A Work in Progress: Delta’s New Website

As of November 10, Delta has a new website. And as is often the case with newly launched websites, it’s buggy.

How buggy? Here’s an email I received from a reader:

Delta has recently transferred all its FF member data to the new website which requires a new log in and password. In our family we have three members and all of the Secure Flight information that was transferred was wrong!! In my account the TSA data was my daughters, including her Global Entry number, but not even all correct! It listed her birthdate as 1909! Apparently these errors are endemic.

On FlyerTalk, where such topics are dissected and debated ad nauseum, the discussion, now 55 pages and counting, quickly swung from modestly favorable reviews of the site’s new look and feel to horror stories about missing or incorrect data, broken links, slow-loading and freezing pages, and non-working passwords.

Although a Delta spokesperson assured me this morning that “the lion’s share of the functions are working well,” the continuing stream of problem reports suggests that issues persist. And he assured me that Delta is monitoring user feedback, both direct and as it appears on such websites as FlyerTalk.

If you have a specific recommendation or complaint about the new site, there are three ways to communicate directly with Delta:

• Click on the [+] Feedback link at the bottom of any page on delta.com.
• Email the online support team at https://www.delta.com/contactus/pages/comment_complaint/index.jsp.
• Call 1-888-750-3284.

Perhaps it was callous of Delta to use its customers as unpaid beta-testers, as several FlyerTalk posters suggested. And some of Delta’s design decisions may be questionable (deep, graphics-intensive pages are the enemy of snappy downloads).

But once the bugs are squashed, the new site promises real improvements over it predecessor. In particular, the MySkyMiles (self-explanatory) and MyWallet (receipts for Delta flights, hotels, car rentals) sections should be welcomed by frequent travelers. And improvement or not, if you’re a Delta customer, you have an vested interest in ensuring that the website issues at least get onto Delta’s fix-it list.

At the end of the day, the one aspect of Delta’s old website that has come in for the most criticism, the award-booking application, remains untouched by the otherwise thoroughgoing redesign.

So no improvement there. But hey, at least it isn’t any worse.

Reader Reality Check

What’s your take on Delta’s new website?

This article originally appeared on FrequentFlier.com.