I (like so many in the Midwest) make an annual spring pilgrimage to Florida. The last 4 seasons I've flown respectively 1) Air Tran, 2) Allegiant, 3) Allegiant, and last year Frontier. I always treat myself to business, stretch, or exit row seating, assigned seating, priority boarding, etc. (always like to start vacation right).

Air Tran's web page is fairly easy to navigate for all expected functionality, of course one has to endure the endless upsell on Allegiant but eventually it gets the job done; Frontier's web page I found to be pretty dysfunctional; however I did speak to a couple res. agents at Frontier who I found to be friendly, efficient and issues were resolved quickly.

This year, I thought I'd give Delta a try; seemingly Delta has some attractive (A) and (P) pricing out of MSP. I used Delta.dumb and got slimed! I experienced the slow response times others have reported and anomalus rendering of graphics. Stil, I soldiered on and entered my information and credit card #, pressed the purchase key, I received the infamous "the fare you were quoted is no longer available prompt" and the fare jumped by several hundred dollars. Seriously? Absolutely pathetic IMO for a Fortune 500 company let alone any company. The web is the forward face of the company to the consumer.

I abandoned Delta as an option and used United.com to search for a trip. I was able to quickly search united.com for travel options and was able to complete my purchase quickly and add economy plus seating to my purchase.

I do have to wonder if other consumers are as turned off as I was with respect to Delta web. How much revenue is this slimy experience chasing away? Give that this is revenue maybe the Delta BoD should be asking questions of management; maybe some Delta VPs should be held accountable and metrics be established tied to bonuses.

See the 93 page (and counting) sticky on Delta.dumb.

Thanks, I did notice the sticky after I posted.

I mean it just strikes me as ironic that a consumer is trying to give Delta business and the website is turning them away.

I wonder how long it would take for the website to be straightened out if Delta execs. had their bonuses tied to a customer satisfaction rating on the website. Give consumers a 500 mile bonus to complete a short survey rating.

It (the website) might be sorted fairly quickly. @:-)

Highly unlikely since the award calendar has been broken since 1927.

Cheers

I've often thought if Delta employees had to book all non-rev travel thru the website, it would be fixed in no time...

Instead of buddy passes, give them a fixed (large amount) of SkyMlles and say "have it"

I think that if 30% of Delta top executives' and VPs' bonuses were tied to a customer satisfaction metric for the website we'd see the problems sorted soon enough.

If I were a shareholder, the state of the Delta website would be an issue, just sayin'.

Yes, but Delta has been using the very same information technology since C.E. Woolman's day; they're big on tradition.

I'm sure DL would just say that the website is great, its been winning awards and the mobile apps and technology has been praised by the media. I'm sure they would deny there is a problem and until they start losing money or performing worse than AA, UA and to a lesser extent US, why would they have reason to believe that they are losing money?

I don't think DL is too bothered to losing consumers to Ultra Low Cost Carriers like Allegiant or Spirit otherwise they would actually try and compete on price with them.

I thought DL was in the process of overhauling their whole IT systems with a new reservations platform, a new ACS platform and various other IT enhancements. Maybe it'll help the website --- probably just wishful thinking

Delta got lucky by having AA and UA in deeper trouble. In essence, DL is the best-looking house in a trashy neighborhood.

That is pretty much the way the industry thinks about everything.

I'm not sure I'd agree with that. At the very least I'd like to know what we're "looking" at. Regardless, it's a sad neighborhood.

And in that sad neighborhood Delta runs a cosmetics (lipstick) trial on animals (pigs) business...

Lower your expectations and everything will be great.

The best analogy I've seen on FlyerTalk is the comparison of Delta to a crazy girl friend. Both have issues, but the good points make up for the bad points.