I don't need a handshake, just offer me a free snack box if I'm sitting in the back. Thanks DL.

I once had a DL flight (IIRC intraAsia in business class) where I was given a "happy (Chinese) new year" card signed by all of the cabin crew in a red envelope with my name and seat number. Someone later said that there's a Chinese purser who tends to do this. My impression was that at least the DMs in business class were honored in this way, which would have been only several people.

That's really nice when something like this happens. I tend to remember things like this, and remember them when I'm booking my next flight...especially if there are two carriers that are roughly the same on all the other points that matter to me.

I really appreciate the 'thanks'. But, during flu season, I'd prefer not to have to shake hands with an FA who has worked his / her way through the cabin :o

Another reason to sit in the front of the plane!

I do. Unfortunately they seem to do this a lot. I'm good with a verbal 'thank you', hold the handshake.

More and more, I notice that many employees have a signature thing they do. Some make a point of remembering your name, some give thank you notes, etc. I received a hand written thank you note with my connecting gate info on a domestic flight a few weeks back which I thought was really awesome, but if I received a thank you note every time, it wouldn't have that same specialness. When DL employees go out of their way to make us feel special, its definitely noticed and appreciated and I do my best to write in compliments and help promote and encourage this.

Someone spotted my KM Bag tag the other day and asked for an autograph

But, if you did ask, I'm sure the response would have been, WFBF!" ;)

From OP's other post about this flight...see, a positive outcome! :-)

I was once thanked for being silver on a 7am flight from FLL-LGA. I was shocked and really, really appreciated it. As a silver, I know I'm bottom of the barrel, so it really does mean a lot to me when they go out of their way like that for me.

I have you beat... I finally got my mom to fly DL to PVG using my Pay by SkyPeso miles, since she depleted all my UA miles. My mom didn't want to connect at LAX or SEA (got spoiled with UA's SFO-PVG) that she was willing to pay for the ticket on UA or CA - it's amazing I finally convinced her. I created an SM account for her, so I can track her flight schedules and making sure everything go through. To my surprise, my mom told me the purser approached her and welcomed her, and with a written note, to DL SM and thanked my mom for my Diamond status and loyalty to Delta, and welcome to the family, and I wasn't even on the flight! They apparently know a Diamond uses miles for a ticket on a new SM family member. I am impressed!

I'd say I get thanked ~10-15% of the time in F (domestically). A few times, the Captain has even come around to say thanks (this seems to happen more often on 757 due to the 2L boarding).

In coach, I think the only time they've noticed is when I booked last minute and am sitting halfway back, but able to board with the PREM cabin. I had one F/A once jokingly say: "I bet you DMs didn't even know there were this many rows on a 757". haha.

Two or three years ago, it seemed like Delta was doing a pilot project of having the captain or first-officer come out of the cockpit and make his pre-departure flight announcement from the galley area. I know it had to have been a pilot project because for a while the post-flight surveys specifically asked about these interactions. All of this occurred on domestic flights -- JFK, DCA, DTW, SJU -- for several months on every flight. Also, the captain or first-officer was positioned next to the flight attendants on departure, thanking passengers for flying during deplaning. There were even a couple instances of the captain or first-officer walking the aisle in first-class and thanking those passengers seated up front.

Then it stopped. I haven't seen it since. I think the post-flight surveys still ask about it, but again I never see it.

As for flight attendants:
1) I would say about 10% of the time the purser on an international flight or flight leader on a domestic flight will personally thank all of the business-class/first-class passengers before landing using their name off the manifest.
2) About 90% of the time the purser on an international flight will personally thank passengers but not use the name or elite status.
3) On domestic flights, the flight leader will personally thank passengers but not use the name or elite status maybe 40-50% of the time.

I've seen handwritten thank-you notes from placed at every first-class seat in Honolulu and at every intra-Asia business-class seat in Guam before. Never anywhere else.

Pilot came out to talk to us before the flight a couple weeks ago on a 757. I think as another poster mentioned, 2L boarding seems to make it easier for this to occur.