One of the things we’ll be using this space for is to share some of the things we’re working on, and what we are hearing from you, our customers, that you want to see more of…and also some things you want to see less of.
Since delta.com and self-service is my team’s area of responsibility, we’ll often focus on what we are working on to make our online and self-service products (which include check-in kiosks and those flat screen monitors in our gate areas that give you all sorts of info while you’re waiting to board a flight) easier and better for you.)
The good news is, we listen to customers a lot and match our project plans to things you want most. Just a few recent examples:
- You asked us to join the 21st century and stop making customers who volunteered to give up their seat hold onto a paper document that needed to be redeemed in person. Believe it or not, it took lots of work by our excellent Ticketing team to make these items electronic, but you can now redeem them online at delta.com.
- You told us that you wanted the ability to pay for excess baggage at the kiosk and online as an additional option. Result: we’ve added this capability to kiosks and are working on bringing it to life online soon as well.
And speaking of kiosks, although 30 million of you departing from 100+ airports check-in successfully in less than 90 seconds on average, we’ve realized that we can make the displays even more intuitive and faster.
We’re working on that now, and will try to use this space to share some preliminary designs to get your input (in addition to all of the other places we’ll be gathering customers’ input on this important topic.)
Stay tuned for much more on these topics and others, along with some tips about how to make travel easier and more fun for everyone, some firsthand info about some of the many cool places Delta can take you, and much more.
Josh Weiss
Managing Director
delta.com & self-service
August 24th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Thanks for the updates to Delta.com.
August 24th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Thanks for your hard work, Mr. Weiss.
It’s good to know that Delta’s IT Department isn’t some mystery building that just turns out what it can.
August 24th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Again, thanks for the update to Delta.com, it is a very significant improvement. One other suggestion–allow the use of points for upgrades (to/from Mainland/Hawaii) to be booked online
August 24th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
About paying for excess baggage at the kiosk, how about providing an incentive to use the kiosk, such as no fees for excess baggage? Win-win, right?!
August 24th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Josh,
Thanks for the information - Can you shed some light on why when I check in on the Kiosk with my SkyMiles AMEX I am prompted to find my trip? Shouldn’t it know who I am and where I am going? I know I have trouble remembering from time to time
Glad to be a a part of the blog!
Wes
August 24th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
The many enhancements at Delta.com are much appreciated, especially the ability to use eCredits and apply them to future flights. One option that I would like to see is the ability to have a 48 hour hold on a future ticket without forced payment. Sometimes plans change almost immediately or require confirmation of other parties and when returning flights have changed or seat preferences have been filled, this type of option allows for some flexibility in the planning stages of a trip. Thank you for allowing us this opportunity and thank you for your continued commitments to the customers.
August 25th, 2007 at 12:43 am
I’d like to see DL.com be able to rebook cancelled tickets. I travel weekly for work & am a SkyTeam Elite Plus member. One of the things that’s a pain in the neck with Delta is the fact that you rarely get a US based call agent who can help when it comes to rebooking. Often times, you get someone in another country who just doesn’t seem qualified to help. If one could avoid the hassle of calling your ticketing center (and having to pay a ticketing fee even though they’re rebooking a fare), that’d be nice.
Also, your website doesn’t recognize certain codings. For example, if one types WAS to FLL for a flight from the Washington DC area to FLL, you have to specify an airport. Other airline websites allow you to choose cities such as WAS or NYC for places that have more than one airport.
Lastly, why can’t anyone find codeshare flights on DL.com? It’s so frickin’ annoying!
August 25th, 2007 at 8:45 am
John -
Just saw this linked from an ad from the NY Times. Earlier this week, I tried to book a flight using Firefox on a Mac, and was told it wouldn’t work, and I haven’t quite gotten a straight answer out of anyone, but I’ve been led to beleive that delta.com isn’t designed to work on Macs at all. Can you tell me when you will have this problem fixed? Thanks.
August 25th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
One thing that I would really appreciate is some type of warning system in case you try to redeem a ticketed itinerary for future travel. I did this once because it was the same amount as an e-credit for a canceled reservation and I only found out about the error when I tried to check in. So, instead of paying for a T fare, I got stuck with an H fare and was out $400.
