Delta for Business — Medallion Tiers for Business

Abstract

The project in five lines.

Migrated three Delta corporate web properties — Delta Business, Delta SkyMiles for Business, and Delta–AMEX Business Cards — into one connected product structure.
Co-designed a new business-tier Medallion model after research showed business travelers want to fly Delta more but lose status to competing carriers.
Built the design system in Figma, automated token export via Claude Code CLI + Code-to-Figma, and shipped to React.
Wrote SEO + GEO-optimized markdown specs per page → an agentic AI system built the production website and the Manager Dashboard.
Validated end-to-end: 5 contextual interviews, 2 testing rounds, 1 Tree Test, 1 CRO micro-survey. The new site beat the old one 7/10 vs 6/10 head-to-head.

The problem

Business travelers want to fly Delta more — the loyalty math pushes them away.

Delta's modern identity rests on premium service and loyalty — but Main Cabin is harder to fill profitably, and the SkyMiles devaluation has weakened ties with high-spend business travelers.

Business travelers want to use Delta more, but constantly increasing MQD and SkyMiles thresholds push them to migrate to other carriers in pursuit of status.

Delta for Business under-explained its value and gave corporate accounts no clear loyalty path inside the brand they already trusted. We benchmarked Delta's program against Qatar, Emirates, Singapore, United and American to locate the gap.

Three converging insights emerged from five contextual interviews: travelers must choose between reimbursing their own expenses or using pre-approved bookings; travelers struggle to maintain Medallion tiers as thresholds keep rising; and travelers juggle multiple credit cards and point systems to capture the best benefits.

My role

I owned product structure across three products and led the migration into one platform.

The business-model redesign was joint with my teammate; everything below was mine.

Product structure

Owned structure across 3 connected products — public site, calculator, DBT dashboard.

Migration

Migrated 3 Delta corporate properties into one coherent system.

Research orchestration

Benchmarking, hypotheses, contextual interviews, and user flows.

Design system

Tokens, variables and base components in Figma, tokenized with Claude Code CLI + Code-to-Figma.

Token + component export

Shipped tokens and primitive components to React.

Information architecture

Structured the IA and sitemap of the new Delta for Business site.

SEO + GEO specs

Wrote per-page markdown specs — the input for the agentic AI build.

Guided selector (Quiz)

Designed the progressive-disclosure flow that routes users to the right tier.

Testing protocol

Set the user-testing protocol structure and the base documents the team used.

CRO experiment

Launched the public-site micro-survey + Microsoft Clarity integration.

Team credit

Jai Grant helped build the design system and was the lead designer of the Dashboard. He also co-designed the business model with me, based on the main research I led.

Research

A current-state audit, a competitive benchmark, five interviews, the boarding journey, and adoption archetypes.

The starting point — a fragmented experience

Before the redesign, Delta's corporate offering was scattered across three disconnected web properties and two separate tools. The first research job was auditing what already existed — and understanding why users got lost in it.

Delta corporate · business Before · 3 sites + 2 tools, disconnected

business.delta.comDelta business traveler site
skymilesforbusiness.delta.comSkyMiles for Business platform
delta.com/…/american-express-business-cardsDelta–Amex Business Cards
+ two separate management toolsTravel-manager dashboard · SkyMiles management

Before — current structure

Delta's current business dashboard before the redesign

Delta's current business dashboard · click to zoom

Moderated tests and contextual research surfaced the core problems of the existing web and app:

Hard to even find the right pageWeak Google positioning, and three separate sites that confuse users about where to start.

No clear navigation between plansInformation missing or buried; no obvious path across programs.

Inconsistent with Delta's own design systemThe visual language drifts from the parent brand.

Two separate tools for one jobA business-travel-manager tool and a SkyMiles tool, never unified.

Unintuitive dashboard, no demoThe manager tool is hard to learn and offers no demo for prospective clients.

Unclear how the pieces relateSkyMiles, Medallion status and business plans aren't connected in the story.

No integration with other toolsNo API or connections to the systems companies already run.

Travel agency mixed with business travelersThe Delta Business home blends both audiences and confuses users.

Competitive benchmark

I started with Delta's own metrics next to Qatar, Emirates, Singapore, United and American. The differentiation gap was clearest around premium-service consistency and loyalty mechanics for high-spend corporate accounts.

Vicente will add — competitive benchmark metrics chart

Contextual interviews (n=5)

Jorge Jimenez Rolo (SEO & Behavioral Manager), Najah Bradley (frequent traveler), Sarah Kling (Sr. UX Researcher, Amazon), Stephanie Krell (Service Designer & Professor), and Stehle Craig (Industrial Designer & Professor).

