In a tongue in check headline in July of 2011, I told Delta that I would have built them a new website for $80 million (after they announced that they were spending $100 million). By the way, that story is still my top read story of all time on my well-read blog.
And yes Delta, it is beautiful, but honestly, I didn’t really have any problem with the old one.
And to add insult to injury, Kelly Yamanouchi of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote today that Delta “launched a dramatic overhaul of its delta.com website on Saturday, but
the redesign led to some technical problems and customer frustration.”
the airline’s first major website redesign since 2010, the aim was to
give travelers “a highly personalized online experience that makes
travel with Delta easier and more enjoyable than ever”.
New features include a personal dashboard, a
private Delta profile, a trip map and an online “wallet” with itemized
receipts from trips. Yamanouchi wrote that some Delta customers have complained in
online discussions and elsewhere about glitches in the new website,
including problems logging in. Delta said it is making “continuous
progress” on fixing problems with the website.
I hate to say I told you so, but putting so much energy and money into a channel that consistently brings you lower yields just doesn’t make sense to me.
For those that have been in the industry for awhile and remember when airlines used to court the travel agents, you’ll appreciate this.
$100 million would have bought you 124 million pounds of shrimp…..
That is a lot of travel agent goodwill. And since selling through the agent gets you $104.04 more per ticket on average… seems like that could have financed the website.
Just sayin……