August 25th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Great getting a new platform, but you’re late by years in trying to establish a community of people who truly care about our Delta. Hopefully, we can crosswalk this new found opportunity with the well-established WebFlyer/FlyerTalk community and DL’s Official Face there without diluting the dialog. There’s been a heavy investment of time and energy there.
I’ve always been a skeptic–a loyal-to-Delta skeptic, however. I don’t have an abundance of time. My obvious question is “Will a site hosted by DL result in any more meaningful interaction with your core constituents than the existing FlyerTalk board? If so, then why were you not listening? If not, then what’s the value of this?
I’ll listen for a while.
August 26th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Josh,
Thank you to you and the entire team for the many enhancements to Delta.com. It is one of the best sites in the industry. The addition of the Blog is a great idea and a good way of connecting with the frequent users of the site… and creates the ability to have a constructive dialogue for continued improvement. With that in mind, it would be very helpful to know what is actually changing with Delta.com both recently implemented as well as what is planning so that as users of the site, can give you better feedback.
I use the site constantly, so I am more than happy to provide my feedback on those changes as well as give suggestions for improvements in the future.
Thanks!
August 26th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Wow, thanks for all of the improvements to the website and check-in. I’m sure glad you’re focused on doing cool stuff like this and not on little stuff like customer service.
August 26th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
The area the IT department certainly could do a better job relates to the need for a ticket holder to call in to “revalidate” his itinerary every time Delta does one of its frequent one minute schedule changes on any flight in the itinerary.
In addition, the system makes it appear that his seat assignments have gone away ( and sometimes, they have.) I have two trips booked on Delta, and I will do my best not to book any more Delta flights until this defect is overcome in a customer friendly modification to Delta’s on-line booking.
The Blog is a great idea. I hope it leads to some meaningful improvements in Delta.com
August 28th, 2007 at 2:36 am
“Jason” already mentioned it, I’d just like to give it my strong support.
One thing that often keeps me from booking with Delta is the fact that I have to purchase tickets right away. I’d much rather have them on hold for at least 48 hours so I can check with other factors that may influence my travelling schedule.
And thanks for creating this blog.
August 28th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Id like to see being able to put flights on hold up to 72 hours on Delta.com before actually getting charged. Sometimes travel plans change shortly after you book a flight and this way you’d be way more flexible.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Please add the ability to export itineraries to Microsoft Outlook. Most other airline websites already have this feature. Glad to see we now have a Delta Sanctioned blog now. Thanks!
August 28th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
It would be helpful if we could select flights and pay the carryon pet fee when we purchase our tickets online.
Currently you have to:
1) Check on your flights online.
2) Call a phone agent to check if space was still available for carryon pets for those flights.
3) Book the ticket online.
4) Call back and reserve the space for your carryon pet with the agent.
5) Wait on a line at the airport to pay the fee and get a tag for your pet’s carryon bag.
CO has this feature as part of their “advanced search options” where you check a box that you are traveling with a pet and the flights appear where space is available when you are booking your ticket online. When the flights for your travel dates appear you see the following message:
“Note: The results you are viewing are based on the in-cabin pet policy.”
You also pay their carryon pet fee as part of the online booking process.
If this process was integrated into your online booking process you would be saving both DL and your customers’ valuable man hours. When you arrive at the airport, all that you should have to do is go to a kiosk, checkin and the system would recognize that the pet fee was paid. The same kiosk agent that gives you your baggage tag would simply give you a tag for your pet’s carryon bag.
August 28th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I think it is a cookie issue of some sort (not my area of expertise) but why do I leave Delta.com for hours, come back to it, and have it appear that I am still logged in? I’ll start working on a new itinerary only to have the system bump me back to login using my username and password. This is one of my biggest frustrations with Delta.com. I love the company, the site, and this blog though. With a little effort, that issue could be done away with I think. Ok, maybe a lot of effort. If so, it’ll be worth getting it done though!
August 30th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Hey all,
Just wanted to thank everyone for your great comments and feedback. Let me respond to a few common themes:
“…Can you shed some light on why when I check in on the Kiosk with my SkyMiles AMEX I am prompted to find my trip?…”
Generally, when a customer uses their actual SkyMiles card, or enters their SkyMiles number and PIN, or uses or the credit card they used to purchase the ticket to activate the kiosk, it will find your reservation on the first try. As I mentioned, we’ve launched a re-design of the kiosk process, so we’ll look at ways to better streamline the whole experience, including finding your flights.