Reimbursement vs. pre-approval. Travelers must choose between reimbursing their own expenses or using pre-approved, streamlined bookings.
Status is hard to keep. Travelers struggle to maintain Medallion tiers because thresholds keep rising.
Fragmented benefits. Travelers manage multiple credit cards and point systems to capture the best benefits.

Business-traveler user flow

I mapped the end-to-end boarding & travel journey to find where status decisions and friction collide. Friction points are highlighted.

01Booking decision

02Approval

03Pre-trip

04Airport

05Boarding

06In-flight

07Expense capture

08Post-trip MQD posting

Adoption theory & archetypes

Instead of personas, I defined the audience as adoption archetypes by company size and placed them on Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations curve — asking which organizations adopt a new B2B loyalty platform first, and which hold back. Each archetype was read against Rogers' five attributes: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability.

Startups scored 20/25 — ready to adopt, sitting with the Early Adopters. Mid-Market travel managers scored 14/25 — not yet, holding back in the Late Majority. Small businesses adopt fast for clear ROI; large enterprises carry the highest value but move slowest, gated by procurement and security. Observability was the weakest attribute across the board (2/5) — teams can't easily see other companies' results, which is exactly why "add customer case studies" became a P0 fix.

StartupsEarly Adopters · 20/25

Small BusinessEarly Majority

Mid-MarketLate Majority · 14/25

Large EnterpriseLaggards · top value

Based on E. M. Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed. — Delta for Business archetypes placed by adoption readiness.

Early Adopters · Venturesome

Startups

Adopt fast when the ROI is obvious; almost no procurement friction.

e.g. Linear, Notion, UserTesting

Rogers' 20/25 · ready

Early Majority · Deliberate

Small Business (SMB)

Lean teams that adopt for time saved once the value is proven.

e.g. Basecamp, Buffer, Wistia

Likely adopter

Late Majority · Skeptical

Mid-Market

Policy and spend control matter; needs proof before committing.

e.g. Zapier, Asana, HubSpot

Rogers' 14/25 · not yet

Laggards · Traditional

Large Enterprise

Highest value, slowest to move — security, procurement and policy gates.

e.g. Amazon, Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft

Interviewed a manager at Amazon

Early Adopters · Venturesome

Individual Business Traveler

Flies often on a corporate card; self-selects into status and a smoother boarding day. The end-user inside every company above.

e.g. management consultants, enterprise sales leaders, frequent-flyer founders

Self-selects in

From archetypes to tiers

A smoother Medallion ladder — one business tier per archetype.

Delta's business offering had only two tiers, with a big jump between them. Using the archetype study, we kept the Individual traveler and designed a smoother ladder — a new Gold for small business, Platinum Business for mid-market, and Diamond Business for large enterprise — each tuned to a studied reference travel-spend range so the offer fits the profile.

Individual traveler Individual < $15kref. annual travel spend

Small Business Gold $15k–$100kref. annual travel spend

Mid-Market Platinum Business $100k–$1Mref. annual travel spend

Large Enterprise Diamond Business $1M+ref. annual travel spend

The business solution

Medallion Suite for Business — nine connected benefits.

A new business-tier system designed to make high-spend corporate accounts feel rewarded inside Delta rather than penalized by it.

Standout move · revenue + experience

A promotions policy that fills Comfort+ — a low-effort upsell tied to Medallion status.

Filling Comfort+ (Economy+) has been one of Delta's biggest gaps in recent years. So beyond the tiers, we designed a promotions policy for business travelers that channels them into Comfort+ — promoted in direct relation to their business Medallion status.

It's a low-effort upsell: it lifts occupancy in a cabin Delta struggles to fill, while improving the traveler's comfort and their perception of both Delta and their employer — the company looks like it takes care of its people, at almost no extra cost.

Silver

Gold

Platinum

Diamond

Reduced Flight Rates

Lower fares across all tiers.

Comfort+ Baseline Seating

All business travelers receive Comfort+ as the default cabin.

Reduced Seat Upgrades

Lower upgrade rates across tiers.

Reserved Carry-On Space

Guaranteed overhead bin space.

Personal MQD Bonuses

4,000 / 7,000 / 9,000 MQDs per year by tier.

Flight Reservations

Hold flight seats 24h / 36h / 48h before purchase.

Travel Management Tools

API integration with HRIS / ERP.

