squatch

AND proper coding achieves a site that functions identically cross-browser and cross-platform. i manage IT projects for a large media company and nothing goes live if it doesn't work on on every OS/browser/whatever combination covering over 95% of our traffic (and, more importantly, over 95% of whatever combination of browsers and OS leads to revenue... this is why we STILL support that hunk-of-junk IE 7, because users of IE 7 use it to spend $$$). we have an army of QA people seeing to this.

so, while some sites may work better on some browsers, that is the fault of shoddy development or, more likely, shoddy IT management allowing that to happen.

no one builds sites "optimized for browser x" anymore and hasn't since forever ago in technology years. a universal customer experience should be what any money-making site shoots for, and that is what most achieve.

delta's problems with their site reek of compressed timelines and incomplete testing. that's really the only reason that a site may have unpredictable results on one platform or another. developers will get it right, given the time, but other business factors may prevent that from happening and the site's business requirements and design requirements may make it extremely difficult to achieve. those paying the bills are often deaf to the cries of defects or, more likely, some are not communicated up the chain of command for fear of retribution. it all depends on your corporate culture and whether getting it right is more important than getting it now.

in my experience, i have seen people fired for launching a site with fewer problems than delta.com has. perhaps someone there was.

ND76

The new delta.com won't let me change seats. For example, I'm on a flight in 6 days and the DM/PM upgrades have just cleared, leaving open seats in EC (I'm booked further back in the plane). I wanted to grab a seat in EC, but I keep getting the following error message:

One or more of your requested seats are no longer available and could not be assigned. Please review your current seats and reselect if desired.
Message#SEA0002

This same message popped up last week; I was unable to change seats while logged into delta.com; amazingly, I was able to do a seat switch on my I-phone using the Delta app.

cmh flyer

Yes, this has been a known & reported problem for some time. When this happens to me, I'm able to change seats using the Delta mobile smartphone app.

grahampros

We are in total agreement on that. Reeks of poor planing and poor testing to meet some timeline. Overall, DL has gotten things right in the last few years, this they royally screwed up.

DMIrishFlyer

Not really - thats the opinion of some. IMO (and a lot of others) it is only considered a flop because its different... its really hard to get used to BUT for a MAC user its more in tune with usability than any previous windows OS.

Let me tell you moving from Windows to OSX was a real challenge.. I did it because I was asked to as part of a pilot to see if we could make OSX work in our enterprise environment. I was ready to kick it after day one, day two etc... but I stuck with it because I committed to giving it 6 months. After 3 months I was hooked, after 18 months I've completely changed to a MAC head at work and at home. At the moment there is nothing that would make me go back... but windows 8 has the potential to make me waver.

Change is the hardest thing ever and people consider significant change in their environment (digital or other) to be a flop. Their inability to accept or embrace change is presented as a product or process flaw...

reef58

That is a legitimate point

Not being able to book tickets is a much different animal than not seeing a flight or some such

Sabai

Of the many things that Delta's management pays attention to, invests in, and does well, consumer-focused technology is at the bottom of the list. I doubt anyone was fired for this debacle; the SkyMiles Award Calendar is a benchmark of Delta IT's technical prowess.

You can check-in with your smart phone, but be prepared to spend hours on that same phone trying to redeem your SkyPesos for award travel.

grahampros

Agreed. Its one thing for folks to comment on look, feel etc of a site and what they market on it. It's entirely another if basic functionality to get things done isn't available or isn't working.

sethb

Not exactly. They're prioritizing attempting to upsell even when stupid over functionality. (E.g. it really isn't making them any money trying to persuade me how nice EC is. Really. They ought to know that.)

sethb

DL will notice when (and only when) it happens often enough to hit their bottom line. Customer service phone calls are expensive to handle.

I seem to recall a previous item that was hated by a company's existing customers but preferred by customers of its main competitor. What was that again? Oh, right. Anybody remember "New Coke"?

kitkat77

I have a question that's likely only peripherally related to this thread, and if I need to be redirected somewhere else, someone please do so!

One of my biggest beefs is that I can either search by price OR schedule but not both. I'm willing to pay more for a better schedule (and my company's policy supports it), but not double. It seems like the search engine is optimized to only show me certain flights/fares when I choose price, and schedule doesn't have fares until I'm done choosing.

Therefore, I spend a lot of time going back and forth choosing different schedules, and sometimes the price is equal or even less than the "price" based search will show me.

The new site, at least for me, is not very fast (then again neither was the old) so this wastes a lot of time.

Is there a reason for this? Why can't they just show you all available flights and associated fares?

Aloha1

+1^

gatechange

Just give me the option to close any of the stupid glitz boxes I don't want open on a page!!!
Hate feeling like I looking at a Bejeweled page.

There I feel better

toomanybooks

Gartner thinks Apple has about 1/7 of the personal computer market as of a few months ago, and growing, at least in the US. So that would be 6 to 1.

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/10/10/...ts-in-3q-2012/

And that does not include iPhones (40,000,000+ sold in Dec. alone I read in FORBES), iPads, etc.

I used to own a computer store and was a PC guy. Have seen more "Blue Screens of Death" than I can count and spent thousands of hours messing with Windows, drivers, memory issues, etc. Have had a Mac for a year, which I leave on 24/7, and it has not crashed once.

stils

I agree. It's very annoying. I would like to have all of my options and all of the prices right there. I hate choosing my perfect schedule and then finding out three pages later that it's
3x the price. Tell me when I'm choosing it! I usually use kayak or google flight search to find my desired flights and then go and find them on Delta. Seems to work much better.