“…One option that I would like to see is the ability to have a 48 hour hold on a future ticket without forced payment….”
We know plans can change…that’s why delta.com offers you risk free cancellation on all tickets for travel within or from the US and Canada. Once you’ve bought your e-ticket, you have a day to cancel it for any reason and receive a full refund, with no cancellation fee. All of this can be done by accessing your itinerary at delta.com.
“…I’d like to see DL.com be able to rebook cancelled tickets….”
We currently offer reissue capabilities on many ticket types on delta.com…we just added several types of international tickets to the list of those that can be reissued online…but we recognize that customers want the flexibility to use delta.com to make all types of ticket changes and are working on enhancing our capabilities in this area.
“…your website doesn’t recognize certain codings. For example, if one types WAS to FLL for a flight from the Washington DC area to FLL, you have to specify an airport…..”
In using the default flight search option, in markets with multiple airports, such as WAS, NYC, etc, a customer entering “WAS” or “Washington” instead of the actual airport code (DCA, IAD, BWI) will be asked to specify one of the Washington area airports from a drop down list, which shows all of the area airports. Customers who use our Full Search Options link from the homepage can actually select “Include More Airports”….so a customer using this feature who enters “DCA” and “FLL” in the airport boxes and setting the distance to 50 miles will see all combinations of fares from DCA, IAD, and BWI to FLL, MIA, and PBI in just one click! This is one way we make it easier and faster for you to search multi-airport markets.
“…Earlier this week, I tried to book a flight using Firefox on a Mac, and was told it wouldn’t work, and I haven’t quite gotten a straight answer out of anyone, but I’ve been led to beleive that delta.com isn’t designed to work on Macs at all. Can you tell me when you will have this problem fixed? Thanks….”
It’s fixed! (see, we are fast!) We know some Mac users have had a less-than-perfect experience at delta.com. Please be assured that the team is hard at work making delta.com as easy to use as possible in all of the top browsers, including Safari and Firefox. We’ve just launched some enhancements, and Mac users who have experienced any delta.com glitches should now have a much better, more visually appealing experience on delta.com—give it a try and let us know!
“….Please add the ability to export itineraries to Microsoft Outlook. Most other airline websites already have this feature…..”
I agree that this is a great convenience, and it’s coming this year!
Thanks again for all of your great comments and questions. Keep them coming, and talk to you soon,
Josh
August 30th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Josh,
Thank you for taking the time to answer our quesitons and comments, if everyone who participates in the blog from Delta’s side of the business returns and addresses the comments as you have then this will truly be a great forum to participate in.
I did not realize the 24 hour cancellation policy was available on line, I noticed the cancel feature but did not realize it had a 24 hour option, so hence I am now educated about a feature that is right at my fingertips, thank you.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Josh,
Absolutely agree with Jason..it’s so refreshing to get quick replies that make sense and bring us up-to-date. I look forward to future updates and to additional comments from others in the Delta family. I, too, discovered from you comments features of which I was unaware, but, most important, I am impressed with the actions taken or in progress on suggestions made (especially since I have called with such suggestions in the past to no avail). Good work and much appreciation
August 31st, 2007 at 10:15 pm
I have found several glitches on Delta.com that has led me to book my flights elsewhere. Just last week was pricing FLL to JNB in Business and your web site came back with First Class FLL to ATL and then ATL to JNB was all in coach, every option the international portion came back in coach. SO I thought maybe Business was sold out so I just checked ATL to JNB on the same dates and wonder of wonders it came back with Business Class. I went back and tried again FLL to JNB and got the original result First and Coach so I booked South African which had no problem coming back with the routing and fare. And after checking out the features on SAA seems their Business Class is a big step above your product plus theirs is a non stop flight from DC. Would love to fly you guys but if you want to compete on the international stage then you need to do some serious upgrading.
SAM
September 1st, 2007 at 12:55 am
I would like to see frequent flyer miles converted to Delta Cash. One mile could represent 1 penny. 25,000 miles could represent $250.00 that could be applied to any airline ticket at any price on Delta’s web site with any amount not paid in miles could be paid by credit card. Delta could pay interest on frequent flyer miles that are not used like say 2% per year. This would define a value for frequent flyer miles and eliminate blackout dates and make the program fair to everyone.