Pooled SkyMiles

Company gains 4% / 5% / 6% of SkyMiles.

CLEAR+ Membership

Reduced or included by tier.

Design system & agentic build

A tokenized Figma system, exported to React, that fed an agentic AI build.

I built a tokenized design system in Figma and exported it automatically to React through a Claude Code CLI + Code-to-Figma pipeline. Per-page SEO and GEO markdown specs then fed an agentic AI system that scaffolded the production website and the Manager Dashboard.

01

Figma tokens

02

Claude Code CLI

03Code-to-Figma sync

04

React export

05

Agentic AI build

Pulled from the Figma design system a2Xx…OlMeOw · live variables

Color tokens

delta-blue-700#002D59 delta-blue-500#004080 delta-blue-200#0066CC delta-red-400#C01933 delta-red-100#E8354D aura-secondary#0B1F66 gold-600#8F6C32 silver-200#6F7F8D platinum-400#726394 diamond-100#97B4C8 neutral-5#F2F3F5 neutral-800#5D6176

Type scale · Whitney

type-scale-64 · DisplayDelta for Business

type-scale-48 · H1Delta for Business

type-scale-28 · H3Delta for Business

type-scale-18 · Body LDelta for Business

type-scale-14 · LabelsDelta for Business

Spacing scale

4 8 12 16 24 32 48

Base components

SkyMiles for Business Diamond Business

Design system base (Figma) Current structure audit (Figma)

Information architecture & SEO

One hub from three properties — structured to outrank competing carriers.

I unified three Delta properties — Business, SkyMiles for Business and Delta–AMEX Business Cards — into a single hub, with a hard line in the information architecture: everything business and corporate, we build; general consumer features (book a flight, personal SkyMiles, flight status) link out to delta.com. Enrollment is self-serve for small business and contact-sales for mid-market and enterprise.

SEO + GEO to rank above competitors

Every page shipped with a search spec.

Each page got an SEO / GEO markdown spec — title, meta, heading hierarchy, JSON-LD schema and a target query. Comparison pages (Delta vs United vs American) capture high-intent competitor searches, while program and benefit pages target long-tail B2B-loyalty queries — so Delta for Business surfaces above competing carriers' corporate programs in both Google and AI answers.

Rich snippets as shortcuts — and better ranking. Every page ships JSON-LD — BreadcrumbList, SiteNavigationElement and FAQPage. Google renders that markup as rich-snippet sitelinks that act as shortcuts straight into the funnel, and the structured data also improves the page's ranking. One result becomes a column of links dropping users directly onto Programs, Cards or the tools — and it surfaces above competing carriers.

https://business.delta.com ›

Delta for Business — Corporate Travel & SkyMiles

One hub for business travel: programs by company size, Corporate Priority benefits, Delta–Amex cards and the SkyMiles for Business loyalty program.

ProgramsCompare by company size Delta–Amex CardsAll 7 cards compared SkyMiles for BusinessHow companies earn miles Program selectorFind your program in 3 steps

Rich-snippet sitelinks (from BreadcrumbList + SiteNavigationElement JSON-LD) act as shortcuts into the funnel — and lift the page's ranking.

Sitemap — the full URL tree

The hierarchy stays shallow — at most three levels below the homepage. Sections (Level 1) open into sub-pages (Level 2) and, only where needed, detail pages (Level 3). A flat tree keeps every page a few clicks away and gives crawlers a clean, predictable path. Each node below is tagged with its level — drag, scroll with two fingers, or open a node to read what it does.

Drag to explore

Public website

The live landing page — built by the agentic pipeline from my markdown specs.

The live Delta for Business landing page was built by the agentic AI pipeline from the SEO / GEO markdown specs I wrote, on top of the tokenized React components. It's embedded live below — scroll and click around it directly, or expand it for a full-screen session.

delta-for-business.vercel.app

This embed didn't load — the site may block embedding. Open it in a new tab to explore it.

Open the live site

Mobile view

Open the live site

Guided selector (Quiz) · progressive disclosure

A few short questions instead of a tier comparison wall.

Instead of dropping users onto a tier comparison wall, the site asks a few short questions and walks each user to the right product and tier. The flow is built on progressive disclosure — show only what the user needs to decide the next step.

DBT Dashboard · travel manager tool

A manager surface designed around the daily workflow.

A travel-manager surface built around requests, trips, spend and alerts — produced by the same agentic AI pipeline.

