SkyMilesInsider Update: The Award calendar and other delta.com stuff...
Mar 5, 2010, 9:57 am
#46
Join Date: Apr 2009
Programs: AA Exec Plat, HHonors Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 191
Am I the only one?
Does Richard, Jeff or SMI think that we just ride around on airplanes for the fun of it? (I know, some of you do 
) Do they think we are a bunch of dolts that have no idea how to own/run/manage a business, how to run an IT department, work in sales or marketing, or launch a website? What do they think their business traveler does? I swear, these posts from SMI are getting to be more patronizing as they go on. There have been so many intelligent posts by FTers in regards to revenue management, operations as well as many other business related topics, one would think that the people at DL would not take us for granted. I am not suggesting that DL hire us all as consultants, all I am saying that posts like the OP are just ridiculous. I would love for SMI to post something like this:
Dear SM members,
During the acquisition/merger of NWA we thought it would be a good idea to use Deltamatic and DL.com, ruin virtually every elite perk, while we pee on your leg and tell you its raining, because we do whatever the accounting department tells us to do. We never had any concern of pi$$ing off our elite travelers, because we thought if we gave you SkyMiles like candy and told you we were "Best in Class" and the "Worlds Largest Airline" you would forget about it. Well, we were wrong and now we are spending way too much time and money on fixing our mistakes and trying to recoup our lost travelers who are leaving in droves for other airlines. From here on out, we are going to try to do whatever is best for serving our customer. When we accomplish that, everything else should fall in to place. You would think we would learn from history on how NOT to run an airline, but we were too concerned about short term stock prices and our bonuses to figure out what is really important. Again, my apologies to you the business traveler who is our bread and butter. If we are still around in the next couple of years after we try to fix this debacle, we would love to have you back.
Sincerely,
SMI
) Do they think we are a bunch of dolts that have no idea how to own/run/manage a business, how to run an IT department, work in sales or marketing, or launch a website? What do they think their business traveler does? I swear, these posts from SMI are getting to be more patronizing as they go on. There have been so many intelligent posts by FTers in regards to revenue management, operations as well as many other business related topics, one would think that the people at DL would not take us for granted. I am not suggesting that DL hire us all as consultants, all I am saying that posts like the OP are just ridiculous. I would love for SMI to post something like this:Dear SM members,
During the acquisition/merger of NWA we thought it would be a good idea to use Deltamatic and DL.com, ruin virtually every elite perk, while we pee on your leg and tell you its raining, because we do whatever the accounting department tells us to do. We never had any concern of pi$$ing off our elite travelers, because we thought if we gave you SkyMiles like candy and told you we were "Best in Class" and the "Worlds Largest Airline" you would forget about it. Well, we were wrong and now we are spending way too much time and money on fixing our mistakes and trying to recoup our lost travelers who are leaving in droves for other airlines. From here on out, we are going to try to do whatever is best for serving our customer. When we accomplish that, everything else should fall in to place. You would think we would learn from history on how NOT to run an airline, but we were too concerned about short term stock prices and our bonuses to figure out what is really important. Again, my apologies to you the business traveler who is our bread and butter. If we are still around in the next couple of years after we try to fix this debacle, we would love to have you back.
Sincerely,
SMI
Last edited by Red Tail Fan; Mar 5, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Mar 5, 2010, 10:02 am
#47
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: NYC
Programs: DL Plat, 1 MM; SPG LT Plat (RIP); Marriott LT Titanium; Fairmont Plat (RIP), DL Kryptonium Medallion
Posts: 1,791
Does Richard, Jeff or SMI think that we just ride around on airplanes for the fun of it? (I know, some of you do ) Do they think we are a bunch of dolts that have no idea how to own/run/manage a business, how to run an IT department, work in sales or marketing, or launch a website. What do they think their business traveler does? I swear, these posts from SMI are getting to be more patronizing as they go on. There have been so many intelligent posts by FTers in regards to revenue management, operations as well as many other business related topics, one would think that the people at DL would not take us for granted. I am not suggesting that DL hire us all as consultants, all I am saying that posts like the OP are just ridiculous. I would love for SMI to post something like this:
Dear SM members,
During the acquisition/merger of NWA we thought it would be a good idea to use Deltamatic and DL.com, ruin virtually every elite perk, while we pee on your leg and tell you its raining, because we do whatever the accounting department tells us to do. We never had any concern of pi$$ing off our elite travelers, because we thought if we gave you SkyMiles like candy and told you we were "Best in Class" and the "Worlds Largest Airline" you would forget about it. Well, we were wrong and now we are spending way too much time and money on fixing our mistakes and trying to recoup our lost travelers who are leaving in droves for other airlines. From here on out, we are going to try to do whatever is best for serving our customer. When we accomplish that, everything else should fall in to place. You would think we would learn from history on how NOT to run an airline, but we were too concerned about short term stock prices and our bonuses to figure out what is really important. Again, my apologies to you the business traveler who is are bread and butter. If we are still around in the next couple of years after we try to fix this debacle, we would love to have you back.
