Month: April 2008

When Spending Should Get You Fired

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If you are a company that uses third party software for functionality, please, do not ever hire an outside “training” firm to come in and teach people who have no obvious use for the third party tool, especially if the price tag is $2,000 per person. This is even more true if you are a software company that employs people who know the third party tool and are willing to teach it to the other employees.

When the time comes for the training to take place, do not schedule meetings that will interrupt the training and to do one better than that, do not hold the training in the same building as the regular office. All that happens with these two things above are people get distracted and the trainer gets frustrated. It causes a waste of time and money.

Running a successful firm requires that management understand managing, not just moving lips and expecting things to happen.

More Airline Industry Consolidation News

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In a twist of events, Continental Airlines has chosen not to merge. According to their press release they feel that they are better off as their own entity, though they want to forge ahead with making partners.

This is a blow to the head of United Airlines, which is struggling to drag itself out of the muck that is the current airline industry bankruptcy festival. Without Continental Airlines around to help United in its struggle, United faces a possible merger with US Airways or declaring bankruptcy. My guess would be that they will do whatever possible not to file for Chapter 11 even though a merger with US Airways would mean even worse service than they already provide.

Is the loss of a merger for Continental passengers a bad thing? No, for a few reasons, the biggest of which is that Continental can create stronger ties to different airlines to help offset some of the costs of fuel rather than merging and trying to get the different airline fleets to be consistent.

For passengers it means that there will still be a competitor out there helping to reduce costs and that competitor will be working to further reduce travel costs by partnering with different airlines around the globe.

Great move Continental!

A Honolulu Story

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The life of a Mileage Runner is tough, a weekend in Hawaii here, a few days in the Northeast there, after a while it takes its toll. Just kidding.

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My trip to Hawaii was an interesting one. I arrived at IAH about an hour before the flight and made my way to the President’s Club to meet up with a friend from New York. We ate a quick breakfast and walked to our gate (E4). I was in seat 10L for this leg and he was in 12B. The legroom for this seat is fantastic, there is nothing in front of you except the bulkhead and there is a small cutout where you can place a carry-on. The only downside is the fact that the armrests do not go up due to the tray being stored in them.

Our routing took us over El Paso, Las Vegas, then north over Oakland and San Francisco before making a southward turn towards Honolulu. We arrived nine hours and forty-five minutes later, definitely later than we had planned.

We grabbed a rental car and made a B-line for the hotel where we dropped our bags and decided to drive around the island. Dinner was consumed and we were beat, our internal clocks needed a night’s sleep to reset.

Both of us woke up early and drove to the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Just a note here, if you are planning on going to the memorial, make sure you arrive early, it fills up quickly and the wait becomes very long. It was an interesting experience and standing over the U.S.S. Arizona was surreal, knowing that the tomb for so many men was below my feet .

We decided that the rest of the day called for some time on the beach and that’s just what we did. I was able to get a nice tan and even a little bit of a burn. Rounding off the day was dinner at a brewpub on the far end of the island.

On Sunday morning we contemplated catching a flight to Maui, but decided against it due to time constraints. Instead, we went to an open air market that is held at Aloha Stadium. It was a rainy day but we were able to do some shopping, I even found a good price on Kona coffee and grabbed a few bags.

We proceeded to the airport for some planespotting, which was fine until the Honolulu Sheriffs Department informed us that taking pictures on public property is illegal. After that run in, we grabbed our bags and went to the terminal for our flights, hanging out in the Crown Room Club, the WorldClub, and eventually the President’s Club.

My flight back was great, I ate my dinner quickly, swallowed a couple of Melatonin and was out for most of the flight. I woke up over Austin and looked out the window till we landed. Overall it was a great trip and I enjoyed Hawaii. Honolulu is more urban and has a good amount of traffic but I’m sure the other islands are fantastic.

You can see more pictures here.

Juno

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Friday night was ‘movie night’ and Jessica and I knew exactly what we wanted to watch. Juno. We had heard a lot of good things about the movie and I had read about the film’s writer, Diablo Cody. We were not disappointed in the movie at all.

Juno, the star of the film, reminded me of a friend who has the same outlook on life and quirky, nonchalant side. The dialogue between Juno and the rest of characters in the movie is believable and witty. Those two key things were the defining points, allowing the story to come out and the movie watchers to connect with the characters.

I never felt a slow point in the entire film and I laughed at numerous points. If you have not seen Juno, you need to rent it. Tonight.

Frontier Airlines files Chapter 11, will continue flying

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As reported by the Associated Press, Frontier Airlines filed for Chapter 11 but will continue to fly while it reorganizes.

Even though they will continue to operate, there is still speculation that F9 will not be able to hold-on without significant changes. Selling of deep-discount tickets to Denver in off-peak months just does not generate the revenue an airline needs to stay profitable and in business.

What I found interesting in the USA Today article was the mention of Frontier’s credit card processor starting to withhold “significant” funds from ticket sales on April 11. I hope that more information comes out regarding this as it may show the lack of internal management on Frontier’s part.

For those who are Frontier frequent fliers, I would be cautious when buying Frontier tickets for dates too far in the future.