WCCO (15 May 2012): 2 Same Flights, 2 Different Prices: Frequent Flyer Discrepancies
They were getting nearly a $300 difference for an economy fare. Lisle was getting the cheaper ticket and he wasn’t logged in to his Sky Miles account. They thought a call to Delta would clear things up.
“She said that’s the way their system works, that’s the way their system is set up and that was the end of the conversation,” Smith said.
“We’re like you’ve got to be kidding me, right?” Lisle added.
We were there when they checked five trips with the same dates and the same flight numbers.
This time, Smith’s not logged into his frequent flyer plan.
They found from MSP to LAX a $124 difference for economy fare and more than $1,000 separated the first-class fare.
The same thing happened for two more trips. So in three-out-of-five tests, the frequent flyer would be paying more. The other times the prices were the same.
We tried three cards in tests of our own. Again, we found without the card in one trip of the three, it was cheaper. There was a $168 difference. When we called Delta they blamed the price differences on a computer problem they’ve now fixed.The reality is that "Paul Skrbec, a Delta spokesperson" has known about this problem for over two years -- read on!
In a statement, Paul Skrbec, a Delta spokesperson said, “The differences of how information was presented between logged in and non-logged in customers has been resolved. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this caused while we worked to resolve the issue.”
If you believe that Delta actually fixes anything like this, I'd like to sell you a bridge in Brooklyn.
MSNBC (16 May 2012/: Delta says frequent fliers saw different fares
Delta acknowledged on Wednesday that frequent fliers who logged into its website to search for fares saw different prices than people who searched anonymously. Delta spokesman Paul Skrbec said frequent fliers sometimes saw higher fares, sometimes lower. He said the problem has been fixed and apologized to travelers. He didn't know how many people had been affected.The folks at FlyerTalk dug up some old threads that show Delta has known about this problem for years:
The two business travelers who first noticed the problem said fares they saw were consistently higher when they logged in via their frequent flier accounts.
A few weeks ago, security company executives Patrick Smith and Steve Lisle were side-by-side with their laptops open on the same conference table at their company's Minneapolis office, trying to book tickets on the same flight to St. Louis. Smith was logged in as a frequent flier. Lisle wasn't. In three out of five of their tests, fares for the frequent flier were consistently higher, including a $124 price difference for a trip to Los Angeles, the two told WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, which first reported their experience on Tuesday night.
Price of the same search increases if I log in
In the above thread, "Paul Skrbec, a Delta spokesperson" posting as FlyerTalk user SkyMilesInsider says:
Hmmmmm...I'm not a dot com person (although I used to be one in a pre-airline career), but this sounds odd to me. Thanks for pointing this out. I'm sending this thread over to DeltaWebDev to take a look at this and see if there is any insight that he can provide.In response DeltaWebDev said:
Thank you!
SkyMilesInsider
thanks for sending this my way. this is a new one for me and we're looking into it now.This was DeltaWebDev's last post on FlyerTalk -- must have stepped on a sacred cow or something.
Then Delta tries to weasel out with a big fib (remember, they knew about this at least 27 months ago!):
Yahoo Finance (18 May 2012): Delta details airfare search glitch
Delta Air Lines said a glitch that appeared to show different airfares to frequent fliers happened because it was trying out a new company to power flight searches on its website.If I can quit laughing long enough, I'll pick myself up off the floor & give you a really good deal on that bridge in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, ponder this similar question from 2009 regarding their notorious[ly broken] award booking engine:
...
Delta and other airlines use third-party companies such as Google's ITA Software to deliver results when customers search for flights. Those search providers sift through all the available seats, possible connecting flights and different fares to show flight options to customers.
Delta was thinking about switching search providers, so starting on April 20 it ran a side-by-side experiment, Bob Kupbens, the airline's head of e-commerce told The Associated Press. People who logged in with their frequent flier number saw results from the airline's current search provider. People who searched anonymously got results from the experimental provider. Delta declined to name either company.
Award Goes from Low to Med as PMI now return to my semi-permanent hiatus. You'll find me at the Travel UnderGround.