I’m back from “vacation” (which I put in quotes, because I just ended up working on longer term projects the whole time instead of actually relaxing), and it’s time to get back to my Delta visit. First up this week is my discussion with Bob Kupbens, the man who runs eCommerce for the airline. Yes, that includes the website, which many of you know and hate. But there’s good news for you. Delta actually does know what’s wrong and it’s going to be fixed. (Don’t worry, they can’t fix everything, so I’m sure there will still be something to complain about.)

Bob actually comes to Delta from Target where he most recently ran Target.com. Having that big-retailer experience gives Delta a fresh set of eyes to help get things in order at the airline. But Bob isn’t just running Delta.com. He’s in charge of other digital channels like Facebook, mobile, kiosks, inflight entertainment content, wireless internet, and yes, Sky magazine (it’s only a matter of time before it goes digital in some form).

The homepage redesign (which I positively reviewed here) was just the start, but it was an important start. What you see on the homepage is going to be the base for design for other channels.

Bob said one of the biggest issues out there is design-related. All the different channels look different and that’s because, as Bob said, they were all designed by different groups. No more; it’s going to be harmonized so that Delta customers will be able to know where things are and how to find them much easier.

But that’s only part of it, and there are still some defects from the merger integration that they’re still working through. Most of those major ones have been completed, and they can start turning their efforts to more work on enhancements.

I brought up the award calendar and he nodded his head. The team is well aware that people are not happy with it, and some improvements are already there. But more is coming, he promises. Then he started talking about things that I find more exciting.

I brought up the issue of how tickets are booked and how poorly information is laid out. He agreed, and said that “when you’re booking, we want to tell you what you’re buying.” That will include things like internet and TV. But it’s also simple things like making the seat map more descriptive. “There’s no reason each seat should show up as a square.” You should be able to see what you’re getting.

It’s that kind of thinking that can make setting expectations much easier. That’s really important for an airline that seems to have a different BusinessElite seat on every other airplane.

We also talked about the new Facebook booking channel. (“A lot of our customers are on Facebook, it’s the most visited site on inflight wifi, so we need to be there.”) I highly doubt anyone is going to use that thing, and Bob realizes that it’s not going to be “the” place where people go to book. They really like that new functionality, however, for its flexibility. For example, if Delta’s people update the Delta Facebook status to show that a fare sale has launched, they can embed the booking engine right there for people to use. They haven’t fully explored what it can do, but they’re excited to try it out. Ok, I can see how that might be interesting, but I’m still not convinced it’s going to matter.

Interestingly, Bob isn’t really focusing on Twitter at this point. That’s a focus for customer service and communication, but it’s not really an eCommerce effort now. The team, which Bob explained is quite lean in numbers compared to his old Target digs, is focusing on Facebook for now.

Then it was on to wifi. General feedback, outside of Virgin America, is that very few people are using it and it’s going to take some time for it to build. Bob sounded no differenet. He explained that the take rates are increasing but they aren’t where they want them to be just yet. Still, wifi is valuable for the airline.

He believes that now that Delta has nearly fully outfitted the fleet, it is a customer expectation and it’s a differentiator. They need to do more experimenting with pricepoints and packaging (which is ultimately controlled by AirCell, the wifi provider), but he’s confident this will be important. It’s already proven to have great value from a customer perspective, something I’ll discuss later this week.

With all of these things on the table, I asked the inevitable question that makes many cringe. How are they going to monetize this? Would they look at advertising sales and things like that? The answer might shock you.

He said that while they will look at some additional opportunites to make money, much of this “could just be a differentiator.” There he goes again on building the brand as different from others. That’s the kind of thing I like to hear, and I’m eagerly awaiting some of the changes in the next year to see if it ends up being as good as it sounds.

I’m changing the name of my usual Saturday “This Week on BNET” posts starting this week. Instead of just focusing on my BNET posts, I’m going to also post other places where I might have written or been mentioned during the week. That may or may not be a frequent thing, but I thought it was at least worth a name change. This week, I had a piece for the New York Times and more, as you’ll see below . . .

A Look at John Tague, New President of United Airlines – BNET
John Tague is now president of United, but will that mean any changes are on the way?

United Launches Intra-Europe Flight – BNET
United is going into the London to Brussels market. Why the heck are they doing that?

How Air Travel Can Be Made Less Annoying – New York Times (Room For Debate)
The title says it all. The asked four of us what could make air travel less annoying, and I wrote about setting expectations.

Kayak Asks Microsoft’s Bing Travel to Stop Being a Copycat – BNET
Kayak thinks Bing is copying it. Bing says no. Fun fight ensues.

Booking the Hot Seat on Airlines – Chicago Tribune RedEye
RedEye writes about those who don’t just look at price and schedule when they fly. I was happy to participate in this one.

Who Will Fill Delta’s Space at Chicago/O’Hare? – BNET
Delta is leaving its old gates at O’Hare to join Northwest in November. Who will take those over?

Why Does Southwest Want to Buy Frontier? – BNET
Southwest is bidding for Frontier, but why exactly do they want to do that?

Frequent Flyer Friday #2 – Musings of the Global Traveller
The Global Traveller interviews me about my flying habits.

I never thought we’d see the day where British Airways does something that Southwest should follow, but that day has come. British Airways has rolled out a value calculator on its website showing how much more BA includes in its fares than Ryanair or easyJet. (Hat tip to The Airline Blog) I think this is smart, but it doesn’t go far enough. If Southwest were smart, it would consider building on this and doing something even bolder.

