Over the past several months we have been talking with customers one-on-one about the SkyMiles program and other elite benefits in an effort to learn more about how we can improve our program. During our listening, five top themes emerged. We’re excited to share with you some of the important changes we’ve made based directly on your feedback…
1. We’re Improving the Award Calendar – We listened when you said our award calendar is tricky to use. That’s why in May, we started re-engineering the Award Travel booking process and calendar on delta.com, with additional improvements coming online throughout the rest of the year. Our team is working on:
- Improved display of award seats
- Remodeled pricing and availability display of the calendar
- Added search options and display flight amenities
- Improved access to Award Travel reservations from the home page
If you check out the award calendar today, you’ll see several enhancements are already in place! Be sure to stay tuned as we make more improvements between now and December.
2. We’re Making it Easy to Redeem SkyMiles Close to Departure – You were loud and clear in saying that you wanted SkyMiles rapid redemption fees within 21 days eliminated. On June 2, we did just that. Now you can redeem your SkyMiles within 21 days of departure with no additional fee, saving you between $75 and $150.
3. We’re Improving 25,000-Mile Award Availability – At the same time we eliminated the Award Ticket redemption fees for frequent flyers, we also improved overall availability for 25,000 mile awards. These changes have led to double-digit increases in award booking this summer, and we hope you’re seeing these changes as you peruse the award calendar for your next trip! You can also check out our new Award Travel tips page designed to increase your access to 25,000-mile awards and help you redeem miles for travel in the next 21 days at the 25,000 mile level.
4. We’re Offering More Complimentary Upgrades to More Medallions – In June, we added L, U and T fares to the Complimentary Medallion Companion Upgrade rules so that all paid fare classes qualify for this benefit. We have other upgrade related improvements in the works as well. Make sure to check out delta.com/whatsahead for the latest information.
5. We’re Improving Sky Priority Boarding – While many of our Gold, Platinum and Diamond Medallion members have been happy with the new Sky Priority program, our conversations with customers made it clear there are still some changes you’d like to see. Here’s what we’ve been working on:
- Improvements to the boarding process in June so that First/Business Class passengers pre-board the aircraft prior to the start of Zone 1 boarding.
- Reaffirmed that Silver Medallion members continue to enjoy priority boarding using the Sky Priority lane in advance of general boarding for customers in Zones 3 and 4.
We have a lot of exciting things yet to come and will continue to deliver program improvements based on our members’ feedback. So, I’m curious. Have you noticed any of these changes? Have you tried any of these out yet? What do you think? Let’s keep the conversation going.
Jeff Robertson
Vice President, SkyMiles program
July 29th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
I think the changes you’ve made thus far is great. However, I have a few additional feedback.
a) On this blog, you only allow comments from registered users. This discourages people from commenting, as they have to go through the hassle of registering/signing on, etc. I would suggest you follow the TSA Blog model and allow anonymous comments, through a moderation and approval process.
b) Add a progress bar (progress of receiving status) like Continental and United do. This will make it more clear to non-elite members how long they have to go until they do become elite.
c) Instead of a pop-up window when clicking on In-Flight Services, do a “bubble” pop-up when clicked, like when you click on the Flight #. I hope that makes sense? Ask me for clarification if necessary.
Thanks!
Andrew
July 29th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
I love these improvements. Will number 4 apply to the certificates as well?
July 29th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Thanks Jeff for the update. It is good to know that Delta is working to fix the award calendar. What changes have been made so far to the award engine since May?
Also can you confirm if the below changes will be made to the award calendar by Decemebr?
1. Show award mileage price by segment so we can efficiently construct multi-city awards…right now the website does not show price by segment making it impossible to know the mileage until all segments are selected.
2. Award chart that shows flights originating and terminating outside the USA. This was removed for some reason back in 2007.
3. Additional patners available online…where is KE and all the China airlines, etc?
4. Better Business Elite award availability at LOW level…no more “blanket” medium and high levels for months on end.
Thanks!
