Remember that time you'd just barely survived a US Airways flight into Atlanta, fought your way through a crowded hellscape of angry travelers, and then had to drag your bags to your car only to see some pampered Delta customer get into a brand new Porsche? You weren't hallucinating.
Delta and Porsche Cars North American (PCNA) have teamed up to bring certain "High Value Customers" (HVC) the full Porsche experience. Delta is responsible for flying certain cars from Germany to Atlanta — the HQ of PCNA — and Porsche decided to say thanks (and make sure that their execs, many of whom are Delta Diamond Medallion status frequent flyers, happy) by loaning some Panameras and Cayennes to Delta employees for use ferrying around "HVCs" who land in Atlanta.
This phenomena was first noticed yesterday on the FlyerTalk forums, where a user — a Delta Diamond Medallion member (although he said it was a random pickup) — mentioned a driver picked him up and transferred him to his car.
Some users doubted it was real, but a representative for Delta hopped on to the board to confirm this was a real service and there are now images of the service posted to Facebook.
I see that you've noticed a few of the spanking new vehicles trolling around ATL. It's true that we have a team dedicated to transporting our highest value customers around the Atlanta hub and they've got a fleet of several vehicles with which to do so. As part of our partnership with Porsche (which includes shipping cars from Germany to Atlanta), they've provided us with a few fancy new rides to add to our VIP fleet. A couple of things to clarify:
1. Delta didn't pay for these cars.
2. You won't see any of our executives in these cars - they're for HVCs only.
3. The Porsches are quite literally a new toy we get to play with so we're testing out how to best use them. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, they'll be used as a "surprise and delight" for some of our best customers.If you're lucky enough to score a ride in one of these vehicles, let us know how you liked it!
Time to upgrade from Delta Tin Medallion, I guess.