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Consumers who logged in with their frequent flyer number saw results from the airline's current search provider. Others who searched anonymously got results from the experimental provider. The problem was that one search engine included flight possibilities the other one didn't. The experiment ended on May 9.
Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst and co-founder of Atmosphere Research Group, tells CNBC.com, "Delta knows that if it charges frequent flyers more, there would be a revolt." He added Delta is in the middle of renovating its website, including the flight shopping feature, which could have contributed to the glitch.
"We don't want to take all of our best customers, who we care the most about, and put them immediately onto a new search engine," Delta's Kupbens told the AP. Ultimately, he said, the airline hoped the switch in search companies would provide travelers with faster and more relevant search results.
Given there are so many possible combinations of flights and routings, it's not surprising to me such a discrepancy occurred during Delta's experiment. The results returned would simply depend on the algorithm programmed by the search provider. And I'm certain the algorithms used between companies differ in some way, as they're proprietary to each company.
I believe it's an honest explanation. What do you think? Should there be a uniform and consistent method to display all possible flight options and airfares?
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