July 29th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
All of these ideas seem to work out the “kinks” in SkyMiles that I’ve noticed people have been complaining about. The one thing I think that can be tweaked is the fact that Silver Medallion’s aren’t receiving as many benefits as the other Medallion members. While they don’t “produce” as much as other Medallion members, they are still, in fact, Medallion members. I believe that a lot of resources can be saved if you were to bundle all Medallion members in the SkyPriority program you’ve just implemented. I realize they still receive most of the same benefits, however, they seem to believe otherwise. Just food for thought
July 30th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
1. Calendar still isnt fixed. I’m having the same issues.
2. By removing those fees, you’ve just de-vauled my Delta Platnium Credit card as those were one of the perks. What are you doing to make up for that?
3. You may have increased the 25K awards, but what about the 60K international awards (or 100K Business Class Europe awards)? Those are still a MAJOR problem. Until those are fixed, you still have a broken Skymiles program.
4. It’s good to see that addition as a perk. Good job.
5. Your Gate agents still are confused. Some board first class first, while the majority of them still just call Zone 1 first.
July 30th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Jeff, thanks for the update. A follow-up question. When will Delta’s System Wide Upgrade instruments be competitive with those at United, Continental and American in being able to use them internationally for most fare classes?
July 30th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
I second international travel.
I’m also tired for paying 40,000 miles now for what used to cost 25,000 miles.
Also, I never seem to be able to get companion travel- I always get given the “they don’t have enough status”
July 30th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Some little tweaks to the Site that were meant to be improvements don’t seem to work so well. For example if you click on the advanced booking page and choose the my airports are flexible option. Click on whatever distance you want, it displays the fares, if you click on start over it always defaults the distance back to 50 miles.
Some of us frequent travelers will choose a weekend trip based on the fare, especially for more last minute stuff. So its a hassle to keep changing it. Before the ‘improvement’ it went back to whatever you had chosen when you hit start over.
Even more annoying when you choose my dates are flexible and choose the +/- days options, then it displays the fares, you click on start over and it forgets the original dates that you put in and you have to put them back in every time.
Makes booking that much more difficult.
July 31st, 2010 at 9:48 am
I read at Delta.com under Sky Miles and plans for 2011 that UPGRADES will be added for booking. Will this be a 1 sep procedure? Book domestic First class and it will price at the lowest available coach price? If not, how will it work? When will it be implemented? Thanks
July 31st, 2010 at 10:08 pm
There’s on thing I wish you would listen more to, and that’s the almost unanimous chorus of complaints about the amount of miles Delta requires for free trips in comparison to other airlines.
For instance, I tried to book a first class seat routing from TPA-LAS on Delta, and there was nothing less than an award that required 80,000 miles. However, on both CO and UA, it was relatively easy to find an option for 50,000 miles. This is not a one time occurrence, rather, it’s the norm whenever I search for a trip using my miles.
Will we see any changes in DL’s competitiveness in this area?
August 2nd, 2010 at 12:26 am
I like the changes so far. One thing I would love to see is complimentary Wi-Fi for Medallions.
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:46 pm
I just booked an award trip and the calendar seemed to be more accurate vs. a few months ago…especially for domestic trips. International, however, needs improvement. As another poster noted, there are some partners that are not in the system and DL should work hard to get them included. Although I’m a Diamond and a million+ miler, I echo the sentiment that Silver Medalllion isn’t worth much – the best benefit of that level is probably the free checked bag. They are rarely gonna qualify for updates because of the Gold, Platinums, and Diamonds in front of them. And the SkyPriority Lane would be great if it was actually enforced – which too often is NOT the case when regional jets and small jets (i.e. 737) are involved. Bring a little order to the gate area.
