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On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

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Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#361
post #114
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I presume you're making a distinction between services from private businesses and services from the government, and I feel like there are also nearly equivalent succinct arguments for how terrible government services are for certain groups of people (particularly poor people and minorities). So, yes, you can call that a succinct argument against privatizing everything , but very few people actually advocate for that…

It seems a ridiculous opinion to say privatize everything , but I've seen more and more politicians in the US who support that, or at least that's what I hear when they talk about privatizing education, healthcare, and even the FAA. I agree that, as you point out, some government services are terrible for certain groups of people (poor and minorities), but I don't think that's an argument for privatization because at…

Well the equivalent of the FAA has been privatized in many other countries to great success; Canada is a success story there. Education in this country has improved how since the origination of the DOE during Carter's term? Seriously?

Look at the most expensive issues that affect America and you will find the government interfering at all stages of that industry, whether it is health care, higher education, lower education, and more. How bad has the VA been and for how long. Do you think a privately run system would not have been fined to death over that?

One reason to privatize some of these services is because we can hold them accountable where we get the brush off by government sectors. Corporations are fined all the time and made to adhere to regulations the government excepts itself from.

The simple fact is, we can find fault in every implementation however government is the least likely to be changed. It doesn't actually report to anyone while at the same time supposedly reporting to everyone.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#362
post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to actually use your points on a flight or upgrade and you'll see problems - it can be extremely difficult to find availability, even if you are prepared to book a year in advance, and the BA tools for searching are buggy as hell.

I guess I just treat Airmiles/Avios as irellevant compared to the actual benefits which are skipping queues/extra bag if I need it/lounge access at silver. Maybe one day I'll book a flight with Avios, and when I do I'll have enough for sure, but I don't treat them like a perk. Agree with the BA tools/site being terrible, it seems to be pretty consistent that this is the case across airlines.

The lounges are the main benefit for me - especially at LHR where there is hardly any seating in the main concourse!

Another thing though about Avios is BA's constant errorsion of benefits. Every year or so they send out an email saying 'we asked our customers and they said they wanted more choice', followed by saying they're removing free drinks and meals, reducing the hours hot food is available in lounges etc. I'd respect these decisions much more if they were honest and said 'our shareholders want us to cut costs!

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#363
post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No references off head but I stumbled upon it while working on airline related project some years back. The key thing being proper cost accounting showed it wasn't lucrative as portrayed. Citations on premium class margins don't account for the higher costs of servicing such customers (ground/airborne food and entertainment, lounges, transportation, exclusive services, etc). While some may have a few planes with high…

You really need references to support that claim because it's also the complete opposite of everything I've ever heard. While it's true that simply multiplying seat numbers by advertised prices is not giving the whole picture, and running lounges isn't free, the extra costs are absolutely outweighed by the far higher cost of the ticket. Full service airlines would fill the whole plane with business if they have the d…

Isn't the latest Singapore to New York flight entirely business class?

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strongly disagree. Southwest is hugely overrated imo. It’s one of those companies that maybe used to be better or something, so they have a whole class of fans who are blind to how lame they currently are. I’m probably that way about Apple :) Not that any of the other major carriers is much better. But I don’t love the lining up and then hoping for a good seat, they’re often not the cheapest, and letting everyone che…

> letting everyone check two bags for “free” is a cost drag on everyone Not necessarily. More checked bags -> fewer carry-ons -> faster boarding as people aren't trying to cram their bags into the overhead and giving up and gate-checking -> shorter turnaround time -> higher aircraft utilization, cheaper airport fees -> cheaper tickets

> faster boarding as people aren't trying to cram their bags

Checking and loading baggage takes way longer, not to mention the unloading and waiting at the other end.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#365
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also: does anyone see these programs and think wow, this airline UX is so awful I want to show them my loyalty so that eventually they'll stop trying so hard to make me unhappy? I'm pretty convinced this all boils down to a sort of low-grade white collar corruption: people who travel a lot for business sometimes can get away with favoring one airline over another, where this decision costs the shareholders a little b…

>I'm pretty convinced this all boils down to a sort of low-grade white collar corruption: people who travel a lot for business sometimes can get away with favoring one airline over another, I suppose it depends on the business but at my Fortune 50 we're required to use "lowest logical airfare". You can force a choice of Southwest over United by choosing one airport over another, and there's enough wiggle room to let…

You get the same thing from parts suppliers. I regularly get emails announcing "spend $2000 with us in the next month and receive a FREE GIFT (rc helicopter / iPad / swanky wallet / DVD player / other nice thing)". It seems pretty blatant bribery to get employees (who probably don't care much either way where their gear comes from) to buy from one supplier over another.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#366
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not nearly how far it's gone, but yes, this is an implementation of it.