DBT Dashboard prototype — travel manager surface with requests, trips and spend

DBT Dashboard prototype · click to zoom

Open the prototype in Figma

Wallet + spend vs threshold. Company spend tracked against tier thresholds.
Travel requests queue. One-click approve for incoming requests.
Upcoming flights view. Every trip at a glance.
Traveler profile drill-down. Per-traveler detail and history.
Reports & exports. P0 expansion for deeper reporting.

Benefits calculator

Built independently by a teammate.

The Benefits Calculator was built independently in Figma Make by Brian Glennon. It matters to this case study as the trigger for the broader progressive-disclosure / guided-selector work that now sits on the public site.

User testing · three methods, three products

Two rounds, a Tree Test, and a live-site CRO micro-survey.

The numbers below are real and verifiable in the transcripts, except where marked projected.

Run in collaboration with UserTesting — a learning exchange for both teams: we got a real remote-testing platform and panel, and shared our research framing and findings back.

Public website

Head-to-head against the current site.

Moderated R1 · n=2 › Vertical-flow redesign › Unmoderated R2 · n≈18 › Microsoft Clarity heatmaps

User test · example recording

Key insights

The redesign beat the current site head-to-head (7/10 vs 6/10) and earned trust — "I'd trust this with our company's travel."

100% task success in under 30s, with 0% rage clicks in Microsoft Clarity.

The original horizontal "Get Started" flow was the #1 blocker — users hesitated on the landing.

Suggestion (applied in round 2): rebuild the landing around progressive disclosure with a vertical flow.

Primary metrics

7/10 vs 6/10New site beat current head-to-head

100%Task success · <30s completion

4.33/5Ease-of-use

0%Rage clicks (Microsoft Clarity)

Secondary metrics

<30savg task completion 2.78%dead clicks (Clarity) 60 · 72unique users · sessions 2 → ~18moderated R1 · unmoderated R2

I'd trust this with our company's travel.

Top fix

Improve the landing with progressive disclosure

Calculator

The ROI moment is the funnel's peak intent.

Unmoderated remote · n=5 › ROI moment recorded › Field friction logged

Vicente will add — calculator test video

Key insights

The ROI number is the funnel's peak-intent moment — 5/5 users paused there.

"Too much info, fields don't visually connect" — the form overwhelmed users.

0% moved to a next step — there is no CTA after the result.

Suggestions: group fields visually, add a "vs. today's spend" comparison, and a post-result CTA.

Primary metrics

5/5Paused on the ROI number (peak intent)

0%Next-step conversion (no CTA exists)

Secondary metrics

n=5unmoderated remote ROIpeak-intent moment 1mid-market "vs. today" ask

Too much info, fields don't visually connect.

Top fixes

Group fields visually Add a "vs. today's spend" comparison Add a post-result CTA

DBT Dashboard

IA validated by task completion and a Tree Test.

Unmoderated remote · n=3 managers › Task completion + Tree Test › Highlights logged

User test · example recording

Tree test · grouped task results

Where 3 travel managers expected to find each item (n=3)

Find reimbursement requests 0:531/3 first try

Find department travel financials 0:393/3 first try

Find the receipt of a past trip 0:402/3 first try

Found the path Looked elsewhere first

Task ease · "Overall, this task was"

Ratings across the tested tasks

1Very difficult

2

3

4

1

5Very easy

"Did the dashboard details aid you?" · keyword sentiment

Where the verbal-response keywords landed

general helpful

More negative Mixed More positive

Key insights

IA validated — 8/10 tree-test paths landed first try; all 3 managers completed both core tasks (Easy / Very Easy).

Read as simpler than competitors — "this one seems to be more simple" (vs. Expedia for Business).

Reimbursement / receipt navigation is the weak path — 2/3 hesitated, and that tree-test task landed first try only 1/3.

Suggestions: surface reimbursements & receipts in the IA, and add a demo for new clients.

Primary metrics

3/3Completed both core tasks · Easy or Very Easy

8/10Tree-test paths landed first try (IA validated)

2/3Hesitated on reimbursement / receipt navigation

Secondary metrics

~0:44avg task time n=3travel managers 1/3reimbursement path first try + / −"helpful" vs "general" sentiment

In terms of simplicity, this one seems to be more simple.

— User 3, currently uses Expedia for Business

Immediately saw new travel requests… really helpful.

— User 1, on the dashboard surfacing the request

Top fixes

Surface reimbursements & receipts in the IA Simplify the Add Hotel flow Reduce visual density

CRO micro-survey · live site

Capturing real-traffic signal beyond the lab.

