New Orleans

We spent the Christmas holidays in San Antonio. Now, the roadtrip has commenced. We drove through Houston down I-10E to New Orleans. We're staying in a nice little hotel in the French Quarter. It's only a few blocks from Bourbon Street. Tomorrow, we hit the road for Florida.

Tickets.bomb and My Life As A 8 x 8 x 20 Box

We've bought our trip tickets and are departing for Auckland, NZ for early January. We'll be flying back through San Francisco, though in true United airlines form, their situation prevented us from using them to fly from Florida to SFO. So, we're going Southwest airlines from Ft. Lauderdale to Oakland. I have further rants about how poorly managed United is, but I think I've vented enough anger. I'm going to feel very purified since I'm using every single frequent flyer mile I have. After that, no more United. If I ever own a business, we're flying Southwest and JetBlue. The major carriers are a waste. (I will also keep to myself rants on Levi's and their own management disaster...)

The packing marathon has finally ended. As with everything else, I learned a great lesson: watch the hidden charges with regards to movers. While the guys worked hard, they nickel-and-dimed us with packing supplies, tape, drive time, etc. etc. It was enough to tack on another $300 to the moving bill. It's sad because I was referring these guys to other people (Irish Times Moving in San Francisco), but I'm not so motivated to do so anymore as they charged me $5 for each box that I could have bought at U-Haul (also a rip-off) for $2. I positively mentioned that they didn't inform us of these charges ahead of time and they just said "that this was the way the moving business has always been done." So, anyway, don't use Irish Times Moving -- Or, if you do, watch them very very closely. (I was wondering why they were using rolls of tape like crazy and throwing them away before they were finished -- that's because they were charging us $4 per roll they used.) Anyway, fool me once shame on them. Fool me twice...

More United Airlines Frustration

I am a Premier Executive frequent flyer program member with United Airlines. To any passenger riding the airline, it's amazingly obvious as to why the company is going down. This is not difficult:

1) Do not make your fare structure so complicated that it's impossible to understand. As a consumer, how do I know what the relative prices are? When should I fly? When not? Sadly, I have to be educated by the travel agents on the phone for 20 minutes about moronic fare classes that they usually don't understand. It's not like this is difficult, as Southwest Airlines has already figured it out: They list fare classes on their website in an easy to understand manner.

2) Do not make the frequent flyer program so complicated (and thus unuseful). Sadly, the frequent flyer program is completely useless because it's impossible to understand when you can use your miles to upgrade or get free tickets. I have 140k miles with United and it's impossible to use them unless I want to fly to Topeka in the middle of the summertime. Unsuprisingly, Southwest already figured this out as well. Fly 8 flights and you get one for free. Not hard.

3) Don't fly unprofitable routes. United has expanded beyond all belief and sanity. Having a larger network doesn't allow an airline to charge a premium, as consumers get it already and choose low-cost providers.

4) Don't let the inmates run the asylum. Allowing the employees to own the company is a huge mistake. Sadly, the inmates are more interested in making their own stay more enjoyable (with better pay), than making $$ for the shareholders and keeping customers happy. A full page ad in the Wall Street Journal isn't going to fix this issue. For example, United is the only airline that requires a licensed mechanic to "pushback" the airplanes from the gate. It's no wonder the airline is hemorraging money.

I could go on: the horrible meals, the printed paper tickets, the overblown airline magazine, etc. The stupidity of United is so overwhelming that I don't want to spend any more time thinking about this. Southwest airlines seems the only sane carrier around. I'm switching today.

Frequent Flier mileage & Exporting Tech

Frequent-flier talk gets mileage from United woes... Anyway, I have very little sympathy for the boys and girls over at United Airlines. The gov't turned down their request for a handout. Not only does that prevent Ayn Rand from turning over in her grave, but it's the right thing to do. What's the saddest about all this is that it's the employees who have a majority stake. Guess it shows really what happens when the inmates run the asylum. "Yes, we'd like our company to pay us (employees) above market rates." Idiots. I'm spending my frequent flyer miles and then switching to Southwest Airlines across the board.

Anyway, back to San Francisco today. My resting heart rate is 46bpm. Pretty darn good indication that I'm getting back in shape.

Been thinking a bit about the whole process of technology outsourcing that's going on these days. Many, many companies (citibank, etc. etc.) are migrating technology development overseas. Interesting question is how to cash in on that trend? It happened with cars and electronics back in the day (the 50s). Importers made big $$ on Toyota distribution. Is there a corrollary with application development? Don't know yet.