bamin

No, the first us rep was a dud (rude / did not want to help) and so was the next offshore tech support rep (script reader) I was transfered to. The second us rep (one of the best I have talked to) came thru with the correct route / mileage but had to go through the suppervisor / appropriate service desk to get the fees removed and this took forever.

mooper

Certainly management is fair game, but my point is that it would be most productive to work with the guy (DeltaWebDev) to make the most of his accessibility. I'm certainly not in a position to restrict what is discussed here, but I am requesting and suggesting that we'd get the most out of it if we limit ourselves to the technical issues and suggestions for him. .....ing about management conspiracy theories, fees, and other topics is unlikely to maximize our gains.

Absolutely not. Again, it is my feeling that a separate thread directing anger at Delta management for ineffectively allocating resources would be more effective than diluting the technical feedback solicited here by DeltaWebDev. I'm an FT newbie compared to you, but I feel strongly that we should help the guy as much as we can and separate our management and price rants from it. Do as you wish, its only my suggestion.

safigan

Has there been a single, solitary person who has been successful booking a multi-city itenerary for award travel on the web site since they went to the 3-tier system? I'm still getting "We're sorry. One or more of the flights you selected just sold out. Please search again to view and select alternate flights."

C'mon, Delta, it seems like you would be working day and night if something this major was completely broken on your web site. And if day and night for a week wasn't enough time to fix the problem, then you had no business rolling out this functionality when you did.

jfulcher

Point taken.. I'll refrain from any additional bashing in this thread..

amps

Has anybody been succesfull to get correct mileage on award tickets by calling? I see the Low Med High in the calendar, however every low flight that I pick is higher than the highest published mileage. Example, MOB-LIH highest is 90k in F, however coming out to 105K in F even with one leg in Y.

RealDLInsider

Hi everyone.

As you know, we’re in the process of implementing our new three-tiered SkyMiles Award redemption structure. We’re in the soft-launch phase, which includes making the necessary technology updates at delta.com.

As you also know, we’ve experienced a few glitches along the way. With new technology, it often takes time to ensure things are up and running exactly as they should be. Know that we value your business. We’re working quickly to resolve the issues we’ve encountered; and we’re listening to all of the feedback you’re sharing with us along the way.

We want you to know that with the new Award structure you’ll find you have more flexibility and more options when you’re redeeming miles for Award travel. And, with last-seat Award availability, any unsold seat on the plane is yours.

We’re making a change that I truly believe will benefit you, our most valued customers, and I thank you for your patience as well roll out the new program. As always, I appreciate your feedback. We’re listening.

Jeff

jfulcher

Jeff,

While I understand the need to get this program launched for you guys, it makes it more difficult now to book award travel than it was before this change. It wasn't even really easy then. The award calendar almost always shows you different availability than what was really there. So many booking errors when you actually get into booking something. For me it feels like the skymiles members are being used as your QA department. It makes me question if you really have a QA department.

Ultimately I know things will eventually get better, but the problems booking award travel online has been a problem for a long time and it's gotten worse. It's frustrating that because of this people are forced to have to call in and either A) speak to India to get the phone fee waived or B) If we just don't have the time or patience for that we have to dial SMS and pay the phone fee.

That takes me to another subject - empower SMS to waive that fee for us and anything else and not have to transfer us! In my opinion your frequent customers should never have to deal with the hassle of being transferred - sit on hold for a while and then deal with an offshore resource which can be frustrating and time consuming.

Carolinian

As a NW Worldperks elite who fled DL as a GM during the reign of Rob Borden, from what I am seeing of your crappy 3-tier system it is a much disservice to customers, who are getting screwed. Why any NW passenger would want to have anything to do with DL is beyond me. NW has had a far superior ff program, and the 3-tier system just makes DL light years worse. I hope I can burn my miles at NW before you pirates at DL hijack them to SkyPiles.

yngdiego

While I appreciate your presence here at FT, DL IT management clearly has NO concept of thorough testing. Clearly the new calendar was rushed out for some political purpose even though it has MAJOR technical problems. This just adds insult to injury and is the worst possible way to introduce the higher mileage award tickets.

Please communicate to your management that Skymiles members will NOT put up with inept testing and rushed technological changes that BASIC testing would reveal is very broken.

DLmedalliongold

Surprise, Surprise! I actually found some skysaver seats "Low" close to the dates I wanted for a domestic round trip. Price before the change? $10 per ticket, price now? $61.50 per ticket. I have no idea what that is, unless it's a $50 fuel surcharge and somehow it's calculating the September 11th fee at $11.50 instead of the $10 it should be...

Do I expect Jeff Robertson not to take the corporate BS line "Know that we value your business."? No of course I don't. Yeah, you value our business, just not enough to NOT devalue the Skymiles program. At a value of 1¢ per mile, you just devalued the SkySaver rate 5150 skymiles. So in effect, award tickets now cost about 30,150 miles, paying all the extra "Taxes" on these tickets if you put the difference in terms of miles.

You are the ones that sold your souls (and your skymiles) to AMEX and every last one star restaurant, hotel, flower shop, and investment banker to gain revenue, then come back and devalue them... You value us just about as much as any other airline, and that's where I cry BS on this "enhancement".

OK, rant over... Sorry.

AngryPrez

Much of the issue here is about level-setting expectations. Frequent flyers have an expectation that they will be able to redeem miles for tickets at levels which are announced by Delta.

Delta's credibility suffers tremendously when you can't find tickets at those published levels, the itinerary is convoluted and inconvenient, and/or you need to call a live person to make an award reservation (triggering a fee).

Doesn't much matter whether the expectations are not being met due to technology, policy, and/or some conspiracy theory of where Delta wants to take the SkyMiles program in the future.

Marketing 101 -- when you extend a promise to your customers, find a way to keep it.

mooper

I guess my earlier suggestions fell on deaf ears.

I redeemed for three "low" 25K weekend tickets yesterday at a value of about 1.7 CPM (calculated by determining the lowest price I would have had to pay on *any* airline for similar trips). This is actually sub-par for me in recent months, but is above my average redemption value from last year. I see no notable difference in overall availability for this year versus the last two, and I'm actually getting higher CPMs. I don’t fly into every market, so maybe its just unique to my needs.


See above. Are you saying that you are *never* able to redeem in accordance with what they promise, or just not for the particular trips and dates you want? As far as I'm aware, low/saver awards have never been available for all dates, all cities, and all times. Flexibility and location have always been key factors in determining success.

lls138

wow....jeff? you actually hear? But do you listen?

safigan

Oh, so it's a *soft* launch now, is it? Wow, talk about a euphamism! OK, I'll bite. With a soft launch, there's generally an alternative for those who aren't participating in the soft launch. This usually involves having the old system available, but can also include another alternative, in this case, booking by telephone. So why not make it easier to get the telephone fees waived during your 'soft launch'?

jpdx

But, but...that wouldn't make any sense. In DL's view, the award search tool serves two purposes:

(a) get people to spend more miles than necessary, and/or

(b) generate fees.

90% of DL's customers have probably given up on finding seats at the advertised mileage price (25k for domestic Y, 90/100k for US-EUC C, etc.), but have resigned themselves to paying whatever "the system" tells them. The remaining 10%, who are willing do the legwork and find available seats (often on partners) should at least have to pay the phone booking fee for the privilege of obtaining awards at the "saver" levels. Jeff, have you considered charging a 10k miles "fee" for phone bookers who manage to get their seats for "saver" prices?!