stevenryals

I agree that the raised award levels are not the issue, it's the inconsistent results that cause the problem.. I pulled the same dates & cities a few times this morning. the lowest each time ranged from 70,000 up to 200,000... same class, same cities, same dates.. very strange results..

anyway, i've used everything I had and now down to 16,000 sm or so.. so.. got some fun flying up soon.. goin to FCO, VCE, CDG & LGW between now and January..

hope the awards calendar gets working well before i need it again

ADLFO

I agree with this and will add that DL has a built in beta team in FTers and their Medallions. I have seen other companies use their best customers as beta testers, I just wonder why DL doesn't bother to ask us for help. I know that we, in essence, are providing that function now, but it seems it would have been much more efficient to test this first with a limited audience rather than go through the possible embarassment of having a bad launch. Many of us, myself included, would happily do it for free (ok, maybe a few SkyMiles would be appreciated, but not required).

amlothi

Quick newbie question:

I have award ticket on hold for travel for Xmas holiday. I'm worried that if I don't book it, it'll disappear being that it's one of the few flights available for 25,000 miles round trip. I need 2 seats, and I'm a couple of hundred miles short.

I have an uncredited stay in my HH account that I have requested credit for which would put me over and let me book it.

Assuming that doesn't happen within the 48 hour "hold" period, can I log in again on the last day of my hold and once again put the same itinerary on hold?

I have a flight booked for next week which will also put me over if all else fails.

jomomojo

[QUOTE=MikeyZBT;10420840]I read the blog post a couple of days ago (or whenever it was originally posted). Now, it appears to be taken down. Isn't that against standard blog etiquette, to completely take something down and pretend like it never happened?

Not that I personally care that much, but it does seem to indicate that Delta is either having second thoughts (or a minor meltdown over this calendar)...

safigan

For one ^, I was able to rebook a flight ATL-YVR I booked for next March which dropped from 50k under 2-tier to 40k miles under 3-tier. As a PM, I was able to cancel my previous award tickets without penalty and rebook for less miles. Did this for a party of 3 for a savings of 30k miles.

For another , the "one or more flights has just sold out" message is still there. I can't believe they'd launch a product with an entire category of functionality broken for everybody. So I'd guess at an alternate explanation: Perhaps DL found that the "book by schedule" and "multi-city" options were mispricing certain fares, and some of those fares weren't charging enough miles. Rather than allow people to get deals that they never intended to offer, DL could have simply shut down the whole process with the "one or more flights has just sold out" message until they could fix the problem.

mooper

You are not alone in experiencing a benefit from the new system. I had a similar experience, and for other searches, mile requirements seem largely unchanged. Of course some people are seeing mileage requirement increases (some are very substantial) for their desired itineraries, but you have to keep in mind that it is the nature of feedback/forums to elicit responses primarily from those on the short end (complaints) while the people who benefitted (happy) tend to be much less likely to post. I observe this phenomena all the time when my company releases new or altered products.. the content people benefit and stay silent, but every person with a gripe is extremely vocal. You often can't make everyone happy. You see a lot of outrage here, but I suspect there are a lot of people better off who will never notice, or if they do, say anything. Even if you are one of the people who take the grim view that Delta has devalued their miles and has no right to do so (I am in the other boat - I've been redeeming for a higher CPM and believe that Delta is taking the right steps to return to profitability, given a near-doubling in the cost of their primary input), you need to distinguish the work DeltaWebDev and his peers are doing from the price and fee structure their work operates within.

As someone who runs a tech company and employs a lot of people with your skill set and challenges (not related to airlines, but similar data parsing demands), I want you to know that you are doing an admirable job by bearing the heat from a lot of people who don't understand the extent of the data demands and/or who misattribute their problems with Delta's price and fee structure to you (you aren't the one taking those decisions). The fact you are so communicative and open to feedback and criticism is one of the primary reasons I purchased a bunch of DAL stock when it was in the 4s, as I know from experience that open interaction with developers can result in incredible progress if given time. Please keep at it and know that I and many others know that you are working with what you've been given and will eventually work out the remaining kinks (far fewer than there were before you started this) and leave us with the best award redemption system in the industry.

PhilC

Currency fluctuation on the EUR taxes?

PhilC

I don't believe you'll be able to extend the hold unless the same flights are still available.

GUWonder

My bet is that some of the technology development people now know full well:

1. what DL management intends to do with SkyMiles redemptions and why certain things have been prioritized the way they have been prioritized (or not) by DL management; and

2. that if the customers knew -- and eventually more customers will know -- "what DL management intends to do and why certain things have been prioritized the way they have been prioritized (or not) by DL management" -- and eventually more will know -- DL management would throw a fit.

jtrue28

+1

GUWonder

Have you considered that the greatest heat is not "from people who don't understand the extent of the data demands and/or who misattribute their problems with Delta's price and fee structure to [him]"? That heat really has come or will come from DL management on a mission.

The "people who don't understand" or really care about "the extent of the data demands" is DL management on a mission?

runninaway

You're kidding, right? If not, are you speaking from the perspective of redemption levels, availability or strictly IT interface? I was pleased to see a route I'm watching drop from 50K to 40K...but since I errored out every time I tried to actually book it, I can't really say it was available, can I? So the redemption level seems to be top notch, but the availability and the IT seem to be just a smidge off the industry best pace. If they could get it back where it was (read, functioning) they would still have a WAYS to go.

beofotch

Truly a breakdown in the Delta IT System Development Lifecycle.

I hope Ernst & Young, as part of their 2008 external audit takes a look at this. Within Delta's IT General Controls (ITGC), there should be controls designed adequatley and operating effectively surrounding their IT Project Development and Change Management methodologies. This is a Sarbanes-Oxley requirement. They must have controls to test major developments in a test environment, as well as get sign-off from management once they deem testing effective.

This is certainly a demonstration of Delta's IT either not having a formal, effective IT Development methodology or not following the one that exists. Those controls should not pass effectiveness test sand likely have some design inadequacies too based on what we are seeing with this Award Calendar roll-out. Sadly, because it impacts 'miles redemption', and not 'dollars redemption', it probably wouldn't show up as a financial control weakness in their Annual Report as its more of an operational weakness.

As noted in these posts on this thread, this operational weakness is causing people to reconsider their loyalty to Delta.

My perception is that in management's cost benefit analysis of frustrating SkyMiles customers versus getting the SkyMiles liability off their books and increased marginal revenue, they are certainly choosing the latter at this time.

cnc2002

I tried to book a trip this morning from Bos or JFK to EZE for late January. I gave the system a date, expecting to see the calendar for the month, and received a response that nothing was available on that date. I then tried BOS-EZE and got a listing of flights for the same day, including some connections through JFK, but no mileage was shown for any of the flights--just a list of all possible connections as if I were buying a ticket. Are others having this problem today? How long before Delta gets its system working properly?

Hey Delta, how about waving charges for using a DL representative whenever the system is not working correctly?

jfulcher

I'm in the IT field - I fully understand the issues that are happening here - DLWebDev does a fine job. His management on the other hand needs to be canned. They do a piss poor job.