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The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

dustincurtis.com

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Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#71

Post by mseebach »

noonespecial wrote: post #26

The mistake Mr. X. made here was not about caring about his job or even criticizing his employer. He contacted an outsider, with his company's email server, ostensibly on their behalf. At bigco, you just can't do that folks. Everything that leaves corporate walls must be vetted by legal, (and probably marketing too). There are lists of 100's (maybe 1000's by now) of innocuous seeming words that you just can't use. La…

> Everything that leaves corporate walls must be vetted by legal

Hardly. If Sun can, then sure AA can too:

http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2009/10/16/I-Just-Wan...

Sun was one of the first companies to open the blogging floodgates, officially. [...] I note, with some pride, that we’ve had maybe ten thousand person-years of blogging since we launched, and we’ve never had any material disclosures or legal trouble. Nor have I heard of any over at IBM or Microsoft or Oracle or any of the other companies who empower their people.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#72

Post by gaius »

davi wrote: post #2

More interesting to me, the email that got the guy fired: http://dustincurtis.com/dear_dustin_curtis.html An articulate explanation of how good intentions at big companies can often be implemented only slowly.

But doing the design isn’t the hard part, and I think that’s what a lot of outsiders don’t really get

That's always the way with any non-trivial undertaking. Recognizing this is the hallmark of actual experience.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#73

Post by Confusion »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #24
wakeless wrote: post #4

Its amazing how someone so obviously passionate can be completely screwed over by such bureaucracy. Do HR departments ever have humans running them?

Sadly, the sole purpose of an HR dept. is to keep a company from getting sued. The bigger the company, the more that's their sole focus. This guy admitting anything but the most perfect of environments and purity of process, while not a firing offense to normal folk, opened a vector for the possibility of the hint of something bad being done. So he had to go.

Sadly, the sole purpose of an HR dept. is to keep a company from getting sued.

When that company is a US company, then yes, because of the sue-on-sight culture that has grown there. The same thing wouldn't have happened if this was Air France, Scandinavian Airlines or Iberia Airlines.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#74

Post by billswift »

wakeless wrote: post #4

Its amazing how someone so obviously passionate can be completely screwed over by such bureaucracy. Do HR departments ever have humans running them?

Bureaucrats don't want passion, they want repeatability - see Robin's new post about sports rules http://www.overcomingbias.com/2009/11/sports-signals.html.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#75

Post by billswift »

DarkShikari wrote: post #10
drusenko wrote: post #9

A bit off-topic, but Dustin Curtis' site really hurts my eyes reading on my MacBook pro... I have a really hard time reading his text, and when I look away, I have very pronounced stripe patterns in my vision.

I have the exact reverse here. I love sites and applications that use a dark background; bright backgrounds are like staring into a lamp. It probably depends on the environment you tend to read in; I usually read in a darker room.

The lamp-effect depends on your monitor. I hated white screens when I was using a CRT. Now it doesn't make any difference to me with an LCD.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#76

Post by encoderer »

pxlpshr wrote: post #55
jrockway wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Although I do think AA beats the other US airlines on paper, which is why I haven't tried any others. (I have flown on Southwest. Once. I got to the airport two hours early for a domestic flight. Waited in line for an hour and 45 minutes to check my bag and get a boarding pass. The boarding pass was "the wrong one" and security wouldn't let me through. Ticket agent didn't care. Gate agent didn't care. I then…

I've never had that type of experience at Southwest. Ever. It's my choice airline for domestic but I can see how it's not for everyone. I like the early-bird-gets-the-worm approach to their seating, and I print my ticket before I leave because....... And you checked "a" bag in? On a domestic flight? If I can't carry-on on a domestic flight, then I cut down my packing so I don't look like a woman taking my closet. Whe…

Southwest is a fantastic business and a competent airline. The business-hacker in me gets thrilled by all the little refinements one can see in the Southwest process.

Things that let them offer better service significantly more affordably than their competitors. Processes to make due with fewer attendants, for example.

All I know for certain is that I can fly a 1.5 hour Southwest flight, check my bag for free (if I so desire), get a free soda (or 2), and a free snack.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#77

Post by PostOnce »

jfager wrote: post #50
dschobel wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spare the boycott for a cause which merits it. AA just lost a competent and passionate employee and announced themselves as a lousy place to work for creative people.

Why spare the boycott? It's not like it's difficult to avoid buying American Airlines tickets, and frankly, it sucks to fly with them anyways.

Rickety old planes and charging for things that are free on other airlines (headphones, drinks). What's not to love? Did I mention the competent and attractive staff?

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#78

Post by demallien »

encoderer wrote: post #76
pxlpshr wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never had that type of experience at Southwest. Ever. It's my choice airline for domestic but I can see how it's not for everyone. I like the early-bird-gets-the-worm approach to their seating, and I print my ticket before I leave because....... And you checked "a" bag in? On a domestic flight? If I can't carry-on on a domestic flight, then I cut down my packing so I don't look like a woman taking my closet. Whe…

Southwest is a fantastic business and a competent airline. The business-hacker in me gets thrilled by all the little refinements one can see in the Southwest process. Things that let them offer better service significantly more affordably than their competitors. Processes to make due with fewer attendants, for example. All I know for certain is that I can fly a 1.5 hour Southwest flight, check my bag for free (if I s…

This is really off-topic, so I apologise to everyone, but I really have to point this out to my American 'Net neighbours:

The expression is "to make do", not "to make due". Ask anyone from an English-speaking country that doesn't pronounce "due" and "do" the same (ie, not in North America).

Thankyou.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#79

Post by anApple »

davidw wrote: post #69
jrockway wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Although I do think AA beats the other US airlines on paper, which is why I haven't tried any others. (I have flown on Southwest. Once. I got to the airport two hours early for a domestic flight. Waited in line for an hour and 45 minutes to check my bag and get a boarding pass. The boarding pass was "the wrong one" and security wouldn't let me through. Ticket agent didn't care. Gate agent didn't care. I then…

I missed an AA flight in Munich, and they were complete assholes. Actually, I guess it was their 'partner', BA, but even the people we got on the phone were completely unhelpful. My wife, parents in law, and I ended up on three separate flights to Portland, Oregon. OTOH, on the way back, the nice person at the AA ticket counter saw there were problems with one of our connections, and put us all on a Lufthansa direct…

So why did you miss the plane? Was it your fault or the airlines?

If it was your fault, what do you expect to happen? If you travel by TGV in France and miss your train, your place is also gone and you have to buy a new ticket.

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