Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Airlines and Mileage Programs > Delta Air Lines | SkyMiles
Reload this Page >

Delta flights between military airports

Register
Community
Wiki Posts
Today's Posts
Search

Delta flights between military airports

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old Apr 17, 2019, 4:16 pm
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: APAC
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist, JL JGC
Posts: 143
Delta flights between military airports
I have a friend on DL169 from NRT - SIN today (flightaware) and I was looking at the flight history of that plane. It looks like before arriving in Tokyo, it flew as:
DL 8824 from IWK - NRT
DL 8958 from CRK - IWK
and flew on that route a number of other times operating as various flight numbers.

Does anybody know what's up with that? Is it a contracted service for the government (I'm guessing so), and if so, is there a list of all such routes?
rill2503456 is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 17, 2019, 4:19 pm
  #2  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: SEA (the REAL Washington); occasionally in the other Washington (DCA area)
Programs: DL PM 1.57MM; AS MVPG 100K
Posts: 21,371
military charters make up a lot of DL's business ... the routes are obviously situation-dependent, but a few years ago someone posted a list of flight number series (the only one I can cite from memory is DL8952 which they use for all Washington Capitals hockey team charter flights)
jrl767 is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 17, 2019, 4:46 pm
  #3  
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: SFO
Programs: DL Charter DM/DM/2MM, IHG Diamond Elite
Posts: 1,925
Here's a list I have from a few years ago, so I don't know how accurate it is today, but I'm guessing it's all the same:

DL 8820-8824 International Military Ferry Charters
DL 8825-8829 Domestic Military Ferry Charters
DL 8830-8834 NCAA Ferry Charters
DL 8835-8839 MLB Ferry Charters
DL 8840-8849 NBA Ferry Charters
DL 8850-8854 Other/Ad Hoc Ferry Charters
DL 8855-8859 NFL Ferry Charters
DL 8860-8881 NFL Live Charters
DL 8882-8896 MLB Live Charters
DL 8897-8931 NCAA Live Charters
DL 8932-8955 NBS Live Charters
DL 8956-8961 International Military Live Charters
DL 8962-8966 Domestic Military Live Charters
DL 8967-8969 Other/Ad Hoc Live Charters.
manacit, rill2503456 and bloc0102 like this.
audidudi is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 17, 2019, 5:26 pm
  #4  
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Seattle
Programs: DL DM; Hyatt Globalist; etc
Posts: 540
Thanks for that post @audidudi! This also answers why I happened to spy a JFK-GRQ flight on the board at JFK when I arrived last Friday. I was very confused why "Groningen" was showing up on the flight board as DL8821, but I guess it must have been a military charter for some reason. It looks like that flight number has been used more recently for NRT-IWK and OSN-NRT as well.
manacit is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 12:59 am
  #5  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: APAC
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist, JL JGC
Posts: 143
Does anybody know how these (or other charters) operate in general? As in, who crews the plane - Delta or the military? And do the other airlines do this?

I never knew about this, but it sure is fascinating...
rill2503456 is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 2:23 am
  #6  
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Programs: DL PM, Marriott, IHG
Posts: 193
Originally Posted by rill2503456
Does anybody know how these (or other charters) operate in general? As in, who crews the plane - Delta or the military? And do the other airlines do this?

