wlau

I don't know what's going on at the mothership but every change made to Delta.com is getting worst and worst. Before I can quickly open up a search result flight option and look at individual segment, operator and aircraft in a clean small dialog. Now... it opens up a giant, overly colorful and animated popup! Does Delta do any user study group before launching these crazy updates?

jrl767

ajggiant

I've noticed recently in my flight results that about half the time, the fares go from left (basic economy) to right (first class), the order they've historically been in. But now it is just as likely that the fares are reversed, with first class being to the left, and moving to BE on the far right. So maybe we are the user study group!!

sdadept

they are trying to dumb it down and its making it harder for knowledgeable travelers to book. I hate it too.

GagaPilot

I have been noticing the same thing. It seems to be 50/50 which booking engine appears when I search for flights over the last week or so. And, it seems with the new one, if I select both outbound and return segments, then try and view the seat maps from the "review your selection" screen, all the seat maps are completely grayed out. As a result I will have to look at the seat maps for the outbound flights on the outbound flights page, and then the same for the return on the return flights page. Frustrating.

bruininabag

Easy but likely temporary fix... remove the "-2" from the URL to get the old flight search tool back. And be sure to ask for the features you want back in the feedback tool at the bottom of the new search engine page (i.e. searching by fare class, etc)

Here's an easy link to the old search engine:
https://www.delta.com/flight-search

New search engine:
https://www.delta.com/flight-search-2

ab2013

Great tip! Thanks!!

Mountain Explorer

Simply put, most people don't care about aircraft or operating airline, and consider that information to be clutter

danielSuper

20-something techies have their own script to pull data directly from Matrix ITA API. This UI is designed for boomers that are confused by more than 3 buttons on their VHS remote.

cfabar1

rylan

Yes the new interface has a significant amount of wasted space, and requires additional navigation to acomplish the same tasks such as customizing search results or looking for details about a flight such as distance, meals etc.

The Situation

They are making it harder for knowledgeable travelers to book, but impossible for inexperienced travelers to book. On Monday, I was trying to coach a friend through the booking process for a trip we are taking together - after getting completely frustrated, I wound up just getting my friend's login info and did the booking for him. And of course the new website does not work on all browsers, which just makes things even more frustrating. It would be interesting to be an internal person at Delta and be looking at the before and after data to see how many people book at DL.com vs OTAs.

TuxTom

Well I've just done a side by side by trying the two different URLs shown above, and this was the first time I've seen the new booking interface. I used the same airports and dates for the search, and would say I'm not a fan of the new one. Other than it matching the design of the new homepage introduced last year, it seems like a pretty dumbed down update to make it easier for the leisure traveler. Larger baby-boomer friendly fonts, more colors, and the seat map and details pages spell out the differences between each cabin. Whether or not people actually find this easier to use remains to be seen I guess, but it really this doesn't seem like the end of the world. Anyone with any basic computer literacy should be able to figure it out, get the info they need, and make a booking.

Interestingly, the old booking page had reversed the order of fare classes with first on the left c+ middle, and main cabin on the right. The new version booking had them ordered in the traditional main cabin left to F on the right.

Weekend Away

I too hate the new website. I used to be able to tab through all of the fields to enter in my search perimeters, but now I have to click stuff, very annoying. I've also noticed that more often than not, I'm not able to click on links and go anywhere. This is specifically when navigiating around my profile and the new nav bar at the top.

Also, Virgin Atlantic has an identical search feature on it's site. Just a different color palette. Not at all surprising given they're owned by DL.

SYRRDU

The online experience for booking tix for the family is horrible. I go to the Diamond line for those bookings. They usually screw something up, but I get it corrected within a day.