I’m on my first business trip since Delta dismissed ExpertFlyer as an option for me….. and I’m annoyed. I’m at the point where I start researching options and opportunities to get home earlier (or later), and I can no longer just look at which flights are available and best for me. Picking through delta.com is not that useful. Frankly, it would seem, that’s more of a pain for Delta than me looking at data directly from a GDS via ExpertFlyer and making the call to Delta for what I want.
Now, about the best I can do is look at Delta.com, and wonder. In fairness, I can see they’re still selling seats, and look at seat maps to make a judgement on whether or not I want to call and try for a flight, but it just isn’t the same….and sometimes I want more. You can put me in the camp of being solidly annoyed at this —–
I don’t think I’m one who believes himself to be more valuable as a customer than he really is. I don’t think I’m an unreasonable guy. Most of all, I’m a solid fan of the widget. But I have to wonder what is really behind this decision? I’m pretty sure the PowerPoint slide that led to it wasn’t prepared by anyone that spends much time with customers.
-MJ, September 9, 2014
I got the same response to my letter. Stock text, “unauthorized use”.
I wrote an email to Delta Diamond desk complaining about this, and explained that Expertflyer is an essential companion to my being a loyal Delta customer – it makes my loyalty more valuable as I have better information. They wrote back a stock response about the data being “unauthorized”. I urge everyone else to write as well.
Thanks for the comment Michael. In truth, This isn’t something that will cause me to stop flying Delta, but it is something that I appreciated very much, and frankly, makes me wonder if Delta really knows as much about its customers as it thinks.
Maybe we can get a group to go in for sabre acces at $45 per month, although I am not sure if access is restricted to one device. Maybe you know more about sabre? When fs and kvs access to delta data are cut off, I might sign up for sabre, as I am curious about what information they offer.
Hmmm. Interesting idea.
Flightstats and kvs still provide useful data, for now. I sure hope Delta reverses this decision, soon.