Halfway Nowhere

I had a question.

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:24:33 -0500

I had a question.

No caption necessary … but if I were to comment,...

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:53:00 -0500

No caption necessary … but if I were to comment, “some of most of you” would probably be involved.

A (Now) Open Letter to Continental Airlines

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:10:00 -0500

Over the course of the last six days, I’ve sent two emails to refundshouston@coair.com, one to onepass@coair.com and reached out to get in touch with @Continental on Twitter to no avail. The topic: the way Continental Airlines handles upgrades. The response: Crickets (not even an auto-responder acknowledging receipt).

Since I spent a couple long, cramped hours writing this on a plane, I figured I’d share it here in hopes that at least one other human being on the planet will read it and tell me if I’m taking crazy pills.

As I concede early on in the message, there are a lot bigger fish to fry, and if this is the worst problem I ran into on my vacation, I’m a pretty blessed individual. The idea that such a big company can be a part of such a struggling industry and still have common sense screw-ups like this in their system is frustrating … Maybe there are other problems like this that no one is trying to fix, and that’s why Continental is cutting back on meals and charging $3 for rickety headsets.

Dear Continental,

I’ve probably read more than my fair share of angry rants online, and I’ve come to appreciate measured, professional and rational perspectives. I’m going to do what I can here to stay as measured, professional and rational as I can here in hopes that this feedback isn’t shrugged off. I’m also going to concede right off the bat that the nature of my experience isn’t going to garner too much sympathy.

I chose to fly Continental to Hawaii from Houston for vacation. I booked the round trip flight on continental.com a few weeks ago, and I was excited for the trip. I was set to depart IAH on Wednesday, July 7 and return on the red-eye Sunday night/Monday morning. Because I planned on heading into the office on Monday morning and I happen to be 6’5”, I decided to take advantage of the “upgrade to Business First” offer online for the return flight so I could be rested as I started the work week. The price offered to get me onto the waitlist for the flight: $450 + 17,500 miles. It was a lot of money and enough miles to get me half of a “saver” round trip reward reservation, but it’s a vacation, and with a 7.5-hour flight, I could justify it. Also, because complimentary Elite upgrades aren’t available from Houston to Hawaii, I wasn’t risking paying for an upgrade I may have gotten for free.

Flash forward to Thursday morning. I showed up to the airport at about 9:00am. Because I fly a few times per year, I found the investment in a President’s Club membership to be worthwhile, so I make my way into the President’s Club in Terminal E. I checked the flight status on my way in, and I saw that Business First seats were available for the flight to HNL, so I asked one of the representatives at the counter whether any upgrade options were available … She gave me the great news that a day-of revenue upgrade was available for $300. Having considered $450 + 17,500 miles “reasonable” for the flight home, I bit the bullet. By taking that offer, I checked the upgrade status list and saw that I was confirmed for a seat up front despite the fact that a few other people were already on standby for upgrades (who could be significant later on in our story).

Having committed $150 and 17,500 miles more than my day-of upgrade for the pre-booked upgrade for the flight home, my natural reaction was to wonder why I was getting a worse deal on the way back than I was on the way there. I sent an email to the account you list on your site about refunds … If I got one of the 4 available seats on the way back to Hawaii, it would be good to have at least started the conversation about the differences in the cost before the fact. I didn’t hear back from anyone, but I was in Hawaii with friends having a great vacation (which started with that great Business First flight into HNL).

Flash forward to Saturday night (24 hours before departure). I check in online, and I see that I’m at the top of the standby list for an upgrade to Business First back to Houston. There are still several seats available, and while I didn’t have a confirmed seat, I’m feeling good about my chances. On Sunday evening, I head to the airport early because I’m still the only person on the upgrade list with several seats available, and I want to be available to get it as soon as it clears. I get into the HNL President’s Club and ask the representative at the desk about upgrade options on the flight back, and she says the same revenue upgrade that I got for the first flight is available: $300 and no mileage commitment. At this point, no one else is on standby nor confirmed for an upgrade.

What natural assumption can I make here? I’ve already paid $150 more than these day-of upgrade offer takers, and I’ve even put 17,500 miles on the line. The logical conclusion is that I’m going to be the first person to get a more comfortable seat for a 4,000 mile flight. I won’t unnecessarily build up the suspense: I wouldn’t be spending so much time writing this if it worked out the way it should have. I might have continued my pursuit of a conversation with the refund department about balancing what I paid in advance and what was offered to other customers.

If we jump back a couple sentences ago, we’re sitting in the President’s Club, frequently refreshing the upgrade standby list. 16 of 20 seats in Business First are booked, and all 16 of those passengers are checked in. One refresh and another passenger’s name shows up as a confirmed upgrade holder. I go up to the representative at the desk to ask her how the upgrades are prioritized in this case, and all she’s able to say is that she can’t help what the kiosks offer and confirm for the flight. I refresh a few more times, and another passenger is confirmed. A few more and a third passenger’s name is on the list. The upgrade list shows 19 out of 20 seats booked, and I’m still at the top of the standby list. Another passenger is now on the standby list behind me.