You mean it's gone much farther than this? Would you have any examples?

Sorry, a day late. This kind of link (phone/IP to profile) is getting much easier, speculatively there must be much more sophisticated connections out there that aren't as immediately obvious.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine how a government education program could hope to achieve equality in outcome in the face of education-aware and education-prioritizing parents spending far more time and working with their children outside of school on enrichment activities that improve educational outcomes. I've done some volunteer work at the Cambridge, MA public schools where my kids attend. The vast majority of any achievement gap…

> I can't imagine how a government education program could hope to achieve equality in outcome in the face of education-aware and education-prioritizing parents spending far more time and working with their children outside of school on enrichment activities that improve educational outcomes. Identify children without such parents and provide them and their parents with additional support; it's expensive , but it's t…

I agree with the futility of expanding the current schooling paradigm. I do, however, worry that the foundations are laid before the kids even arrive at kindergarten.

How many words of in-person adult conversation does the child hear each week?

How many minutes of 1-to-1 direct, focused time does the child receive from an adult each day?

How secure does the child feel? What is their nourishment like? What is their sleep situation like? Are they taught age-appropriate amounts of patience? Do they believe that if they are patient that they'll still get whatever it is they're waiting for?

I'm doubtful of a government program being able to close those gaps in the 0.25 to 5 year old range and I'm doubtful that those early developmental deficits (especially around nourishment, sleep, and security) can be fully closed during the schooling years.

(Disclaimer: I'm an engineer, not a child development expert nor even a dabbler in it.)

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#368
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But unless you're a highly placed executive no one travels on the company dime often enough to bother with air miles anyway This isn't really a true statement. Marketing and enterprise sales folks travel a lot on the company dime. I'm on the engineering and consulting staff in my company, and I travel a decent amount, mostly domestic. Most of our engineers do frequent on-sites. One might not be able to get status,…

> This isn't really a true statement. I'm pretty sure he was talking about the company he works at, not the company you work at.

Fair enough. I read that as a generalized statement. My bad.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#369
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm pretty convinced this all boils down to a sort of low-grade white collar corruption: people who travel a lot for business sometimes can get away with favoring one airline over another, I suppose it depends on the business but at my Fortune 50 we're required to use "lowest logical airfare". You can force a choice of Southwest over United by choosing one airport over another, and there's enough wiggle room to let…

> But unless you're a highly placed executive no one travels on the company dime often enough to bother with air miles anyway This isn't really a true statement. Marketing and enterprise sales folks travel a lot on the company dime. I'm on the engineering and consulting staff in my company, and I travel a decent amount, mostly domestic. Most of our engineers do frequent on-sites. One might not be able to get status,…

> Marketing and enterprise sales folks travel a lot on the company dime

Yes, my bad. I just meant at my employer; we've invested heavily in telepresence, so only the bigwigs here get to travel with any regularity. And I was really trying to say without regular travel you won't end up with a meaningful status. For example United has a raft of tiers so unless you're [1] 1K or Global Services [2] you're literally not at the front of the queue for anything. Even their "Group 1" / "Group 2" boarding system meant to speed things up has a giant asterisk that reads "except 1K/GS, they go before anyone else."

[1] I'm using the colloquial "you" here to really mean "one" which sounds very stiff and formal to me. I don't literally mean you.

[2] https://thepointsguy.com/2017/08/united-global-services-in-2...

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something about air travel that makes it a uniquely terrible experience and drives me to participate in these programs. There is nothing I do in my life regularly where I'm more restricted, or more closely related to a rigid caste system than air travel. Every time you take a flight, for somewhere between 3 and 20 hours, you're told exactly where to stand, where to sit, what you can and can't wear, what you c…

This makes sense, but my reaction is the exact opposite. If they're going to structure it to be shitty so I do what they want, then I'm for damned sure not going to do what they want. One of my big life rules is "don't feed pigeons." I mean it metaphorically, of course. Pigeons are machines for turning food into pigeon shit and more pigeons, and I'm not a big fan of either. A clearer version is something like, "don't…

Same. This is also why I avoid credit cards.
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