Sincerely,
SMI
) Do they think we are a bunch of dolts that have no idea how to own/run/manage a business, how to run an IT department, work in sales or marketing, or launch a website. What do they think their business traveler does? I swear, these posts from SMI are getting to be more patronizing as they go on. There have been so many intelligent posts by FTers in regards to revenue management, operations as well as many other business related topics, one would think that the people at DL would not take us for granted. I am not suggesting that DL hire us all as consultants, all I am saying that posts like the OP are just ridiculous. I would love for SMI to post something like this:Dear SM members,
During the acquisition/merger of NWA we thought it would be a good idea to use Deltamatic and DL.com, ruin virtually every elite perk, while we pee on your leg and tell you its raining, because we do whatever the accounting department tells us to do. We never had any concern of pi$$ing off our elite travelers, because we thought if we gave you SkyMiles like candy and told you we were "Best in Class" and the "Worlds Largest Airline" you would forget about it. Well, we were wrong and now we are spending way too much time and money on fixing our mistakes and trying to recoup our lost travelers who are leaving in droves for other airlines. From here on out, we are going to try to do whatever is best for serving our customer. When we accomplish that, everything else should fall in to place. You would think we would learn from history on how NOT to run an airline, but we were too concerned about short term stock prices and our bonuses to figure out what is really important. Again, my apologies to you the business traveler who is are bread and butter. If we are still around in the next couple of years after we try to fix this debacle, we would love to have you back.
Sincerely,
SMI
Mar 5, 2010, 10:04 am
#48
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: CHI/MSP
Programs: Delta Platinum, United Prem Exec
Posts: 1,334
Does Richard, Jeff or SMI think that we just ride around on airplanes for the fun of it? (I know, some of you do ) Do they think we are a bunch of dolts that have no idea how to own/run/manage a business, how to run an IT department, work in sales or marketing, or launch a website. What do they think their business traveler does? I swear, these posts from SMI are getting to be more patronizing as they go on. There have been so many intelligent posts by FTers in regards to revenue management, operations as well as many other business related topics, one would think that the people at DL would not take us for granted. I am not suggesting that DL hire us all as consultants, all I am saying that posts like the OP are just ridiculous. I would love for SMI to post something like this:
Dear SM members,
During the acquisition/merger of NWA we thought it would be a good idea to use Deltamatic and DL.com, ruin virtually every elite perk, while we pee on your leg and tell you its raining, because we do whatever the accounting department tells us to do. We never had any concern of pi$$ing off our elite travelers, because we thought if we gave you SkyMiles like candy and told you we were "Best in Class" and the "Worlds Largest Airline" you would forget about it. Well, we were wrong and now we are spending way too much time and money on fixing our mistakes and trying to recoup our lost travelers who are leaving in droves for other airlines. From here on out, we are going to try to do whatever is best for serving our customer. When we accomplish that, everything else should fall in to place. You would think we would learn from history on how NOT to run an airline, but we were too concerned about short term stock prices and our bonuses to figure out what is really important. Again, my apologies to you the business traveler who is are bread and butter. If we are still around in the next couple of years after we try to fix this debacle, we would love to have you back.
Sincerely,
SMI
) Do they think we are a bunch of dolts that have no idea how to own/run/manage a business, how to run an IT department, work in sales or marketing, or launch a website. What do they think their business traveler does? I swear, these posts from SMI are getting to be more patronizing as they go on. There have been so many intelligent posts by FTers in regards to revenue management, operations as well as many other business related topics, one would think that the people at DL would not take us for granted. I am not suggesting that DL hire us all as consultants, all I am saying that posts like the OP are just ridiculous. I would love for SMI to post something like this:Dear SM members,
During the acquisition/merger of NWA we thought it would be a good idea to use Deltamatic and DL.com, ruin virtually every elite perk, while we pee on your leg and tell you its raining, because we do whatever the accounting department tells us to do. We never had any concern of pi$$ing off our elite travelers, because we thought if we gave you SkyMiles like candy and told you we were "Best in Class" and the "Worlds Largest Airline" you would forget about it. Well, we were wrong and now we are spending way too much time and money on fixing our mistakes and trying to recoup our lost travelers who are leaving in droves for other airlines. From here on out, we are going to try to do whatever is best for serving our customer. When we accomplish that, everything else should fall in to place. You would think we would learn from history on how NOT to run an airline, but we were too concerned about short term stock prices and our bonuses to figure out what is really important. Again, my apologies to you the business traveler who is are bread and butter. If we are still around in the next couple of years after we try to fix this debacle, we would love to have you back.
