Last night before the close of the cabin door(ATL to FLL flight 2059), the four stripe stood in the center of the F cabin and thanked the F passengers for flying Delta. His quick speech was sincere (or so it seemed) and was said with a smile.

Has anyone else seen this behavior lately?

Just curious if Delta is trying to ramp up the personal touch...

over the past 25 years.

The captain comes up to the front of the F cabin, without a microphone, briefly discusses the estimated flying time and the route, and thanks everyone for flying with the Big D. A nice touch, which I have always appreciated.

Was it on a MD88 aircraft? It's probably the same pilot I had the last time I flew ATL-DCA. He came out to thank everyone in F for flying Delta. Our plane was groudned due to air traffic control, he came out to talk to everyone let people out of the plane and stood by the door to apologize as everyone exit.

Then, he walked around people at the gate talking to them and letting pax use his cell phones to call friends & family to let them know about the delay ^

Class act! ^

I have seen this, but it is rare. I've had a few flights where the captain hung around in the FC aisle, actually helped folks put their bags into the overhead bins, chatted about the flight and whatever else came to mind. Nice touch, I must say.

You'll be seeing this a lot more system-wide, both DL-N and DL-S.

Not exactly related, but the few times that I've flown JetBlue, the pilot always stands at the front of the cabin, faces the passengers, and makes a similar announcement on the PA system.

I've had it happen a few times -- on both DL and NW. There was an NW 319/320 pilot who went seat to seat in FC and thanked passengers, then randomly visited with a few in coach. He also played a few blues riffs on his harmonica before the pre-flight announcement from the cockpit.

There are many ways to deliver the same information, but the acknowledgment inherent in effort and eye contact is appreciated.

I have had it happen a few times, more though in the SkyClubs lately, genuine thanks for my business and for flying Delta.

Also disembarking the plane, both flights this week the pilot was genuine in showing appreciation for flying.

The entire time I was a NW Elite:

* zero flights in F/Y had been addressed personally by the captain.

* one flight in F had each pax thanked personally by the Lead FA pre-landing (though she was reading from the manifest, as she thanked each pax).

* one flight in domestic F had the pax addressed by name during meal service (not to thank, to serve).

* every WBC flight has had this pax addressed by name on meal order.

This was after Silver/Plat/Silver/Plat, 220k+ eqms, maybe <200 +/- segments

Personally, I'd prefer the captain meant it when they did it, or not do it at all. 1x of forcing through the motions would ruin 10x of meaning it.

Back around the 02 timeline while I was elite on NW I can recall a few flights with the captain coming out and being somewhat sociable before takeoff. Not just addressing FC and thanking, but talking to passengers boarding, and at least in once case noticing a young PAX (first time flying) and personally bringing him a pair of wings after boarding was complete.

Since I've been doing the weekly shots for the past couple of months, no appearances from the captains period.

One time the (or a) pilot of the NRT-KIX route address the upper deck of our 747. He asked us how much we thought the planes total weight was. Someone guessed 80 tons, but it was more like 200 tons. Then gave the normal thanks speech.
It was different and made me smile, it should happen more often!

Personally, I think they should let us take turns on the controls. I managed a forward roll in a 747 training sim once. I'd love to see if the real thing could survive it.

I've had two similar incidents:

Inaugural LAX-SYD flight was delayed because fueling at LAX took longer than planned. One of the pilots came thru BE and explained that we were loading 286,000lbs of fuel and that, for comparison, a fully loaded 763ER weighed 300,000lbs. Just the fact that the pilot communicated what was going on in a way that we could understand was a big plus. ^

When I boarded NRT-ATL in January 2006 (not too long after the bankruptcy filing), one of the pilots was at the door greeting the pax with the FAs. I noticed that he looked at my carry-on bag with all the PM tags attached. Later during the flight, I got up to stretch and get some water from the galley. They same pilot was on his break, chatting with the FAs. He said that he had noticed from my bag tags that I was a PM and asked what routes I usually flew. Then he said, "Well, I want to thank you for flying Delta. You're the reason I have a job." ^^^

In both instances, the actions of these pilots cost DL zilch, yet they left a lasting positive memory.

Hundreds and hundreds of segments and never had this happen to me. Seems like a simple gesture but nice. Should be SOP!