Tag Archives: delta

Visiting Delta HQ with ISASI

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Hello everyone,

I hope you’re well and had a nice long relaxing weekend! I spent my President’s Day weekend in Altanta and got to visit Delta headquarters with one of the organizations at Riddle, ISASI (International Society of Air Safety Investigators). It was great seeing everyone again and so glad they all remembered me from my internship during Spring 2017!!!

The day started with all of us checking in and getting our visitors pass. We all then broke into groups to do three rotational activities- SIM, Flight Attendant Training and then Operations Control Center (OCC) Tour. We all got an opportunity to fly the 747 sim at Delta. It was a lot of fun to take off and land the simulated aircraft!

 

We all got to see how flight attendants are trained to handle situations, especially during an emergency. They all go through rigorous training to help passengers if the plane crashes in water.

After seeing how the flight attendants are trained to handle dangerous situations, we all headed to OCC. This is where the meteorology lab is located, and Delta employees keep track of the weather and alert pilots of any bad weather. After the tours, we all headed back and had an opportunity to learn about Delta’s PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) and everything in it. We also got to try on the suits and boots. 

After the PPE session, we toured the Delta Flight Museum. They have a Boeing 747 that is now a part of the museum as well. The last Delta flight scheduled with paying passengers on a 747 was on December 19th 2017 in Detroit. It was really cool to see the “Queen of Skies” parked near the Flight Museum.

    

This was a truly rewarding experience, and the Delta employees took good care of us for the day!

Until next time,

Maryam

 

 

 

The Next Chapter

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Hello There,

While talking to my dad yesterday, he asked “how does it feel?” I really did not have an answer to that question as I have been busy wrapping everything up school-wise and finalizing the next chapter of my life.

With graduation being about 72 hours away, I guess I would say that it feels surreal. It is kind of hard to believe that I arrived at Riddle just over three years ago, and now, I have achieved the goal of attending college (to get a degree) and will be entering the workforce next month.

The last month-and-a-half feels like a blur; classes kept me very busy; I was trying to finalize the job search; and just trying to enjoy my last few weeks as a college student.

One thing that I learned about the job search is that it is not easy, but I really enjoyed the experience. I say it is not easy because you always have to be “on” in which you are finding what you want to apply for, juggling lots of communications to set up interviews, actually being interviewed, and taking care of lots of follow-up details. I was always making sure that my communication with prospective employers was friendly, error free, and that I was flexible enough to schedule interviews. (A special shoutout to all the folks in Career Services who are pros at this and give great advice!)

In September/October, I was busy applying to a few positions that interested me. I was then lucky to have several phone interviews to see if I would make it to the next round of interviews. In early November, I had several in-person interviews in which I traveled to the headquarters of a few companies for multiple in person interviews.

Going to the headquarters and having the in-person interviews was by far my favorite part; while yes they were interviews, they did allow me to network and just have great conversations about the working world.

Finally, right after Thanksgiving, I started receiving job offers, and the decision of where I would end up after college became extremely difficult.

I remember back to 2014 when it was time to officially commit to college, it was a simple decision–Embry-Riddle. I knew this is where I wanted to go as I could take my passion for aviation and combine it with a good business background to get an Aviation Business degree! However, determining where I would end up post-graduation was difficult in that there were lots of factors to consider and there were really great offers available.

While I have kept it is a secret for the last few blog posts, I am excited to finally say that I will be going back to the Delta Air Lines Network Planning department full-time! I am very much excited for the opportunity, but I am looking forward to having some time off to travel, relax, and get ready for the next chapter over the next few weeks.

Let Fall 2016 Begin

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Hello there!Jack-IMG_6641

I spent the summer working on the Schedule Integrity team in the Network Planning department at Delta’s headquarters in Atlanta, GA. I was part of the team that was responsible for working on the flight schedule about three months before it was flown; the Schedule Integrity team (SI) is the last team in Network Planning that works on the schedule before it gets turned over to crew scheduling, Delta’s regional airline partners, and the airports Delta serves. Then, it is turned over to the folks in the Operations and Customer Center (OCC) to dispatch and deal with any issues that arise on the day of departure.

Each of the SI members manage a hub, several out stations, a few aircraft types (to ensure maintenance is built into the schedule and for crew scheduling), and works with a regional airline or two (to ensure that they can execute their part of the schedule). My primary focus was on the Cincinnati and Salt Lake City hubs, a regional airline, and helping other team members as needed. Even though everybody has their own beat, we still ended up working together as a team quite a bit when changes to the flight schedule need to be made; for example, a flight might start the day in Salt Lake City then fly several flights and end the night at New York JFK, but if we change the departure time out of Salt Lake City, the days’ flights and ultimately the arrival into JFK might change and impact slots or even ground time for planned maintenance.

Although I was an intern, I am very thankful that the team treated me like a full-time employee which was a great way to get hands-on experience and for me to know that this is what I want to do after graduating college.

Now, it is the first day of classes, and it’s time to get back into my school routine. I do miss working at Delta, but it is nice to return to campus and continue working towards completing my degree.

Until next time,

Jack

 

2015 Stories: Delta SkyMiles Medallion Benefits

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Over the past year, I flew a lot on Delta Air Lines. I boarded 35 flights with the air carrier and half of those flights were to Atlanta. “How come have you been to Atlanta so many times this year?” my friends ask me. I actually never visited Atlanta in my whole life. I have only been through the airport to connect to my next flight.

I started to accumulate all my blading passes!

I started to accumulate all my boarding passes!

For those who did not know, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is home of Delta and is the busiest airport in the world. It will welcome its 100th million passenger of the of the year, by the end of December.