OK, enough criticism, here are some suggestions. 1) allow a user to set a search notification for an award ticket. Let’s say you want to take a 7 day trip to LAX from JFK between Sept 1 and Sept 15 and you’d like to pay 25K miles. It would be great if you could input these parameters and the system could notify you if/when it becomes available. 2) have award specials for last minute seats. Got a plane with a bunch of empty seats? Make the seats available at an award discount. Lufthansa does this, with a mild “sale” a few weeks before departure and then up to 50% off 3-7 days before departure. I’m also a Lufthansa Senator (thanks to the fact that DL eliminated most of CVG’s direct flights to Europe and then raised the fares on the remaining CDG flight) and I made a weekend trip to Berlin while on a 2 week business trip to Munich. 3) allow payment of the taxes with SkyMiles so you can truly get a “free” ticket (LH does this) 4) fix the search engine so it doesn’t offer bad connections for the low award level – you’re almost guaranteed to miss if you only have 1h05min in CDG. 5) Having top level Diamond status means that you value me as a customer. If your plane arrives late and I have a very tight connection, it would be wonderful if one of those motorized carts met me at the gate, ready to whisk me to my next flight so I don’t miss it.
August 3rd, 2010 at 3:12 pm
A couple of things…
It seems like the award chart and availability changes are very hard to recognize yet, so much work seems to remain…
However… here’s my biggest beef, as a Diamond Medallion I would like to see the System-wide Upgrade certificates to be usable. This is one area where Delta is lagging… badly… and apparently doing nothing about it. I would be willing to pay some copay or use multiple certificates for somewhat lower fares, the M fares you require to use these are often times ridiculously priced… sometimes even higher than just buying an I fare. Please do something about this!
August 4th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
The systemwide upgrade certificate issue is MAJOR. I’ve been receiving these for 5 years now and have only been able to use them once on an international flight. It is a worthless benefit in my mind. You might as well pass out more free drink chits to make us forget about the upgrade certificates.
August 5th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Totally disgusted with whole f/f system Delta has. For 6 months searched for an Int’/ flight – using many different airport options, and never could get one for the basic 60,000 – and was totally flexible. Now paying 90,000 for a flight which is wide, wide open on return, and was wide open outgoing when booked.
I agree, at last minute more seats should open up if flights wide open.
2 years ago travelled with husband. We both wanted lst class to Paris. I got it, and he did not. Yet on travel date there were only 4 passengers in lst class. We asked f/att. for an upgrade – no luck. Offered to pay more miles for it even – no luck. Captain came and said he was sure he could do something for us – went out to ticket agent – no luck. It was perposperous. Empty seats galore yet we could not get them.
No point in paying fees for this Delta credit card any more when it no longer has any benefit for f/f travel.
Would like to receive notification of award seats if I put in a request ahead of time, and be notified when basic award seats are available for that period. Too much hard work to redeem for high points.
August 5th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
A Diamond now and I echo Juanenfny and BOSGator’s comments. Make the System-wide upgrades more valuable than scratch pad paper or a book mark. I’ve had so many expire because they were unusable. On some fares, make it 2 certs for 1 flt. Better that than having a useless piece of paper (or now a useles piece of virtual paper).
August 9th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Delta’s efforts to improve lower price mileage award availability, and other enhancements are to be complimented.
I read with interest that companion upgrades are to be extended to LUT fares. One might wonder if this is a potential rather than real enhancement, because in my experience, it has been nealrly impossible to get such upgrades (in addiiton, will this decrease last minute first class seat availability?). I have a 0.000 batting average as a Diamond medallion accompanied by a Gold medallion, even on K+ fares, of actually getting a companion upgrade. In fact, booking with a companion has been a detriment to getting an upgrade so that when flying with a companion I regularly end up in coach (and now always book separate tickets). In the (not so) old days, NW upgraded both passengers at the time specified pre-departure for the higher ranked medallion; DL upgrades both passengers in the time window for the lower ranked medallion. Any plan to revert to the old system?
Another question: is upgradeable seat inventory (per plane, as oposed to total) decreasing? Just booked an international trip in business, with a couple of domestic legs in first. One leg in First is on an A319 (presumably ex NW). This plane used to have 16 first class seats but according to the seat map there are now only 12: is DL reducing the number of first class seats?
August 13th, 2010 at 4:10 am
Delta, are you listening… please do something about your international upgrade certificates. I routinely fly from HNL to NRT or to BKK and to price difference between T & M is typically $1,300 – $1,500. This is not a benefit whatsoever. All this does is frustrate me, and other medallions, when I am stuck in coach and have DM status.
