So on July 16th we updated the booking path on the website to improve the performance of the site. Those of us that worked on the project have anxiously awaited the results. Now that we have the official report, I’d like to announce that delta.com is the fastest Web site for flight searches out of the seventeen airline and online travel agency sites measured.
Unfortunately, we can’t publish the report, so for now go to Benchmark Report Methodology. Presently we are just below average. When the August numbers come out, I expect we will be number one.
Have you noticed the improvements?
drew
delta.com GUI Developer
August 19th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I have noticed it, what bugs me is especially at night if I am about to book a flight and am searching to see which flights are cheapest. For example if I am flying JFK to FLL and I want to check JFK to MIA or LGA to FLL or LGA to MIA, when I am done checking and go back to JFK to FLL if the price were cheaper I sometimes find the price is now to 20 dollars higher than what it was 20 minutes prior. But the next day when I do the search again it’s back to the lower price.
Also I wish you guys would put the total for everyone on the booking page and not just per person. Very confusing especially for my mom and aunts who are older and can bearly read small lettering. My aunt thought she had a great deal the other day only to find out the price listed was per person.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Even worse is how nonstop appear under the nonstop, 1-stop, and multi-stop headings when in fact it is the exact same flight (same dept and arrival times, transit times, and flight number). Even more annoying is how they all have different prices listed too.
This is by far my biggest complaint. I would rather wait for the correct information then have a speedy experience to be given poor information.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Clarification: Nonstop itineraries appearing under the different headings. Try ALB-ATL for example and you’ll see what I mean
August 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Scotl453 I just did the ALB - ATL, what is funny is the 1 stops are cheaper than the direct even though they are the same flight lol.
August 21st, 2008 at 7:39 am
So to start with I have to apologize for having to edit the original post. We aren’t allowed to publish the reports, so it had to be removed. I’d rather do that than allow your comments to be deleted along with the post.
So in regards to the speed and the quality of the information, we didn’t change anything that would alter the results. There are now two fewer pages to download during the process of starting a search from the home page. All the remaining pages were just optimized for delivery. I’m disregarding work some of my coworkers did in that statement, but I’m concerned I’d bore you with technical details due to my inabilities to edit.
For the flights that you see showing up under nonstop, one-stop, and multi-stop there is a reason. Behind the scenes all the itineraries are bundled pairs when shopping by price. Within the result set (the size is dependent on the market) there are duplicates. So if a nonstop outbound is “bundled” with anything other than a nonstop for the return, then its listed under the 1-stop and/or multi-stop. The price is dependent on the route, hence the different prices. Hopefully that makes sense.
HWGeek, I’ll pass along the comment in regards to the price per passenger vs total price and its size.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I’ve noticed that it is quicker, so great work on that. Love the blog too by the way.
How about getting the total miles to be earned moved back up in the process? Now we have to enter our credit card information and go all the way up to the point of finish to get what used to display much earlier in the process.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:53 am
gr8dane, I’ll pass the suggestion along. I do have a question for you though: are you shopping logged in or not logged in?
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I’m always logged in when I shop. Would it help to not me? It seems like it disappeared when they put in the pay with miles stuff, so maybe it’ll go back to the old way if I log out.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I have a suggestion, when I am logged in and I want to buy a ticket for a relative, I have to log-out because it won’t let me change the Skymiles number.
Also it should automatically show me the Iterinaries I bought under my account regardless of whom they are for. I shouldn’t have to tell it to find them for me. (after it finds it it stays)
September 4th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Good suggestions that I can pass along. As an fyi, the August numbers are now up on Gomez’s site, and we are in fact #1 in two out of three metrics.