Sincerely,
SMI
Mar 5, 2010, 10:06 am
#49
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 274
Issue #2, which is a bit different, is the amount of Delta award seats. This has absolutely nothing to do with the IT team/award calendar/etc. This is revenue management (also known as the fine people that keep SWUs at Y/B/M fares internationally, high M fares, etc., etc.). Award seats are just another thing that me and Delta Revenue Management have very deep differences on. At the end of the day, Delta could have the best award calendar in the country. But if Rev Mgmt is releasing hardly any seats on flights for awards, then the award calendar is essentially useless if the inventory provider won't make those seats available for the new/improved award calendar.
If the management is sincere, it can be fixed in no time. The rest is all spin. Don't use the IT as the scapegoat.
Mar 5, 2010, 10:11 am
#50
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Iowa, USA
Programs: Delta KM, United 1K, SPG plat
Posts: 415
The thing is that award availability is marginally better than the broken calendar would have you believe. Especially considering partner flights. I guess the secret hope at Delta is that giving us better access to this marginally better availability will solve all their problems.
Mar 5, 2010, 10:20 am
#51
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 274
The thing is that award availability is marginally better than the broken calendar would have you believe. Especially considering partner flights. I guess the secret hope at Delta is that giving us better access to this marginally better availability will solve all their problems.
Mar 5, 2010, 10:21 am
#52
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
The real problem is not the award calendar (anyone determined enough to book an award flight can work around it and search day-by-day without the calendar), but the actual almost complete availability of low mileage BE flights.
Can we please get the real issue addressed?
Just lately I've been trying to change an existing award flight to one or two days earlier. I've been monitoring the availability daily for some two weeks, to see if DL releases any more seats closer to departure at low awards (as NWA did). Be it two weeks, a week, 48 hours, or even 24 hours before depature, the answer is a resounding NO! I see day in and day out 747's flying out with anywhere from 18 to 34 available seats in BE - that is anywhere from 30% to 50%+ empty BE cabin. It is clear that DL will rather fly a half empty BE cabin then give even just one or two seats to its loyal flyers as an award ticket.
No wonder why nonrev's report 95% chance of getting BE seating on DL! (post on FT by a DL employee yesterday saying so) That shows that something is clearly very wrong, but clearly DL is not watching of what's happening in its own backyard.
Sure, it's important to have some sort of a flying benefits for DL employees and the nonrev program is great for that. However, why does up to a half of BE cabin need to be reserved for nonrevs, why is DL so adamant not to let its loyal customers book a BE seat at a reasonable mileage level, not even as little as 24 hours out before depature? (Sure, hold the BE seats and see if someone will buy them, but if not and it's say 48 or 24 hours out (of course, even better if a week or two weeks out), why not release some more at low award mileage level, to at least fill some of them and make some FFs happy?)
...and then of course there's the whole low-mid-high mileage levels. Wasn't the mid mileage supposed to provide more availability at reasonable mileage levels? But if so then why is mid mileage double the low (e.g. low is 70K, mid is 140K)? Shouldn't the low mileage be some 20-30% higher than low and offer expanded availability at still not yet SkyHigh mileage levels, while high be actually high (say double the low or such)?
Can we please get the real issue addressed?
Just lately I've been trying to change an existing award flight to one or two days earlier. I've been monitoring the availability daily for some two weeks, to see if DL releases any more seats closer to departure at low awards (as NWA did). Be it two weeks, a week, 48 hours, or even 24 hours before depature, the answer is a resounding NO! I see day in and day out 747's flying out with anywhere from 18 to 34 available seats in BE - that is anywhere from 30% to 50%+ empty BE cabin. It is clear that DL will rather fly a half empty BE cabin then give even just one or two seats to its loyal flyers as an award ticket.
No wonder why nonrev's report 95% chance of getting BE seating on DL! (post on FT by a DL employee yesterday saying so) That shows that something is clearly very wrong, but clearly DL is not watching of what's happening in its own backyard.
Sure, it's important to have some sort of a flying benefits for DL employees and the nonrev program is great for that. However, why does up to a half of BE cabin need to be reserved for nonrevs, why is DL so adamant not to let its loyal customers book a BE seat at a reasonable mileage level, not even as little as 24 hours out before depature? (Sure, hold the BE seats and see if someone will buy them, but if not and it's say 48 or 24 hours out (of course, even better if a week or two weeks out), why not release some more at low award mileage level, to at least fill some of them and make some FFs happy?)
