Revenge of the nerd-bird

American Airlines recently announced the cancellation of the "nerd-bird" that has been flying twice daily between Austin and San Jose. Earlier this year, there were three flights a day.

What is interesting is that American Airlines states that it cannot make a profit on this route. Gee, shortly after announcing the termination of the nerd-bird, Alaska Airlines jumped in to offer a daily flight. Obviously, American's business model must suck compared to Alaska's if the latter believes that it can make a profit on the route.

So, just for the heck of it, I pulled some numbers from American's own website, aa.com. If I was to book a ticket today for travel to San Jose from Austin and return on July 13 and 17, respectively, the direct flight would cost me $424. If I was to fly through DFW, the cost would be $500. Seems pretty reasonable.

Next, I looked at the same routings but with a July 14 departure and July 16 return. The direct flight is $320, and the one through DFW is $555. Bingo!!!

American Airlines in its letter to me stated that they lose money on the flight because they offer discounted leisure rates when the flights aren't full. This often causes the flights to fill up, but they still lose money.

This is an interested point... this is the "nerd-bird". It's not called that because it is full of vacationers. These are business people. They don't book their travel months in advance. They book flights at the last minute. They don't purchase business class on this route because their companies will not approve it, so if you fill the flight with discounted leisure travelers, then the last minute business travelers will book a different routing.

American Airlines was using the logo "We know why you fly." Hmmm, it appears that they don't. I fly for business. The critical route for me is San Jose to Austin. I stayed with American because they offered it as a direct route, saving time and effort. For that, I rewarded them with all my other domestic and international travel, to the total of over 150,000 miles last year and a lifetime total of almost 2,000,000 miles.

In talking with other "nerds" on the bird this past week, the impression I got is that most feel that American doesn't understand this route and hence cannot make money at it. Everyone business person would gladly pay more for a direct route than going through DFW. Travel for the business person is not a leisure activity, it is a business necessity. American doesn't understand the nerd-bird; therefore, it is probably good they terminate this route so we - the nerds - can go find an airline that does understand why we fly.

Is watching pennies costing more?

I'm in an IEEE 802.3 meeting this week working on reviewing the next generation of Ethernet standards. My employer, AMCC, graciously hosted the meeting in New Orleans. The attendance is down at this meeting, but thankfully we saw that writing on the wall far enough in advance to not take a big hit.

What is interesting though is the number of people that have shown up to the meeting at the last minute. I've been talking to people from Fortune 100 companies that have had to wait for approval from a VP for them to attend the meeting. The delay in approval had them buying airline tickets at the last minute resulting in increased travel costs.

If the goal is for corporations to save money during these tough economic times, are they really being fiscally responsible by not taking timely action? What about the cost and impact of having a VP spending their time on reviewing the travel requests? Are companies spending dollars to save pennies?

Is anyone else seeing the same thing?

Customer Service Gone Awry

Have you ever had one of those days where you start to wonder if you should just go home and go back to bed?

It especially sucks when you try to be in a good mood but someone else that you depend on, someone who is providing you a service, continually makes it more difficult for you to get on the right track.

That happened to me today which is why I’m telling you about it. Let’s start at the beginning…

I fly American Airlines. A lot. In 2008, I had about 150,000 miles towards my elite status. Executive Platinum again for 2009 and a free Admiral’s club pass. Overall, I’ve been a pretty happy client. I get fairly regular upgrades to business, even on my international trips. And late last year, American announced PriorityAAccess to permit clients like me to check-in faster, get through security faster and bypass general boarding. It all sounded great.

Obviously, it was too good to be true.

Only a few months after announcing this “better” service for those that spend so much time – and money – traveling with them, I was shocked back into reality that marketing or advertising customer service is not the same as receiving it.

Fast forward to day, January 11, 2009. I’m running a bit later than normal, but get to the terminal 45 minutes before my flight departs. As I walk into the terminal, I see that there is nobody in the PriorityAAccess line. “Score,” I’m thinking. The lady at the counter is helping a family that is obviously having some issues with their travel plans. I have no idea what it is – maybe that new “pay for baggage” policy. The ladies at the other counters – one tagging bags and the other handling booking – ignore the PriorityAAccess line so I stand and wait.

Ten minutes later, the PriorityAAccess lady is still working with the family. I step up to ask how far in advance of the flight do I need to check my bag. I’m told 30 minutes. The father of the family apologizes telling me that they don’t know why they were flagged over from the general boarding line. I reply that they will often do that when there is no one in the PriorityAAccess line. “Too bad they don’t reciprocate when there is someone in that line,” I ponder.

Finally, the lady handling booking is open. I decide to dash down to her to see if I can get my bag checked. Nope. Too late. By her watch, I missed it by a minute or two. Does she care? Nope. Her suggestion is for me to check the bag for arrival in New Orleans about 6:30pm or to do carry-on. I’m thinking, “Why? I was here in time in the priority line.” Now the flight is boarding, so I have no choice, I need to do carry-on. Crap!

Thankfully, being a guy, I don’t have a lot of liquids. I don’t like carry-on, but obviously I have no choice unless I want to wait another three hours at my destination for my bag to arrive. I get through security, which was thankfully very light, and head to my gate.

Imagine my surprise to arrive at the gate, Gate 14, to discover that general boarding is not being done via the general boarding line, but instead through the PriorityAAccess line. Great! Can we call this adding insult to injury. Not wanting to be a jerk, I queue up to board. Of course, now I’m thinking, “I flew so much with these guys last year to earn their elite status and they said I’d get priority service, but this is strike two… or is it three?”

Finally, I’m on the plane and seated in first class on the MD-80 for the short hop to DFW. Alas, all the overhead bins in first are full. My bag, the one that I wanted to check-in, is now resting in economy. For anyone that has flown, you know that if your bag is behind where you’re sitting, you’re going to have to wait for people to clear out before you can get it. Honestly, I wasn’t surprised. I knew when I stepped on the plane that it was one of those days I needed to go home and back to bed. I knew before I even turned the corner by the galley that my bag and I would be separated. It was fate and there was nothing I could do about it.

Well, nothing except to write a blog entry and hope that others have better luck. The next time you get in a priority line, just remember that you’re only as special as the customer service representative permits you to be. That bag of honor you worked and paid for is worth about as much as the plastic it’s printed on.

Fred Thompson on the Economy

This is a great video. Too bad he didn't get the Republican nomination...

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/12/02/video-fred-on-the-economy/