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:33 am
>>> It’s fixed! (see, we are fast!) We know some Mac users have had a less-than-perfect experience at delta.com. Please be assured that the team is hard at work making delta.com as easy to use as possible in all of the top browsers, including Safari and Firefox. We’ve just launched some enhancements, and Mac users who have experienced any delta.com glitches should now have a much better, more visually appealing experience on delta.com—give it a try and let us know!
September 3rd, 2007 at 6:23 pm
When you have a schedule change and the flight numbers and the equipment REMAIN the same why do we always lose our seat assignments?
Sometimes we are purchasing these tickets way in advance and are able to select preferred seats such as exit rows and lose them because of last minute schedule changes.
This is terribly annoying!!!
September 4th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I would like to see you add a South American airline to Sky Team. Being a frequent traveler to Chile, Brazil and Argentina it would be nice to have a Sky Team partner airline to continue on with my internal flights.
SAM
September 7th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Mr. Weiss,
Is there a way we can revalidate tickets online when Delta makes minor schedule changes?
I tried contacting SkyMiles customer service via email, but was told I had to call an 800 number to revalidate the ticket. That call took 8 minutes. When I had to call for revalidation of my BDL-ATL-DKR-JNB flight, I was on hold for nearly 30 minutes.
The ability to revalidate these tickets online would save customers time and would save Delta money by not tying up their agents on a toll-free number.
Thanks for considering this!
September 7th, 2007 at 11:09 am
As a very frequent flyer with Delta I normally have 6, 8, maybe 10 itineraries stacked up on my itineraries page at one time. As I go through them to do seat selections (on my Mac with Firefox - working better now, thanks!), I get to the seat selection page which is now missing some vital details. I pick certain seats depending on the time of day, redeyes require different seats than mid-day flights. The departure time and length of each leg is missing from the seat selection page where it used to be and that info is critical to my selection. So, I have to back up to remind myself of that info, then go back to do the selection.
Thanks for listenening / reading…
September 7th, 2007 at 11:11 am
A feature that I would like to see is when selecting your dates from the delta provided calendar pop up that on the initial outbound leg you can select your month of interest in a drop down format versus scrolling month to month, then once you have selected your month for your return flight it automatically starts at the same month which you picked as part of your first flight. Marriott.com is a good example they have the calendar in a month format plus the drop down to jump months ahead, thank you.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
One thing that I believe is a useful tool is the airport maps on the website. However, I believe you should list all of your SkyTeam partners’ hub airports on their, rather than just the most frequently flied to airports that Delta serves. Also, why not implement them into the kiosks, the orgin and destination (that would definately become a useful tool when at the airport).
September 16th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Flight Reservations…
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…
September 19th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Any way to get your position on the upgrade or standy list shown online? If I’m #30 on the list, I’ll know not to get my hopes up and maybe buy some snacks / extra bottles of water at the airport before boarding. If I wait until I get to the gate, I may not have time depending on the volume of customers…
September 19th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Josh,
It has been mentioned before but, not a straight answer given why it is so hard to locate code share flights on delta.com. For example there seems to be several options to get to LAX from IAH nonstop on a codeshare but only when you call to request the specific flights. Is this something that is done to encourage people to call or is the funcionality still not available. I think that all flight options should be available online not just the ones that delta feels are the best options.
Rortizpuig
October 13th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Hi Josh,
If you check at Northwest’s site they let you redeem partner award travel on their website. Are you planning on implementing something similar on Delta.com? I can see all available SkyTeam and other partners of theirs and the award availability. A similar feature for Delta.com would be great.
Adam
October 15th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Josh,,
Good job to the DL team for this effort.
Question: Why do we have to drill down to the last step before purchase to determine specific miles earned for an intinerary? There used to be a simple mileage caculator and it disappeared a year or so ago. It becomes quite tedious to go throught the steps, enter the credit card verification number, and then “Start Over.”
Some of us do book trips based on miles!
Jack
October 16th, 2007 at 6:36 am
Josh,
jackplum (#35) is right, I am missing the mileage calculator, too.
The mileage can be one factor influencing a customer’s decision for one or another route.
Thanks,
Ralfinho