badice.com – musings for the masses
Continental airlines has loaded the schedules into their reservation system for a few new routes and one that they have not flown in a long time.
They will fly EWR–ITH, EWR–MDT, EWR–AVP, and they are bringing back EWR–PHL.
The announcement is great news for the smaller markets and a welcome relief from US Airways customers in Philadelphia. And while this move looks great for the customer it’s partially a strategic move so that Continental secures their take-off and landing slots at Newark.
A state of flux has come over the airline industry. The CEOs are panicking about the price of oil and the necessity to keep their respective companies afloat, and even profitable. They are moving to tactics such as charging customers to check a bag or pay for a soda on the plane.
These tiny charges do not seem like much on the surface but over time the irritation level of fliers will grow. People will start carrying as much as they can on the plane, then bags will have to be checked on the jetway. It is ineffective to try and nickel and dime people to stay out of the red. The airlines should temporarily reduce capacity and raise fares to make up the difference. They will go out with fuller planes and a better profit for each.
All of these charges are coming at the same time as a reduction in frequent flier benefits permeates the different programs. US Airways is the most obvious offender, taking away a lot of the benefits of being a frequent flier with them and potentially driving away the only group of people that can help them stay out of bankruptcy, business travelers.
The only real perk of lots of flying for a business traveler are the miles and elite status that comes with them. If airlines devalue the status and the fact that a customer has been loyal, they are bound to lose that customer. Airlines should be doing all they can to cut costs without passing them along to the customer outside of the price of a ticket. If they can do that, they will stay in business and keep a base of frequent fliers.
64 years ago today Allied forces began the largest invasion the world had ever seen. Their mission was to break the beachhead and establish a foothold on the European continent. They succeeded.
My Fellow Americans:
Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest — until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them — help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment — let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace — a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen.
Franklin D. Roosevelt – June 6, 1944
Every week there seems to be a new social network or communication tool touted in the news and popular blogs. Most of them I explore for a day, then pass them by but I have been intrigued by Twitter and Tumblr.
I am still figuring out what purpose Twitter really serves but Tumblr is a great idea for a person like me, who randomly comes across links, videos, pictures, etc. all day long and wants to post them but not write a lot about them.
I setup a Tumblr account at flightpath.tumblr.com.
Standing in line at a well-known store, I witnessed something that made my jaw slightly drop and my ears perk up. The clerks who were finishing the transactions asked two questions, phone number and e-mail address. To my surprise multiple people answered both questions readily without asking why such information was needed. There was no need for the e-mail addresses or the phone numbers, simply marketing and advertising opportunities, yet these customers were willing to just hand out their information like flyers on a New York City street corner.
The lack of care as to why this information was being asked for is disturbing as it shows a growing lack of care for privacy and a misunderstanding of personal information. My e-mail address is a conduit for people who I know to reach me as well as services that I knowingly ask for, simply giving my address out to everyone is not in my best interest, no matter how much I love the store (without knowing their policies on e-mail). The one instance of when I give my e-mail address to a store is to receive a copy of my receipt so that I do not have a paper version floating around.
Giving out an e-mail address is one thing since a person can filter it and limit their amount of spam, however, lackadaisically telling someone your phone number is a completely different subject. Your cell phone and home phone are direct lines to you, there is no filtering besides caller ID. If you are using your cell phone as a central contact number then caller ID does not do much because you may receive calls from numbers you do not know. This is why caution when giving out personal information is so important, especially when you are not given full disclosure on how that information will be used.
To bring this little blurb full circle, the most interesting part of witnessing this exchange was the ages of the people involved. The three young ladies who gave their information out with no question were no older than 20 and none of them had any problem spelling out their e-mail address. No thought was given to spam or to marketing, just the impulsive, immediate spelling of the address. I’m not sure we will ever go back to people being protective of what is personal and private, I do not know if the concept of either is even understood anymore.
Just in case you missed it, I have put up a website for Jessica and I’s wedding. You can visit it at http://stephanandjessica.com
CNN Headline News is a good source for up to the minute news but CNN the network is an awful web reporting group.
Yesterday an article was posted on CNN Money titled, Why gas in the U.S. is so cheap, that outlines why gas prices here in the states are cheap and how people overseas are paying so much more. Next to the article is a chart showing countries and each country’s respective price per a gallon of gasoline:
Notice the price of a gallon of gasoline in Aruba, $12.03, this number is not even close to the current price being paid there. $4.92. Yep, CNN was a whole $7.11 off.
How hard is it to do a little research. In fifteen minutes I found numerous places that post up-to-date prices. The most obvious of which was ArubaLife. The site goes into detail about how prices in Aruba are set and the fact that there is a Valero refinery on the island. They also have a notice at the top letting people know that the CNN article is false.
Come on CNN, just a little reporter research would be nice.
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.
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!
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.
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.