From a very internal source:

No one cares if they use delta.com email account or not. It looks better if they do and there is a push to be more professional, but it is not essential.

A lot of people are under impression that only Delta pilots can recommend candidates and only LOR's from Delta pilots will be considered. Not true at all. The recruiters will consider any recommendations, from anyone.
The important thing is that people you ask for the LOR know you very well. If they don't they should not recommend and if the recruiters feel they don't - the LOR will be disregarded.

Everyone was asking, but the BOD didn't approve pilot hiring budget for 2013. Delta has a lot of company patriots who will volunteer if need be so expect Delta team at pilot job fairs starting this fall.

Limited selection from airlineapps is already underway; fyi - nothing turns recruiters off more then a sloppy application.

Interviewing should start in October/November 2013.
Expect first class in the beginning of January 2014.
Expect a break for the summer with more or less continuous hiring starting in the fall 2014.

 

Appreciate the info. The timing works well for my situation.

 

That's good intel.

In 2007 Delta was using the internal email as a sorting preference. While they would consider all recs, the first hurdle was getting your application pulled out of a stack of ten thousand. That first filter made the internal address important. That may have changed by now.

 

That may not have been the case as I had no internal rec from a delta.com addy. It supposedly did add some weight if you had that.

They likely did account for in the furture nw/dl merger I would befriend newK. Thats probably why I got the call.

 

We were told in 2010 for our new-hire recs to hold any water at all, they better be from an internal address, or they wouldn't be considered.

We were so impressionable then.

 

Heard they prefer guys without tons of time. Anyone hear the same thing?

 

We certainly seen plenty of both high and low time pilots. Average, for civilians when I went through was about 6,000 hours with 2,000+ 121 PIC. The military pilots varied quite a bit from low time fighter pilots to higher time transport pilots. A long leg in a Harrier is something like 40 minutes, if it does not quit and fall out of the sky before then. (do Harrier pilots log the time hanging under their parachutes? ... could be significant extra block)

Delta says they look at the whole package.

For (ahem) higher time pilots, it would help to show accomplishments in addition to flying the line.

Delta has got a huge pile of 45 to 55 year old First Officers. While Delta has never even hinted that they hire to distribute the retirement curve, common sense tells me Delta needs what it doesn't have, younger First Officers. That is just my guess.

 

A team of scientists have tried to figure out how 80kts CLAMP pulled it off.

... and for you readers outside of our circle of friends (not that 80 claims me), the real secret is to balance out your qualifications just as his was. Young, sharp, line check airman that presents the image Delta wants to represent the airline.

Of course then Delta puts these terrific new hires on a Douglas jet, which makes them slightly crazy and disheveled. By the end of IOE everyone wonders; "what happened? He seemed like such a nice young man."

 

I'd say that's a pretty well educated guess.
Flight Ops would be irresponsible if they didn't pay some attention to those demographics when hiring. All other things being roughly equal, the younger applicant is going to have an edge this time around. Not for any reason of age discrimination but just because Delta has to smooth out the retirement curve in order to maintain continuity in the operation.
They can't have half the pilot group all retiring within a couple years of each other.

 

Quoted elsewhere on this board:

"Boeing builds jets, Douglas builds character."