Recently we launched the new SkyMiles three tier program on delta.com to improve Award ticket shopping. While this release does not focus specifically on the calendar issues outlined by Drew, we are aggressively investigating ways of eliminating the discrepancy completely.

In yesterday’s world, a domestic coach Awards flight started at 25K miles. Within the low fares, the next level ticket started at 37,500 miles. If low level tickets were sold out for one leg, the next level would start at 50K miles. As of today, the same flight still starts at 25K. However, the next level ticket is 32,500 miles, and if all the low level tickets are sold, the next redemption level starts at 40K miles and upwards. As a result there are three times more options now.

In order to do this, the calendar needed a new interface.

Originally, the design called for the mileage amounts associated with the lowest available level to be displayed on the calendar day. The days with the lowest availability were marked in blue much the same way the lowest fares are marked on the select flights page.

For the calendar, we get data in the form of indicators letting us know the lowest level that might have availability. We built a web service to get the mileage amounts. The interface combined these two pieces to 1- display the amount on the day, based on the indicator and 2- calculate an estimated cost (in miles).

We decided to use a tri-colored calendar with text indicating the lowest mileage level available as “Low, Med or High.”

Several other enhancements will help the page load faster:
• the code to write out the calendar has been optimized
• the code used to re-display the trip duration has been streamlined
• Javascript consolidation means the functions to run the page are in cache and do not need to be downloaded on page load
• square corners and white backgrounds require less memory than the previous layout

Shani Nizan
delta.com

Taxes and fees for award travel are the responsibility of the passenger and must be paid at the time the ticket is booked. Award travel seats are limited and may not be available on all flights or in all markets. All Delta SkyMiles program rules apply. To review the rules, please visit www.delta.com/memberguide.