconscious evolves but it feels like a place between life and death. This is where the real fight comes in. You can succumb to the feeling of helplessness or you can get up, get dressed and go on with your life. I chose to go to work and do everything feasible to live my life as normally as possible.

I love working for Delta Air Lines and Flight Operations. Everyone has been so good to me and the support I receive is truly overwhelming. At one point, you could not walk into my home without stepping on a bouquet. I received hundreds and hundreds of get-well cards, phone calls, beautiful gifts and delicious meals. That brought tears of joy to my eyes.

I chose to cut my own hair off. Cancer was not going to make that decision for me. It was devastating to lose my eyebrows and eyelashes. However, the American Cancer Society held classes for cancer patients on how to use make up to camouflage the flaws. The classes offered invaluable guidance and advice. Thank God, my chemo was completed on April 25, 2012.

Next step, surgery.

I had to make a huge decision. After all the reading and research I did, I chose to have both breasts removed. I was ecstatic to hear that the surgery was going to be performed at St. Francis, a hospital with a stellar reputation. The angels were smiling down on me.

Two doctors, the surgeon, Dr. Filardi, and the plastic surgeon, Dr. Antonio Uria, performed a TRAM-FLAP procedure, which is when the surgeon performs the actual mastectomy and the plastic surgeon reconstructs your breasts from tissue taken from your abdomen. The TRAM-FLAP was a success: 18 lymph nodes were removed, two were metastasis, six had tumor cells and 10 were clean. My doctors were very pleased. All the nurses and staff at St. Francis are fantastic. I received the best professional care anyone could ever ask for. Thank you, St Francis!

Next step, radiation.

It was strongly recommended that I have radiation to ensure that we kill anything that might be left over. Oh no, a setback. On July 4^th, one month after my surgery, my right tram was failing. I called Dr. Uria immediately and he answered his phone.  He told me not to worry that this happens and he would see me first thing in the morning.  At 8.00 am the next day, I was in his office and he was addressing the problem.

I told him I needed to start radiation therapy and he was very compassionate and told me not to worry that he would correct anything that radiation destroyed. This man is just too good to be true. He worked on saving the breast and did it within the time limits of starting my radiation treatments.

I started radiation August 13 and finished on September 18, 2012. I am a BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR and I will continue to survive this horrific disease.

Thank you,

Angie