...and then of course there's the whole low-mid-high mileage levels. Wasn't the mid mileage supposed to provide more availability at reasonable mileage levels? But if so then why is mid mileage double the low (e.g. low is 70K, mid is 140K)? Shouldn't the low mileage be some 20-30% higher than low and offer expanded availability at still not yet SkyHigh mileage levels, while high be actually high (say double the low or such)?
Mar 5, 2010, 10:21 am
#53
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: CLE
Programs: UA 1K MM, DL Plat
Posts: 982
The Southern Elites might buy that, but I'm pretty sure the Northern Elites are going to whine all the louder. NWA.com had an award engine that worked, and the rapid deterioration of availability after the merger was pretty darned obvious to anyone looking. Heck with matching CO or AA -- if DL.com doesn't shortly match with what their own legacy fliers remember from a year ago, this problem isn't going away.
Mar 5, 2010, 10:22 am
#54
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Huntsville, AL
Programs: DL DM 1.929MM, Hilton Lifetime Diamond, IHG Platinum, Avis CHM, Marriott Titanium (lifetime gold)
Posts: 7,858
Mar 5, 2010, 10:28 am
#55
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 7,903
A week ago AF availability at delta.com matched what I saw at ExpertFlyer. I'd find availability on EF and then use the one-way or multi-city option at DL to successfully piece together awards. This week, despite EF and AF showing availability on many dates from various cities, I can't find anything at delta.com. For example, IAD-CDG 7/28 return 8/11 in business. Lots of availability on many days during those weeks in EF but nothing on DL.
I did some pecking around less busy times of year, for example November on KL. It seems that transatlantic partner flights have been pulled. Given the announcements about IT changes, I'm guessing that's the reason, whether intentional or not.
Mar 5, 2010, 10:30 am
#56
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: LAX/BOS/HKG/AMS/SFO...hmm, I need a life.
Programs: United1K, AA ExPlAAt, DL MM/Gold, Hilton Diamond, Avis First
Posts: 13,316
Not necessarily. The load factors of today have more to do with capacity cuts than anything else. It will be interesting to see which airlines start to introduce additional capacity over the coming months (if you believe the economy is really turning...and I do based on my industry indicators).
Mar 5, 2010, 10:39 am
#58
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
If DL really cared about its customers experience, then this post from SMI would have said (for example): "We now clearly see that we were wrong to abandon nwa.com and the PARS booking system. We have started a rapid training program of all our agents in PARS and will be shutting down DeltaMatic and the current delta.com by April 1st. The new delta.com will be up on April 1st morning and will be the earlier nwa.com site with the NWA logo replaced with Delta, Northwest replaced with Delta and Airlines replaced with Air_Lines. It will feature superior, truly best in class, functonality and UI (user interface)."
All it would take Delta is just Search-and-Replace in the text to replace NWA and Northwest with Delta and Airlines with Air_Lines.
That is what it would take to fix the IT, web site, award booking (though not availability), user experience/navigation/difficulty of use (of current delta.com), etc. problems. Quicker. Easier. Better. For all.
All it would take Delta is just Search-and-Replace in the text to replace NWA and Northwest with Delta and Airlines with Air_Lines.
That is what it would take to fix the IT, web site, award booking (though not availability), user experience/navigation/difficulty of use (of current delta.com), etc. problems. Quicker. Easier. Better. For all.
Mar 5, 2010, 10:47 am
#60
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: DEN
Programs: UA 1K (MM), DL, AA, AS, HHonors, SPG, Kimpton, Hyatt, IC PC, Marriott Titanium (LT PLT), Hertz PC
Posts: 7,231
If DL really cared about its customers experience, then this post from SMI would have said (for example): "We now clearly see that we were wrong to abandon nwa.com and the PARS booking system. We have started a rapid training program of all our agents in PARS and will be shutting down DeltaMatic and the current delta.com by April 1st. The new delta.com will be up on April 1st morning and will be the earlier nwa.com site with the NWA logo replaced with Delta, Northwest replaced with Delta and Airlines replaced with Air_Lines. It will feature superior, truly best in class, functonality and UI (user interface)."
All it would take Delta is just Search-and-Replace in the text to replace NWA and Northwest with Delta and Airlines with Air_Lines.
That is what it would take to fix the IT, web site, award booking (though not availability), user experience/navigation/difficulty of use (of current delta.com), etc. problems. Quicker. Easier. Better. For all.
All it would take Delta is just Search-and-Replace in the text to replace NWA and Northwest with Delta and Airlines with Air_Lines.
That is what it would take to fix the IT, web site, award booking (though not availability), user experience/navigation/difficulty of use (of current delta.com), etc. problems. Quicker. Easier. Better. For all.
It's NOT as easy as just switching over the website!!
Last edited by GBadger; Mar 5, 2010 at 11:31 am Reason: Fixed major typo...