We approach boarding time, so I head down to the gate to ask the gate agent when the last seat is likely to clear. He says the cabin is booked and checked in full (despite the fact that the real-time status page showed a seat open). By this time, I’m really frustrated that all signs point to me committing more to get an upgrade only to lose that upgrade to someone paying less. Because the upgrade didn’t clear, the miles and the money I paid upon reserving my spot on the waitlist will be refunded, so I’m mad that I’m NOT spending $450 and 17,500 miles.

I head down the jetway, and if the experience wasn’t already frustrating enough, I find myself in the stereotypical “uncomfortable flight.” My seat neighbor fills the seat (and the “shared” armrest), there’s a baby crying three rows behind me, and my knees are an inch from the seat in front of me (when it’s not reclined). One last bit of salt in the wound: the passenger’s name below mine on the upgrade list disappears. The upgrade list still shows 19/20 in Business First, and another passenger moves from behind me in the plane (which means he had to get on through the “Economy” door) up to the Business First cabin two rows in front of me. At this point, I’m entirely convinced that “Sco, R.” somehow circumvented the system to get the last seat. I have no idea if that’s actually the case, though.

Here are some points that I feel should be reiterated:

17,500 miles are equivalent to more than half of many saver round trips on Continental, and since I go to San Francisco at least a few times every year, we’ll call it half of the usual cost of that ticket in my case: $200.

Paying less money at the airport the day of a flight appears to give you a better chance at getting an upgrade than paying more money online in advance.
Assuming the above mileage estimation is accurate, Continental lost the equivalent of $350 by prioritizing a day-of revenue upgrade over mine.

I’m upset that I’m not giving you $450 and what is essentially $200 of travel money that I was going to have to spend when I couldn’t use those miles.
- Apparently this situation is not uncommon … both of the agents I spoke with simply shrugged it off and blamed it on “the system”
- If Continental isn’t empowering and incentivizing employees to find and report these seemingly common inconsistencies, you could be missing huge opportunities to save money (or even better: to save your customers money)
I have several hours of uncomfortable flying yet to go, and the baby behind me just started crying for the third time this flight.

I don’t know how common situations like mine actually are, so I can’t speculate on how much money Continental is leaving on the table here. I know that I bypassed several customers waiting for upgrades on the IAH->HNL flight, and I can only assume they were on the list because they took advantage of the online offer. Maybe they took the money plus miles approach that I did for the second flight. Maybe they were ready to drop the $1,000 cash price for the upgrade only to have someone paying $300 get the seat.

What if this happens regularly? Would fixing system that prioritizes $300 over $450 + 17,500 miles make Continental some significant amount of money every year? Would it make people like me happier because Continental is at least meeting the expectations being set?

Even if I had gotten the upgrade but still known that I could have paid less by just waiting until the last minute, that’s still a terrible feeling for a price-conscious customer.

- Kevin Hazard

"Nothing? Are you kidding? Page 73 - Johnson, Navin R.! I’m somebody now! Millions of people..."

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:50:37 -0500

“Nothing? Are you kidding? Page 73 - Johnson, Navin R.! I’m somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. I’m in print! Things are going to start happening to me now.”

- Navin Johnson (Steve Martin in “The Jerk”)

"Is the real point of my life simply to undergo as little pain and as much pleasure as possible? My..."

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:55:52 -0500

“Is the real point of my life simply to undergo as little pain and as much pleasure as possible? My behavior sure seems to indicate that this is what I believe, at least a lot of the time. But isn’t this kind of a selfish way to live? Forget selfish — isn’t it awful lonely?”

- David Foster Wallace (reviewing Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky)

The Art of the Unexpected

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:12:00 -0500

A couple weeks ago, I was reading “How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart” from David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster, and I couldn’t get over his explanation of why sports stars’ autobiographies are generally so dissatisfying:

Of course, neither Austin nor her book is unique. It’s hard not to notice the way this same air of robotic banality suffuses not only the sports-memoir genre but also the media rituals in which a top athlete is asked to describe the content or meaning of his technê … The baritones in network blazers keep coming up after games, demanding of physical geniuses these recombinant strings of dead clichés, strings that after a while start to sound like a strange kind of lullaby, and which of course no network would solicit and broadcast again and again if there weren’t a large and serious audience out here who finds the banalities right and good.

As soon as I read those words, I immediately thought back to a 2003 Primetime segment (but more relevantly a 2009 YouTube video) where Cynthia McFadden interviewed John Mayer:

CM: So do you have a girlfriend?
JM: See, here’s the thing … I’ve noticed that in this question, when somebody doesn’t have a girlfriend, they go, “I don’t, I’m single (looking into the camera with open arms).” And when they do, they go, “I’d like to keep my personal life personal.”
CM: So I take it you’re not going to answer my question…
JM: Well the answer is “I’m not answering,” but I want you to know that could mean either way.
…
CM: Whenever it gets too serious, you make a joke …
JM: Really? … I am avoiding the cliché.

I loathe post-game (and even moreso during-game) interviews simply because they are essentially scripted: “We need to play better in the second half.” “We faced a great team tonight, and we gave 110% … We’re hard to beat when we all work together.”

