14 lessons from the best and worst sites in the airline industry

Despite offering one of the consistently worst user experiences of any website in the travel industry, United Airlines continues to promote it. While I’m hardly the first to point out the usability flaws, what IS amazing is that it has been nearly a year later and the site shows no signs of any improvement. It is one thing offer a poor experience and be working hard to fix it. That anyone could understand. It’s quite another to put a bad experience in front of your customers, make no effort to fix it (after a full year), and create marketing messages to promote it. Over the past year, I have often traveled on Delta Airlines as well – and the difference between their recently redesigned easy to use site and United’s is like night and day. While United was taking a giant leap backward last year by abandoning their own site to adopt the Continental Airlines website after their merger, Delta has spent the last few years investing in creating a great online experience. Luckily, there is good news in this story. Looking at United vs. Delta may present the ultimate case study in contrasts for how to successfully implement a great user interface, and how NOT to – in a way which should offer lessons for any industry. So below are some concrete examples of what any brand that aspires to build a great user interface can learn from United’s missteps, and Delta’s strengths. What United gets wrong … Confusing Lingo. At one point, the menu says “Use Award Miles” and a few options later, it says “Book with Award Miles.” And neither option is actually under the “Reservations” tab, wher