What Does Delta and Delta.com Know & Think About You?

This is a bit geeky, but while trying to make a Firefox plugin to filter out all the bloat on the stupid new mileage activity display on DL.com, I noticed the new DL.com site loads this URL https://www.delta.com/databroker/bcdata.action which returns some data about you as a user when you're logged in.

The data is really interesting - they are pushing a LOT of personal data through in a very transparent/un-obfuscated format.

My semi-sanitized data in a web format called json is below - emphasis added in bold by me
{
"actvtyPref":"",
"bcInd":"Y",
"birthDt":"MyBirthDateWasHere",
"chldAgeRange":"",
"cobrandCardCd":"AX,AXCP",
"ctryCd":"US",
"custID":"MySkyMilesNumberWasHere",
"custValSeg":"1", - wonder about this value - is 1 high or low?
"dgtlLangPref":"en",
"discSpndngAmt":"#####",
"drvdGndr":"M",
"drvdHmArptCd":"SEA",
"hmArptPref":"SEA",
"homeValueAmt":"######",
"htlBrndPref":"",
"incomeAmt":"###",
"isLoggedIn":"Y",
"isPwmElig":"Y", - any ideas??
"isSmCust":"Y",
"mindsetSeg":"FL", - wonder about this one
"mosaicCd":"F22", - wonder about this too
"poCd":"#####-####",
"prefDestCity":"",
"prefDestCtry":"",
"savedSrchDest":"",
"skyClubFtrCntrctInd":"N",
"skyClubMMSts":"", - million miller status
"skyClubMbr":"N",
"skyClubRnwlDt":"",
"skyPrtyInd":"Y",
"smAmexCntrnInd":"N", - ??? any ideas?
"smAmexInd":"Y",
"smBalance":"#######",
"smMqmBal":"#####",
"smMqsBal":"#",
"smNbr":"############",
"smSunTrstInd":"N", - interesting that this is a new focus
"smTierLvl":"PM",
"stProvCd":"WA"}

Thoughts:
I'm sure that the purpose of putting this on the new site was to allow it to target ads/promos on the site to you using the features of the Adobe Day CMS that they switched to recently. That's all fine and good. It looks like they have just about every facet of their customer touch points described in their user profile except for "gateLice:true" or "boardsOutOfZone:true"

The ones that I'm really curious about are:

1. "custValSeg":"1" - I'm curious to know what you real high spending folks have here - hopefully not double digits so I don't feel too bad. I'm a PM and I spent a bit under 10K on Delta last year though more than 2x that across all airlines.
2. "mindsetSeg":"FL" - I wonder what FL means? At least it doesn't say FO! What do you all have?
3. "mosaicCd":"F22" - also interesting - would like to know what you all have
4. "incomeAmt":"$$$", - this was a surprisingly accurate 3 digit number representing my year income (when multiplied by $1000). Must come from AX?
5. "homeValueAmt":"$$$$$$", - my current house value estimate from zillow.com - mostly I think home value is an interesting metric for profiling airline ticket buyers - it seems less important especially when you know their income already. maybe if I had 7 digits they would hit me with Delta Private Jets harder
6. "discSpndngAmt":"$$$$$", - this is interesting - I'm not sure what they are basing this discretionary spending off of, but it was an interesting number to say the least.

So all this profiling is the new normal, but what is interesting to me are what these special codes mean for customer value, mindset, and mosaic, etc.

My only other thought is they should try to hide this better - it was pretty "out there"

Anyone have any more detailed insight?

 

Also this reinforces the CW out there that the MQD change was probably just the beginning - if they are profiling us all to this degree already and now they are tracking ticket spend to more fine grained level I can imagine they will be taking this to the next level.

 

Also, I should add that you need either Google Chrome's web inspect, Safari's Develop menu, IE9+ Developer window, or a Firefox plugin called Firebug to get this data so it is kind of geeky if you are not in the tech world.

 

isPwmElig must mean is Pay With Miles eligible, yes or no?

smAmexCntrnInd is whether or not you have the AmEx Centurion card, which gives DL status

To me, it's interesting that I don't see MQD yet.

 

Good insights on the first two values - makes complete sense.

I agree on MQD - I'm sure it will be there soon so they can say popup a promo that says "buy up to P and earn double MQD on this purchase - limited time offer"

 

"MOSAIC is a geodemographic segmentation system developed by Experian and marketed in over twenty
countries worldwide."

F Promising Families
F22 Fast Track Couples​

http://www.appliedgeographic.com/AGS Variable 2012A/Mosaic & Consumer Beh.pdf

 

Not really. Just log into Delta.com and then (if you want, in another tab) hit the URL that returns the JSON in your first post, ie

https://www.delta.com/databroker/bcdata.action

I just tried it on my iPad and it returns all the data in the browser window.

I am custValSeg 0 (zero) and I am a general member who hasn't flown Delta in probably a decade. Sorry

My mindSegVal is MM (I am not a million miler)

 

Very interesting! Thanks.

Wonder how one would find out how one's neighborhood is coded.

ADDED: Hmm, let me try what HaveMilesWillTravel suggested right above while I was typing this.

Result: Got a pop-up saying Windows couldn't open it:

Do I need a later browser? Using IE 8.0.