I could explain BA’s value calculator in more detail, but why not just show you? Here’s a screenshot:

As you can see, the point here is to show you how much more it might cost to fly the other airlines and why you should include this consideration when you make your purchase decision. For those people who actually see the value calculator, this is great, but how many will actually get to that point?

Sure, there’s a big ad for it on the homepage, but it’s not directly in the booking path so plenty of people will miss it. And of course, there are the masses who don’t book directly at BA.com that won’t see this at all. So yes, it’s a good and important start, but there’s more that can be done.

It’s funny because Southwest finds itself in a similar position. It is competing against many other carriers in the US who charge you extra for nearly everything, just as you see here. It’s quite odd to think that you replace BA with Southwest and Ryanair with United or American for this to work.

But Southwest has something that BA doesn’t. The vast majority of Southwest travelers book at Southwest.com, so they have more eyeballs as a percent of total traffic that could see this. Nearly everyone who flies in a Southwest market knows to go check Southwest.com first and then go elsewhere.

But what if Southwest actually turned this on its head and started trying to attract even more traffic to its site? Southwest should start an online travel agent.

It sounds crazy, I know, but think about it. You can’t get Southwest fares on any other consumer site, so you have to go to at least two sites if you’re looking to compare. Now what if Southwest built an online travel agent that showed you all the other airlines side-by-side with their own fares?

This would be an instant hit, because Southwest could become the only single site where a traveler could compare all airlines. Now, other airlines might pull out, but Southwest could potentially look to backfill other airline flights from an established online travel agent. It would make it harder for an airline to pull out of a site that already delivers it substantial traffic.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Southwest could build a better online travel agent interface that goes to their advantage. They could incorporate all the fee information into the final display price so that they can accurately display the total cost to the customer.

In the past, Southwest may not have wanted to do this, because they had an aura of having low fares when in fact they often weren’t the lowest around. But now if you include fees, they probably look lower much of the time. This would be to their great advantage.

The best part for Southwest? If someone decides to book on another carrier through the site, Southwest can still make some money off it in the form of a commission. This can raise revenue for the airline, bring more people directly to its site, and provide an interface that will be of instant interest to much of the US. And yes, it will highlight the true cost of traveling, something that should greatly benefit Southwest versus just a fare comparison.

You guys listening over there in Dallas?

United Shakes Up Marketing and Distribution Groups
Dennis Cary is out, Graham Atkinson is back in, and marketing and distribution areas and getting makeovers.

Continental’s May Numbers Prove April’s Improvement Wasn’t a Trend
May numbers are out for Continental and they don’t look so hot. No surprise, of course, but still not fun to watch.

Just How Well Did Biofuels Perform in the Air?
Air New Zealand released results of its biofuel test in January, and the results are incredibly impressive.

Online Travel Agents Permanently Drop Booking Fees
Those temporary online travel agent booking fees have been made permanent.

US Airways May Revenue Looks a Lot Like Continental’s
US Airways released its May unit revenue numbers and the results aren’t pretty. No surprises, just not pretty.

Indianapolis Airport Facing Revenue Shortfall
Indianapolis built a new terminal last year, and now with traffic falling, the airport is facing a budget crunch.

Change Happens Slowly at American, Other Large Organizations
Here’s a fun example using American’s website design showing how hard it can be to effect change at a big company.

I really should avoid booking flights at all costs, because if I can’t do it online, it ends up being incredibly difficult. This time, it was Southwest making my life difficult, and man, do they have a problem in the way they process unused credits.

We were looking at a simple one way flight in June that was going to cost us just shy of $98. I had two different confirmation numbers on unused tickets that I wanted to apply to cover the total cost of the ticket. Of course, Southwest lets you do this online, and I’ve always found that they’ve made this easier than anyone else. Not this time.

One of the credits had about $90 from one ticket and it expires in September. The other one had about $115 and expires next April. Naturally, I wanted to use up all the funds that expire in September and pull the remaining $8 or so out of the one that wouldn’t expire for a year. But when I went online, it didn’t let me. I put the $90 credit in first and that worked. But then when I went in to put the other confirmation #, it then pulled all the credit from the newer one and wouldn’t let me use the one that expire soon.

I tried it a few different ways, so I called Southwest for help. They weren’t very helpful. It’s not that they didn’t try, but the system apparently has some screwy logic that wouldn’t let them help me. Here’s how it works, according to the reservation agents I spoke with.

The $90 credit that expires in September is a partial credit. It used to be around $200, but we had used the balance for another set of flights previously. So the system views that as a partial credit which is a lower class of credit in the hierarchy. The $115 credit was actually two credits. There was one full ticket intact for $111 and then another $3 or $4 as a partial credit from a second ticket on the same itinerary. The full ticket is a higher class of credit, for some reason. Confused? Me too. I just wanted to use my f*&(ing credits.

Here’s the bottom line. The system will force you to use full credits that are on a ticket before you can use partial credits. So I had a choice. I could either pull the full amount out of the $111 or I could combine the $90 credit with the $3 credit and pay the rest on my credit card. I opted for the latter because I didn’t want to take a chance that we wouldn’t use that credit before it expired. Yes, it only cost me $4 or $5 on my credit card, but that’s not the point.

Clearly, this is a very bad setup. Southwest should let you choose which credits you want to apply instead of forcing some arbitrary logic that makes no sense for the customer.