To start capturing real-traffic signal beyond the lab, I launched a short Google Form on the live site and connected Microsoft Clarity via code for heatmaps, scroll depth and session replay.

Microsoft Clarity is wired into the live site for web analytics — heatmaps, scroll depth and session replay — turning real visits into behavioral signal.

60–120Respondents (in-progress)

≈4.2/5Satisfaction

Tier namingTop friction cluster

Case studiesTop user request

Early signal (projected)

These metrics are early signal (projected) — the experiment is still capturing data and they are not final. The purpose: drive traffic to the new site, populate Microsoft Clarity heatmaps, and validate the Tree Test finding that tier-name labels are the main IA friction.

Improvements & roadmap

What ships now, and what comes next.

Now · P0 — Website

Rename tiers
Add case studies
Split traveler vs. manager hero
Surface the calculator earlier in the funnel

Now · P0 — Calculator

Tooltips & example inputs
"vs. today's spend" comparison
Post-result CTA

Now · P0 — Dashboard

Deeper reporting (department / traveler / route)
Actionable alerts
Ship the reimbursement flow
Reshape IA as a control panel

Next · P1

Shared vocabulary across all three products
Social proof everywhere
Close the handoffs: site → calculator → sales → dashboard → expense systems

UX opportunities · what's pending

The logical next chapter, mostly from the interviews.

Corporate AMEX inside DBT

Issue / freeze / replace cards, per-traveler limits, real-time auth vs settled spend.

Multi-issuer card support

Visa, Mastercard and Chase alongside AMEX.

Off-card expenses + receipt capture

Photo → OCR → categorized expense, off-card flow tied to a trip.

Open-platform integrations

Concur / SAP, calendars, Slack, NetSuite / QuickBooks, HRIS.

Personal AMEX bridge

Split corporate / personal on one trip; route personal MQDs to the traveler, corporate MQDs to the company tier.

Key metrics & learnings

7/10 vs 6/10New site vs old (head-to-head)

4.33/5Ease-of-use

100%Task success

0%Rage clicks

5 + 2 + 1Interviews · testing rounds · CRO experiment

20/25Startups ready · Mid-Market not yet

What I took from it: owning structure across three connected products at once; running a tokenized design system and an agentic AI build pipeline end-to-end; separating what users said from what we interpreted; and knowing when to lead, when to delegate, and when to absorb work to protect the deliverable.

Links

Live website Process book (Drive) Calculator prototype DBT Dashboard (Figma) Design system base (Figma)

Redesigning Delta for Business as one connected platform for travelers and managers.

The project in five lines.

Business travelers want to fly Delta more — the loyalty math pushes them away.

I owned product structure across three products and led the migration into one platform.

Product structure

Migration

Research orchestration

Design system

Token + component export

Information architecture

SEO + GEO specs

Guided selector (Quiz)

Testing protocol

CRO experiment

A current-state audit, a competitive benchmark, five interviews, the boarding journey, and adoption archetypes.

The starting point — a fragmented experience

Competitive benchmark

Contextual interviews (n=5)

Business-traveler user flow

Adoption theory & archetypes

Startups

Small Business (SMB)

Mid-Market

Large Enterprise

Individual Business Traveler

A smoother Medallion ladder — one business tier per archetype.

Medallion Suite for Business — nine connected benefits.

A promotions policy that fills Comfort+ — a low-effort upsell tied to Medallion status.

Reduced Flight Rates

Comfort+ Baseline Seating

Reduced Seat Upgrades

Reserved Carry-On Space

Personal MQD Bonuses

Flight Reservations

Travel Management Tools

Pooled SkyMiles

CLEAR+ Membership

A tokenized Figma system, exported to React, that fed an agentic AI build.

One hub from three properties — structured to outrank competing carriers.

Every page shipped with a search spec.

Sitemap — the full URL tree

The live landing page — built by the agentic pipeline from my markdown specs.

A few short questions instead of a tier comparison wall.

A manager surface designed around the daily workflow.

Built independently by a teammate.

Two rounds, a Tree Test, and a live-site CRO micro-survey.

Head-to-head against the current site.

The ROI moment is the funnel's peak intent.

IA validated by task completion and a Tree Test.

Capturing real-traffic signal beyond the lab.

What ships now, and what comes next.

The logical next chapter, mostly from the interviews.

Corporate AMEX inside DBT

Multi-issuer card support

Off-card expenses + receipt capture

Open-platform integrations

Personal AMEX bridge

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