From the Hangars

Delta Stories: Customer Communications

Aug 18, 2014

From telephone to Twitter, Delta's come a long way in 85 years in communication with their customers! 

When Delta started carrying passengers in 1929, the airline engaged potential customers by phone calls, in-person presentations to businesses and local clubs, and print media:  letters, small black & white newspaper ads, a couple of brochures and flyers. 

This was Delta's first color ad from 1930:

Hotels were also important venues for Delta. As employee Wallace Harmon, remembers, prior to World War II: “We had no marketing department. In large cities we had a city traffic manager. . . who would go to the hotels and check the brochure racks to be sure that our timetables were here, and that was pretty well the extent of the marketing effort. Except that they would also make calls on the hotel porter because the porter was the guy that the hotel guests would call to get reservations on airlines. Now this is a hold-over from the railroads. A few of the things that we did to begin with were hold overs from the railroad.”


For the latest news and pics from Delta, see delta.com, Facebook, InstagramTwitter and YouTube. Happy flying!

2 comments

Leave a comment
  1. Richard | Aug 26, 2014

    During the 60's and 70's didn't Delta have a Royal Service logo that looked like two scripted capital "R"s back to back? I think there was a crown in there somewhere. 

  2. Chris | Aug 18, 2014

    Hi,

    Does anyone at the museum know if the current Delta timetable will be updated for August 2014??  The link is:  http://www.delta.com/content/dam/delta-www/pdfs/flight_schedules.pdf.  I really like the timetables that Delta produces and puts up on the website.  Thanks.

    Chris

    Leave a comment