Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
If you had not noticed, over the years, Delta has been bit by bit taking away very useful tools for us to get done what we want. When it comes to awards, we have the cursed “married segment logic” that in a nut shell takes segment by segment piecing together into one trip (see E7 posts) out of the equation on the multi-segment page on Delta.com. This old tool made the frustration of finding an award a pure joy, that is, it worked and worked very well (most times).
Thankfully, for now, a good Delta rep can still help you in this regard you just have to do the work and then spoon feed them the flights you want. I see the day coming when that comes to an end and then we are in real trouble. But that is awards, what about today’s topic.
If you have never heard of SNAPP you are about to get an education. SNAPP stands for Single Network APPlication or a program that will consume most of the Delta reps we interact with. Delta will tell you this software is amazing and helpful. I know better. Let me first give you what Delta has been using for a long time, that is DLTERM:
This program is a challenge to learn. It requires a ton of key strokes to do very simple things. But it is a very powerful program and a rep who really knows how to use this trusted tool can accomplish amazing things to help us get whatever in the world we need. From re-booking to seats to bumps to you name it this tool in the hands of a skilled Delta rep will leave you smiling from ear to ear. What about with SNAPP? Yeah, not so much.
SNAPP is designed to not need a rep to be really skilled or trained. It spits out a few options and the rep can click the choices. Don’t like what you see? Sorry, these are the options – what choice do you hate the least. See my point? The power and control is taken out of the hands of the rep and we WILL suffer as a result.
For some time now reps have been able to use either system and a drop down for DLTERM has been the option when thing go wrong or you have hit a wall with SNAPP. At some point soon that flexibility will end. I am sure you seasoned flyers have either Sky Club or front line or DGS reps who are amazing and always take perfect care of you when you need it – get ready for a change to limited choices and many many calls to help desks to do anything beyond point-and-click. Again, bad news for us.
Is there any good news with all these changes on the way? None that I can see (for us). Delta reps I know and respect have nothing good to say about SNAPP and if they are frustrated and dreading what is to come. Just think what this will mean for you and me! My real fear is when weather or another event causes massive issues and the system either does not work, or cannot be made to work, and there is no backup to save the day.
Why is Delta doing this? From their standpoint it is not hard to get the “whys”, that is, they can train anyone to point and click on stuff (i.e. you want fries with that?) and it takes choices out of a reps hands that could cost Delta money (even if it makes you happy). It will give the mothership control of what is possible and all of this means more money but at what cost to customer satisfaction?
I am sure this is the first you as a passenger have heard about what is on the way so why not find out for yourself – ask your favorite Delta rep what they think of SNAPP and if they look forward to the day when it is the only software they get to use day in and day out! – René
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I have a question regarding Amex Delta Reserve card and bonus MQMs for spending. I spent $30K and got 15K miles, but these miles are not MQM, just regular bonus miles. Is this new?
@Sergey – See E18 post for directions: http://renespoints.boardingarea.com/essentials/
Had SNAPP issue yesterday morning leaving out of Toronto to ATL. GA’s had to board the entire CRJ 700 by hand due to failure of SNAPP.
SNAPP also means fewer HR cost long term for Delta.
@DDiamond – Yep they can hire folks who work at Mc D’s from now on who just have to push a picture and know nothing. I can’t wait – you?
ACS Agent here. I work in one of the major hubs for DL, and we often call SNAPP snafu as it doesn’t allow you to do much if anything. In theory, it should work flawlessly, but it doesn’t even come close. When they were doing this transition away from DL Term, I insisted on knowing what contingency plans were in place should there be an IT issue. All of the management brushed it off like I was crazy. Months later we had the outage in August 2016, and I couldn’t help but give them the “I told you so!” look when things were in shambles.
Also, I know DL term in the four years I’ve been with the company. I’ll admit I still have a long ways to go to master it, but I know how to rebook and reissue. Honestly, I find it embarrassing when I see several of my coworkers constantly calling a help desk to do that because they haven’t really been trained, and/or they act like they can’t be bothered to. The kicker is that several of them worked in reservations and don’t remember how to reissue tickets. Are you kidding me?!