Every now and then, an interviewee breaks the mold.

And people pay attention.

They get outraged or confused or excited … they react. Ask John Mayer about the controversy sparked by his “outrageous” remarks in Playboy. Ask Ron Artest about … being crazy.

I’m not sure if I’m alone here, but I’m a fan of the unexpected. I appreciate the folks who rock the boat.

Keep rocking.

hellaposer: Mashable headed inside Gatorade’s “Social Media...

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 09:15:49 -0500

hellaposer:

Mashable headed inside Gatorade’s “Social Media Command Center” and I have to say I’m impressed. The trick here is to figure out what to do with all the data they are monitoring and capturing - just seeing it isn’t nearly as valuable as figuring out how to monetize it. Yes, I know, the thought of monetizing “social media” is icky, but them’s the breaks, kids.

(via brandflakesforbreakfast)

Wow. Why don’t I have a Social Media Command Center?

I’ve heard that before…

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 07:38:28 -0500

I’ve heard that before…

thedailywhat: Viral Ad of the Day: Jason Bateman and Will...

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:23:59 -0500

thedailywhat:

Viral Ad of the Day: Jason Bateman and Will Arnett (and Rachael Harris and Aubrey Plaza) star in a the first of three “Dirty Shorts” from their new production company DumbDumb — a five-minute-long “branded content” ad for Orbit gum.

[businessinsider.]

Amazing.

thedailywhat: Legen — wait for it… [thrfeed.] dary.

Fri, 28 May 2010 21:50:56 -0500

thedailywhat:

Legen — wait for it…

[thrfeed.]

dary.

I will be playing this video on repeat for the next 20 days, 2...

Fri, 21 May 2010 14:14:18 -0500

I will be playing this video on repeat for the next 20 days, 2 hours and 46 minutes.

I went running in SF this evening, and I made sure to run by...

Mon, 03 May 2010 21:52:25 -0500

I went running in SF this evening, and I made sure to run by this Banksy. It’s weird to see it now … someone bolted and sealed a clear plexiglass pane over the doctor, and there are haphazard Engrish signs on both sides of the work:

Please help us preserve this precious piece of art! It’s very difficult to get it, and destroying it is a lost for everybody!

After seeing the Banksy documentary, the signs seem like perfectly additions to the art.

(photo via hypebeast)

"I used to tell everyone to go out and make art. I don’t do that so much anymore."

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:24:09 -0500

“I used to tell everyone to go out and make art. I don’t do that so much anymore.”

- Banksy

I just got to see this. Watch the trailer, and if it seems like...

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:23:09 -0500

I just got to see this. Watch the trailer, and if it seems like something you’d be interested in, you should check it out … Even if you don’t think it’s something you’d be interested in, I’d highly recommend it.

instapaper: My current server, photo courtesy of Kevin Hazard...

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:44:29 -0500

instapaper:

My current server, photo courtesy of Kevin Hazard at The Planet. It’s just the middle one with the label (other people’s servers are pictured above and below), but I just ordered a second one to handle Instapaper’s growth.

(I love The Planet. If you need dedicated servers, you should consider hosting your stuff there.)

And if you think Instapaper’s server looks cool, you should see some of the racks of Tumblr’s servers.

Why do ESPN, ABC and Disney still redirect people to BRAND.go.com? Go.com appears to have died nine...

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:00:58 -0500

Why do ESPN, ABC and Disney still redirect people to BRAND.go.com? Go.com appears to have died nine years ago. How is it a good idea to keep great domains (abc.com, espn.com, etc.) redirecting to awful subdomain equivalents?

Getting to see Britanick at the College Humor show was...

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:41:27 -0500

Getting to see Britanick at the College Humor show was definitely one of the highlights of my SXSW experience.

Does your blogging platform send you a one-click way to...

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:25:37 -0500

Does your blogging platform send you a one-click way to celebrate your blog’s birthday? Someone should really think about incorporating that.

Oh wait, see above. ;-)

topherchris: Mars Tumblr Meetup Barry Zuckerkorn: Those are...

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:22:28 -0500

topherchris:

Mars Tumblr Meetup

Barry Zuckerkorn: Those are the pictures?
Wayne Jarvis: They’re all over the news.
Barry Zuckerkorn: Those are balls.
Wayne Jarvis: What?
Narrator: Barry was right. Tobias had inadvertently photographed himself while learning how to use his new camera phone.
Barry Zuckerkorn: This close, they always look like landscape. But nope, you’re looking at balls.

Tumblr Video Post

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:33:04 -0500

When posting a video on Tumblr, a user reads this tip:

This can be a URL from video sites like YouTube or Vimeo, or the raw Embed-tag from any video/flash site. (ie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mVEGfH4s5g)

As a geek, my instinct is to copy that link into a new window to see what video gets to be the “example” only to find “This video has been removed by the user.” It seems like a great place to plant a Rick Roll (if you wanted to go “old school”) or to subconsciously “feature” another video. Might I recommend The Planet Server Challenge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNfgyBiPDg)?