64,000 Delta employees got new uniforms on May 29 and instead of sending all the old clothing to landfills the airline donated more than 350,000 pounds of clothing to Looptworks to be upcycled and repurposed.
New Zac Posen uniforms for Delta Air Lines
Delta and Looptworks plan to make backpacks, passport covers, messenger and tote bags and other accessories out of those old uniforms and begin selling them in the fall.
Virgin Atlantic marked its new service between London Heathrow and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Monday with an inaugural flight from London to Seattle that featured a live-streamed in-flight performance by up-and-coming UK pop-star Raye and an on-the-ground welcome of the Boeing 787-9 by Sir Richard Branson, President of Virgin Atlantic.
Virgin Atlantic’s service replaces the flight currently operated by the carrier’s joint partner Delta Air Lines and will increase the annual capacity on the route by the more than 40,000 seats, Virgin Atlantic CEO Craig Kreeger told Today in the Sky during the flight to Seattle.
“The Seattle market also fits better with the Virgin brand,” said Kreeger, “Seattle is a young, entrepreneurial, innovative, outdoorsy risk-taking kind of city and when you think of the element of the Virgin Atlantic brand and who we attract, it just seems like a great fit.”
At a press conference following the arrival of the flight and the kick-off of several days of in-city celebrations and events, Kreeger noted that the Virgin brand was already well known in Seattle and on the west coast thanks to the airline’s U.S. sister, Virgin America.
Alaska Airlines (Delta’s major competitor in the Seattle market) purchased Virgin America last year for $2.6 billion and announced last week that while Alaska will adopt some of Virgin America’s amenities and some of its cool ‘vibe,’ it will retire the Virgin America name and brand by 2019.
Noting that he thought he’d be polite when asked about that decision, “But I decided not to be,” Branson shared his thoughts on that decision at the post-flight news conference.
“It’s baffling and sad,” said Branson, “When I sat down with Alaska, I genuinely believed that they would treasure the brand, that they would treasure the people, that they would treasure the product and that they knew what they were buying,” he said. “And that the last thing they would do would be to rip the heart out of it, which seems effectively like what they decided to do.”
“It just seems such a waste,” said Branson, “I wonder what it was that Alaska bought and why did they bother?”
Branson also noted that Alaska has to continue on paying royalties on the Virgin America brand under the licensing deal until 2040, “despite what you might have been told.”
The Virgin Atlantic route to Seattle (VS105) departs Heathrow daily at 1:20 p.m. and arrives in Seattle at 3 p.m. and leaves Seattle daily at 5:50 p.m. and arrives the next day in London at 10:50 a.m.
The route is being served by a Boeing 787-9 aircraft with 264 seats, including 31 lie-flat “Upper Class” seats, 35 premium economy seats and 198 economy seats.
“A power outage in Atlanta, which began at approximately 2:30 a.m. ET, has impacted Delta computer systems and operations worldwide, resulting in flight delays. Large-scale cancellations are expected today…”
The airline is posting updates and has issued a waiver for passengers with Delta flights scheduled August 8 through 12. Tickets must be reissued by Aug 12 and rebooked travel must begin by August 12.
“When rescheduled travel occurs beyond August 12, 2016, the change fee will be waived. However, a difference in fare may apply.”
Reading back through the Delta Air Lines blog this week I noticed an entertaining entry from archives manager Marie Force: an airsickness bag from the mid-1960s that has a gin rummy scoreboard on one side:
And an aviation quiz on the other!
That led me to visit the Air Sickness Bag Virtual Museum, of course, where the currently featured airsickness bag is this red number from Virgin Australia.
Unfortunately, I didn’t spend all that much time searching the airsickness bag museum site. But that was because I noticed this poster for sale in the gift shop and spent the rest of the evening trying to clear a spot for it on the living room wall in my house.
I’m a big fan of free wireless Internet at airports. Now I’m also a big fan of free wireless Internet on airplanes.
Especially these free in-flight Wi-Fi offers that have popped up recently:
This Saturday, October 31, 2009, Gogo Inflight Internet will be free on all Gogo-equipped Delta flights. To access the service use the code GOPINK.
It’s great that Delta passengers can spend Halloween using Gogo for free.
Even better: for each free session that day, Aircell (the company that brings us the Gogo service) will be donating $1 to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, up to $10,000. They’re also going to give all Gogo proceeds from Delta’s Pink Plane for the month of October to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
It seems first timers might also be able to get free Wi-Fi on Delta through the end of the year with the code: deltatrygogo and on Airtran with airtrantrygogo. (Let me know if this works for you.)
But wait! There’s more:
From November 1 – 7, 2009, there will also be free Wi-Fi on Wi-Fi-equipped American Airlines flights, courtesy of the folks at LEXUS. To access that service use the code: 2010LEXUSLS. ( No car purchase necessary.)
And one more: from November 10, 2009 all the way through the holidays and until January 10, 2010, you’ll get free Wi-Fi on Virgin America flights, courtesy of the folks at Google. Details about free Wi-Fi on Virgin America here.
Have you found some other free in-flight Wi-Fi offers? Let us know.