August 19th, 2010 at 11:14 am
Dear Jeff/Delta,
Its been 3 weeks since you sent out the blog, but there is no repy from Delta on any of our comments. Can you address my questions in my original post or any of the other questions posted?
Thanks
September 4th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
I’m glad that Delta has recognized and is trying to fix some of the problems. However, there is much more to be done: system wide upgrade certificates are useless. They need to be similar to those offered by United, Continental, and American. Award ticket availability is just not there. Because of these issues, this Diamond elite member has given about 90% of my business to United this year. Fix these problems and I may come back.
September 9th, 2010 at 2:54 am
Listening? Maybe. Dellivering? Not so much.
September 14th, 2010 at 3:49 am
It must be so incredibly obvious that PM people like me who live outside the US have no chance to use our SWU certificates. It makes no sense for me to purchase an expensive M class fare with the hope there MIGHT be an upgradable seat that might (more likely won’t) become available later. International SWUs are annoyingly impossible to use.
October 8th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Dear Jeff/Delta,
Its been over two months now…I was hoping there may be some feedback since you wanted “to keep the conversation going” per your blog. Can you give us an update to what specifically has been fixed on the award calendar and what fixes are yet to come? I was hoping you may be able to address my original concerns, even if its a “sorry, that is not a planned fix”
1. Show award mileage price by segment so we can efficiently construct multi-city awards…right now the website does not show price by segment making it impossible to know the mileage until all segments are selected.
2. Award chart that shows flights originating and terminating outside the USA. This was removed for some reason back in 2007.
3. Additional patners available online…where is KE and all the China airlines, etc?
4. Better Business Elite award availability at LOW level…no more “blanket” medium and high levels for months on end.
October 11th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
The award calendar is full of bugs.
I have been trying to make a reservation Delta.com and I am getting incorrect flights. Delta.com is showing me flights from one airport to JFK when the flights are from another airport to JFK.
It shows me available for redeeming and there are no flights at the time. I had printed screenshots to show these if needed.
When I call the agent, they tell me these are not available and they have alternate ones that are not available. I have had to make a reservation, and I’m told if I change it will be $450 to change because we are 3 of us.
I request you to waive this change fee for Gold Medallions as well. If it was working, then its fine, but if its not, we shouldn’t have to pay extra for this.
Pleease ither fix your website or please waive these fees. I can send you screenshots showing how messed up the Award travel search results are.
Please do this soon so that the ones who plan to travel ASAP can benefit.
November 20th, 2010 at 2:45 am
I agree, system wide upgrade certificates are really more anoying then a benefit. For a free upgrade, the price is nearly the same as a business class ticket. Being a Daimond member with Delta, it would be a real benefit to have a few upgrades for international flights. American gives out 8 after 100,000 miles, with no restrictions. On Delta, it takes 125,000 miles to get 6 which are only good on expensive tickets. This has me quite seriously considerring switching airlines.
November 22nd, 2010 at 8:16 pm
i second this. just found out the horror about the “unusuability” of the upgrade certificates for platinum and diamond medallions. what a waste of time flying delta. Wish I only flew United. I AM THROUGH unless they make the upgrade certificates apply to any class of fare. FORGET DELTA! I’m sticking with UNITED. As a united premier (only 25K status miles), they upgraded me to first class from ORD-Hawaii and back too! We had a discounted ticket price for that trip too.
Delta is awful because of their refusal to upgrade their elites to first class without a MAJOR hassle! They also seem to get very upset when you inquire about first class upgrades, as if they are jealous of people who fly first class. Jeez….try getting stuck in coach for 15+ hours on a long flight! It’s insulting to us frequent travelers!
February 6th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Your mileage charts don’t jive when you try to book a flight. The chart says low for CLE to CUN. Should be 15.5 k right. Not so. Least mileage was 42.5K even though my dates were flexible. I have flown Delta since 97, million plus miles. Card will not be renewed. Check out Continental and United–or even American. Charts are easy to read and manuver. Delts’s are not