A water cannon salute is one thing, but a Delta Air Lines captain went out with a special farewell after chartering an Airbus A330-900neo for his retirement flight…the very aircraft I happened to have flown myself just a few days earlier.
A Very Special A330-900neo Retirement Flight For Delta Air Lines Captain
Captain Keith Rosenkranz has flown with Delta since 1991. Under US federal law, pilots must retire at age 65, regardless of health. As the end of his career approaches as a commercial pilot, Rosenkranz decided to charter a Delta A330 and take his family and friends to Kona, Hawaii…quite a treat, no?
We don’t know how much he paid to charter the aircraft, registration number N411DX, but even if Delta cut him a deal it could not have been cheap. Rosenkranz lives in Dallas and flew:
- February 27, 2024 – DL8871 from Dallas (DFW) to Los Angeles (LAX) to Kona (KOA)
- February 28, 2024 – DL8872 from Kona to Los Angeles to Dallas
It is not clear why the aircraft stopped in Los Angeles, but I have an idea.
JonNYC shares a very cool aspect of this story, which may explain the LAX stop:
.. a bunch of those covid-era captains and their families on this charter to make up for them never having had their chance to celebrate their retirements with their families on a flight.
And -if- that story is true– that is one great gift to those folks and their families.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) February 29, 2024
If true, that is really a great twist to this story. A benevolent gesture.
Per JonNYC, there was about 100 passengers onboard. Only three stayed behind in Kona, where the aircraft sat for less than 24 hours. Some party!
The pilot is also an author:
The pilot’s book (forward is by Dick Cheney)https://t.co/vD1o6pdicq
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) February 29, 2024
I’ve traveled so much lately that I haven’t had a chance to lay out the adventure I had in Europe last week, but I began the trip with not just a Delta flight and not just a Delta A330-900neo, but this same aircraft, N411DX, which stands out with its Team USA livery.
Here’s a look at the Delta One business class cabin:
There are 29 seats.
Delta Premium Select (premium economy) has 28 seats:
Economy class has 224 seats (56 Delta Comfort+ and 168 main cabin seats):
CONCLUSION
Congratulations to Keith Rosenkranz for a distinguished career in the US military and with Delta Air Lines. His A330-900neo retirement flight really was something special and if stories about making this flight a special gesture for many of his former colleagues, then I really have to salute Rosenkranz. Speaking from personal experience, he picked a great aircraft to charter!
“ Speaking from personal experience, he picked a great aircraft to charter!”
Welp, the only DL aircraft I have yet to fly on / fly Delta One on. These 339s are elusive to me, guess I’ll just have to live vicariously D:
I feel like that scene in a Christmas Story where Ralphie finally gets the secret decoder ring and the message is ‘be sure to drink your Ovaltine.’
‘exclusive look onboard the posh aircraft’ – come one, what is this The Sun UK??
That headline implies shots of the actual retirement flight, not an empty cabin of some flight you took as a regular flight on the same plane.
Cheap click bait.
I chuckled at that, too. “Posh”? Really? Yeah, the D1 suites are subjectively “nice” compared to, say, DL’s 767s with the old D1 seats, but there are far superior J products out there – both hard and soft product – at many airlines. Did Tim Dunn write this drivel?
Yeah, this is my last time coming to this blog.
When is clickbait not cheap?
My experience is dark. I flew to Hawaii on a United 767 that later slammed into WTC2 on 9/11 🙁
Exclusive look onboard the posh aircraft…. clickbait at its finest.
Posh aircraft??? Delta?
Its a very nice aircraft, and Delta’s cabins are perfectly fine.
Singapore, ANA, JAL, Emirates, Qatar, Etihad = posh.
So is this a paid advertisement (regarding this story)?
I’m guessing this became a HEAVY cargo flight to/from HNL to help subsidize the cost.
Y’all are getting your panties in a twist for actual reasons.
Delta One Suites are objectively better than ANA 787 business class, JAL SkySuite III, and Emirates’ 2-3-2 business class
I did LAX to KOA on a Hawaiian A330 this past fall, it was a fantastic flight.
I paid about $600 for a first class seat on an a321neo but there was an equipment change that I didn’t know about. I boarded expecting the 2×2 recliners of the a321neo, but was shocked to see it was the a330 with lie flat seats, which was a huge blessing because we hadn’t slept well in the hotel the night prior.
It was a smooth flight with perfectly clear skies a great crew and a lot of fun to see the big island come into view on the horizon and make our way toward it. Pilots let my kids go into the cockpit before takeoff and sit in the seats too.
Such a memorable flight.
That’s awesome.
Cool ! Will get his book.
Flew in 5A on this plane LHR-SEA via Virgin points on an early return. I know I’m not adding anything here but.. Matthew, neither are you by posting this. It is cool since no Covid bracelets in HI..
I think some may have been interested to see what the aircraft was like…