Since the beginning of 2015, I have accumulated numerous flights and miles with Delta, and over Thanksgiving break, I got my first frequent flyer status! I became Silver Medallion with Delta and at the same time, SkyTeam® Elite, since the airline is in the SkyTeam® alliance.

There are many great benefits that come along with the status, but first, lets discuss how to reach the status. To become Silver (lowest status), a customer needs 25,000 Qualification Miles (MQMs) or 30 Qualification Segments (MQSs). Customers also need to spend more than $3,000 every year with Delta. Those numbers increase by a lot for the other upper level statuses.

There are many advantages of being Silver Medallion® with Delta. Here are some of them.

The first perk is to be able to be added for free to the upgrade list for a First Class seat. Who doesn’t like to fly upfront with wider seats and greater legroom?

It is often rare to get upgraded as a Silver. One time, I was 39/41 on the upgrade list and there were only four seats available. There is another option if you want to have extra legroom and sip beer, wine, or spirits and snack on premium snacks. At time of check-in, you can select a Comfort+™ seat if there is availability. These seats are located between First Class and Main Cabin. A passenger upgrading its seat to Comfort+™ will spend up to $55 on a one-way flight between Daytona Beach and Atlanta.

Passengers also benefit from 2 extra miles per dollar spent. For example, if my roundtrip ticket from Daytona Beach to Atlanta was $800, I would get 1,600 bonus miles added to the amount of base miles for the trip.

One of my favorite (favourite for my Canadian readers) perk is the waived baggage fees. You can get a checked-baggage free of charge. This saves $50 round-trip per person.

At the airport, passengers can enjoy expedited check-in using the Sky Priority lane. Customers can also benefit from priority boarding and the order depends on the seat selected:

  • PREM: First Class customers
  • SKY: Delta Comfort+™
  • Zone 1: Silver Medallion®
  • Zone 2: Main Cabin

Now you know the main benefits of having a Silver status with Delta Air Lines. If you travel a lot, flying with the same airline might lead you to a frequent flyer status!

Until next time!

Nicolas

 

The Summer of Delta: Part 2

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Delta 767-400 in Atlanta.My internship at Delta Air Lines this summer has been quite the adventurous one.  Besides a very busy work schedule, I have already touched the east and west coasts, mainland Europe including Belgium and The Netherlands, as well as many interior states.  My trip to Brussels was quite the ever-changing one as I had to take the train to Amsterdam and catch a Boeing 777 ride home to the United States.  Keeping up with the rest of the aviation geeks here, being able to spot some gorgeous airline heavy metal is a regular occurrence at the world’s busiest airport.  The cell phone lot at ATL gives you the opportunity to take some great pictures, like the one above of a company Boeing 767-400, when we are using a west departure operation. Working at an airline is NEVER a boring job!

A panorama of NYC on the approach into LaGuardia.

A panorama of NYC on the approach into LaGuardia.

 

Infamous Delta Biscoff cookies help power a lot of our 90,000 employees each day.

Infamous Delta Biscoff cookies help power a lot of our 90,000 employees each day.

Delta is a very dynamic place to be right now, especially since we seem to be the airline with the target on our backs.  Massive profits in recent times have set Delta apart from the rest of the industry, showing that massive growth and acquisition strategies have seemed to play out in the company’s favor. One of the biggest happenings at the company since I have been here was the recent opening of the Delta Flight Museum at the airline’s Atlanta General Offices location.  The event was well-covered on social media and news sites as well, so check it out for more information on how to see this great attraction.

There was quite a crowd of employees and distinguished guests at the grand opening of the renovated Delta Flight Museum on June 17th, the 85th anniversary of Delta.

There was quite a crowd of employees and distinguished guests at the grand opening of the renovated Delta Flight Museum on June 17th, the 85th anniversary of Delta.

The internship has really opened my eyes to how complex an airline is.  Thousands of people are needed to get a flight off the ground, not just the six to twelve crewmembers that are in each airplane getting the passenger from point A to point B.  The typical view of an airline is one that comes from what folks see at an airport but it is really much, much more in depth.

One of our flagship machines, a Boeing 777, took me back across the Atlantic from Amsterdam to Detroit.

One of our flagship machines, a Boeing 777, took me back across the Atlantic from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Departments like mine (Network Planning) touch each flight at some point and build a schedule that has integrity and will be profitable, Revenue Mangement, aka ticket pricing, prices many levels of tickets with limitations depending on what days you might be traveling or how far in advance you might be purchasing your fare, Operations Control handles each flight enroute and solves any problems that might arise, and Finance provides the money needed to get each flight off the ground by financing airplanes and projects as well as daily operations.  The picture to the right shows my ride back to the US from Amsterdam, one of our Boeing 777s.  Partnerships like our one with KLM in AMS make our international operations much easier by sharing gates and ground equipment plus personnel. Hundreds of other specific departments and sectors are needed as well, really showing the complexity of the world’s greatest mode of transportation: Flight.

 

One of the experiences that I have been able to take in at Delta has been the opportunity to fly a handful of their full-motion simulators.

One of the experiences that I have been able to take in at Delta has been the opportunity to fly a handful of their full-motion simulators, including this Boeing 767.

Not only am I a business major, I also have my FAA Commercial Pilot’s Certificate and keep current in both multi-engine and single-engine airplanes.  One perk of being at Delta has been access to the full-motion flight simulators that our pilots use to train on their specific aircraft type.  We have at least one simulator or more in-house for every type that we fly except the Boeing 717 (Boeing owns those simulators).  I have been fortunate enough to fly the Boeing 767-300ER and Boeing 777-200LR sims as well as the Airbus A330.  I hope to fly the other types, stay tuned for more pictures!

I am excited to see where else my non-revenue travels will take me this summer and I will be sure to share more pictures and stories as they happen!

Happy flying,

Kyle