I never knew about this, but it sure is fascinating...
Delta (or whatever carrier) crews the plane. Other airlines do this also if I recall correctly any carrier that is part of the CRAF (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Reserve_Air_Fleet) is expected to actually fly some routes with some degree of regularity. The DOD (specifically AMC) solicits bids for the routes.
rill2503456 likes this.
No_Name is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 5:01 am
  #7  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: CLT
Programs: AA Executive Platinum, Hilton Diamond, Lifetime Admirals Club member
Posts: 419
This is petty, but for the sports teams...who generally sits in 1st?
Coaches, the best players or the biggest players?
I'm sure every team has its own rules, but I’ve always wondered about that..
joeyE is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 5:27 am
  #8  
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: MSP
Programs: DL GM, MR Gold, Hilton Gold, National Exec
Posts: 534
Originally Posted by joeyE
This is petty, but for the sports teams...who generally sits in 1st?
Coaches, the best players or the biggest players?
I'm sure every team has its own rules, but I’ve always wondered about that..
They re-configure these planes for sports teams, they put a lot more 1st seats in with up to 60" of pitch:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...air-adds-teams
bloc0102 is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 6:26 am
  #9  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Programs: DL 1 million, AA 1 mil, HH lapsed Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 28,190
Originally Posted by rill2503456
Does anybody know how these (or other charters) operate in general? As in, who crews the plane - Delta or the military?
As any Delta pilot or any official of the Delta Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association will tell you, only Delta pilots fly Delta jets. Period. Yes, it's a contract item.
MikeNYC1, RoyalFlush, wrp96 and 2 others like this.
3Cforme is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 6:28 am
  #10  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Formerly at PIT, now planted near MSP.
Programs: No flights since April 2019 (Medical Issues). Lost all my status.
Posts: 1,483
Originally Posted by joeyE
This is petty, but for the sports teams...who generally sits in 1st?
Many of the top players have a clause in their contract that they get first class seats.
RRDD is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 7:19 am
  #11  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: DL DM
Posts: 355
Originally Posted by rill2503456
Does anybody know how these (or other charters) operate in general? As in, who crews the plane - Delta or the military? And do the other airlines do this?

I never knew about this, but it sure is fascinating...
The charters are just that...charters. It's not a dry/wet lease of the plane to the military. The government is just contracting with Delta to move people from A to B. All the flights are operated under the Delta callsign, Delta crew, etc.

No different for the Military than sports team or other private charters.

Heck, if you wanted to charter an A350 yourself, you can, for the right price. Sadly it will earn no MQMs/MQSs/MQDs.

The remaining question is, on the Military charters, are the passengers' weapons secured in the hold? Or how does security work? If they have to meet 91K or standard 121/TSA regs, then I'd assume it's operated like any other flight. If not, the plane would have to be security sanitized post-flight.
MikeNYC1 is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 8:38 am
  #12  
Moderator: Hyatt; FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: WAS
Programs: :rolleyes:, DL DM, Mlife Plat, Caesars Diam, Marriott Tit, UA Gold, Hyatt Glob, invol FT beta tester
Posts: 18,928
Originally Posted by bloc0102
They re-configure these planes for sports teams, they put a lot more 1st seats in with up to 60" of pitch:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...air-adds-teams
They used to display this config on the web site too, but it seems to be gone.

Most recent version I can find in the Internet Archive is from the end of 2016:

https://web.archive.org/web/20161115...7-200-75c.html
bloc0102 likes this.
Zorak is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 9:09 am
  #13  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: SEA (the REAL Washington); occasionally in the other Washington (DCA area)
Programs: DL PM 1.57MM; AS MVPG 100K
Posts: 21,371
Originally Posted by joeyE
This is petty, but for the sports teams...who generally sits in 1st?
Coaches, the best players or the biggest players?
I'm sure every team has its own rules, but I’ve always wondered about that..
the time I flew on “Seahawk One” N297AS (~1990), the F seats had small brass plaques with the coaches’ names, and the window and aisle Y seats had small brass plaques with the players’ names ... I was in 6A (bulkhead window) with Dave Brown’s name on the seat; iirc he was a defensive back and one of the captains
jrl767 is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 9:14 am
  #14  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Programs: none
Posts: 1,668
Originally Posted by joeyE
This is petty, but for the sports teams...who generally sits in 1st?
Coaches, the best players or the biggest players?
I'm sure every team has its own rules, but I’ve always wondered about that..
Whoever pays for the rental of the plane gets to decide who sits where. It varies by organization..
Allan38103 is offline  
Reply
Old Apr 18, 2019, 10:48 am
  #15  
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: SAN
Programs: AS MVPG100K, UA Gold, IHG Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, National Exec
Posts: 320
When my family had to PCS back to the United States from Japan, we flew a DL charter OKO-SEA. I recall OKO and DNA having a lot of charter flights. IWK has become a much larger operation recently with the Navy moving their carrier air wings there from NJA, so they'll probably get a lot more of these flights going forward.
wolfpacktrojan is offline  
Reply



Advanced Search
Reply Closed Thread Share
Forum Jump

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.