 

Income numbers for me and my wife are quite a bit off. Seems to be old data. Home value is also off: 2x what it should be for me, interestingly different value for my wife. Need to check our addresses on the accounts.

Our Mosaic values are interesting, too.

 

Totally empty....thank god for selectively blocking tracking cookies.

 

Pretty interesting stuff. I assumed they did this. Didn't know it was so easy to find. Pretty close to accurate too. I love this: E19 Full Pockets, Empty Nests. While I'd argue the full pockets thing...I guess I see the tie in. I do wonder what this is: mindsetseg: SS.

 

Filling in some of the blanks:

I have 2 kids and these numbers match two of there age groups
"chldAgeRange":"POC0T3,POC4T6,POC10T12,POC13T18" <-This information is probably inaccurate on DL's side

"cobrandCardCd":"AXCV" <-Reserve Card
"custValSeg":"6" <-Diamond
"discSpndngAmt":"2xxxx" <- I believe this is the amount I spent last year on Airfare (not just DL per Amex)

"mindsetSeg":"SS" <- ???? (although it is 2 S' short of the dreaded 4S )
"mosaicCd":"D15" <-D Suburban Style, D15 Sports Utility Families

"smAmexInd":"Y" <- ????

 

Q. What Does Delta and Delta.com Know & Think About You?

A. Sobore is one cheap ba$turd and will cozy up to any air carrier for the right price.

Result: Low value customer - no flights for him!

 

Are you the author of http://loyaltylobby.com/? If not, its interesting to see your unique finding spreading on the blogs without a link back to your post here. Actually they did link to your flyertalk post but the url is not working right now - sorry. I find it hard to believe this would have been discovered without your post – not to say that some other geeky person would not have found it.

Good find regardless... I think you will see this get into the technology blogs also.

It’s a fairly interesting example as far as privacy, especially since they are sending all that information back to the browser. It just goes to show they are actively trying to share that data with someone – if its only for Delta’s use there is no reason to publicly share it.

 

It only shows up if logged in.

 

It appears that they still use the beach house for valuations, but I did come across where they feel that I am A02 - Platinum Prosperity.

It seems that "smTierLvl": is supposed to be the status indicator. (It's one of the last values in the string)

 

No...this is not just the beginning. This is much closer to the end.

The airlines have been tracking this sort of stuff about passengers for a long, long, long time. It is just that you're now starting to recognie it.

ETA: "discSpndngAmt":"17305" is in my profile. No way I spent that much on airfare last year on all my cards, much less any one card.

 

For this application, the value of a house and how much someone makes isn't that useful a data point -- he could be a real road warrior who doesn't own a house or make much money, but travels a lot for his company who pays for his tickees and has a lot of other people like him out on the road.

DTWBOB

 

The type of Experian geodemographic marketing system that is referenced here is by no means new. Jon Goss researched these twenty years ago and even then they had developed fine-grained segmentation and classification systems.

Check out the "middle aged munchkins" for example.... and if it was that sophisticated 20 years ago, then imagine how much more sophisticated it is now.

We Know Who You Are and We Know Where You Live": The Instrumental Rationality of Geodemographic Systems Jon Goss Economic Geography Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr., 1995), pp. 171-198

http://www.douri.sh/classes/readings/Goss-WeKnowWhereYouLiveGeodemographics-EconGeog.pdf

 

We'll I am a Diamond with a custValSeg of 0........

 

That has to be an Experian estimation, most likely of discretionary spending, my wife's number is "discSpndngAmt":"15681", and she probably spends under 1k/year for travel airfare, but as far as discretionary spending it could be in the ballpark.

 

Agree that the Experian data and their demographic data profiling is not new. The interesting part to me is level that Delta has pushed it into their website. In the past this kind of data would have been used mostly in offline business intelligence reporting that they do once a week and send out a report to mgmt.

In my work, I work with other large/F500 companies on web projects and most of them are nowhere near this level. They would salivate at pushing this level of their customer segmentation onto their consumer facing websites (hopefully less obviously) and then be able to drive click and purchase behavior. The technology is there but most web marketers aren't executing at this level of sophistication.

On that note I'm actually underwhelmed at what the new DL.com is able to target me with right now. For this level of data you'd think the calls to action would be more compelling. It's mostly fluff right now.

 

Anyone want to do forensic analysis of their JavaScript code to see what they are doing with the data?

 

Thanks for the feedback! No, I am not the author of loyalty lobby or a pro blogger generally. I'm not surprised that a blogger picked this up though - it's pretty interesting. At least they linked to one of my posts.

Regardless I'm thrilled with the good response and insights here on MP as well as in the 240+ replies on FT. Lots to learn from the bigger data set.

 

I am a fallen PM to FO for 2012 and since I did not fly the required 910 miles needed to make my rollover become 25K, I shall be dirt in 2013 soon enough... And thus have customer value of =0.

My mosaic score is R66= "Dares to dream"... Yup that is right... This is for low income, low education inner city living modern families and young singles. so far off the mark it is painful...
See R66 here: http://classic.demographicsnow.com/Templates/static/mosaicPDF/R66 Dare to Dream.PDF