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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

#91

Post by wizard_2 »

Imprecate wrote: post #59
jrockway wrote: post #16

Ouch. I have top-tier status on AA, and they will be getting a note from me about this. Not cool. That said, I am still confused as to why Dustin thinks AA's website is so relevant to its business model. Their website is not very Web 2.0, it's true. But, they make up for that... I can fly non-stop from Chicago (my home airport) to thousands of cities around the world on AA quite cheaply. They have three-class interna…

Agreed. Dustin just comes off as whiny and self-important, though I don't think the employee should have been fired considering the content of his email. Also, booking flights is very straightforward on aa.com. Dustin could have provided some substantive comments on usability, but instead simply called it ugly and slapped together a minimalist southwest.com knock-off. The only thing that really annoys me about the si…

Is he whiny? He's a designer, this is his 'blogazine' about design, of course his post is going to be about AA's design. Later after posting from a result of his and Mr. X's actions Mr. X go fired. If I was Dustin I would have been concerned and outraged too and dam well would have written about it.

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

#92

Post by symptic »

And this, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is a lesson in why establishing a brilliant culture in your company is of utmost important. It's amazing to me to see all the praises in this thread for JetBlue and would be interesting to see a case study comparing the differences in culture between the two brands.

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

#93

Post by symptic »

drusenko wrote: post #12
DarkShikari wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm quite OK with a lot of dark sites, but this one produces an insane "buzzing" feeling. Might have something to do with the gray-ish text. I couldn't get through the entire article even if I wanted to. I'm reading in a dark-ish room right now. I suspect it may have something to do with the type of monitor used to view the site, because on mine the physical effects are very pronounced.

If he changed the background color to a very dark shade of grey rather than straight black, it would lessen the contrast and ease the strain on your eyes. If you're feeling buzziness from reading inverted type, there is also a good chance your screen is at an unhealthy brightness. Great for picking out contrast, but painful on the eyes. One trick my friend taught me was to place a light source off in the distance to the side, to break up the focused source of light from the screen. It cured his computer-induced headaches immediately, along with lowering his brightness.

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

#94

Post by PostOnce »

pyre wrote: post #87
PostOnce wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> Did I mention the competent and attractive staff? I realize that you're just trying to rag on AA, but I don't like the implication that 'unattractive' people shouldn't be airline employees.

It's not the physical attractiveness of the staff I'm talking about, it's the lack of enforcement of a dress-code/personal hygiene policy. AA is the Walmart of airlines.

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

#95

Post by pingugirl »

goatforce5 wrote: post #82
enneff wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good idea. Let's consign everyone who flies with a dog to a particular airline, so the rest of us can avoid them.

When I flew from the UK to the US with my cat (in cargo) I think the other passengers got annoyed with the flight attendant coming up frequently to reassure me that my cat was (probably) fine. It was a really bumpy flight - worst i've been on. Full marks to Virgin Atlantic for the pet cargo service. They really go above and beyond for long haul pet travel: http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/passengerinformation/tr.…

did the TSA guys examine your kitty?

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

#96

Post by ciupicri »

jf wrote: post #43
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…

Thanks, this is a great reminder: Work email is strictly for work, personal email for everything else.

You're right, but the AA web site was his work, not a personal project.

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

#97

Post by cakesy »

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…

Yes, the guy is clearly not a "team player", not a "loyal" employee, he had to go.

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

#98

Post by cakesy »

raquo wrote: post #58

> Very truly yours (and hoping I don’t get fired for being completely incompetent) Last line from his email, ironically.

That is not ironic. I expect people to use words they don't understand anywhere else, but come on hacker news, I expect more from you and the people who comment here.

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

#99

Post by shard »

jrockway wrote: post #66
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…

I checked my bag so I wouldn't have to buy 3 ounce plastic bottles. I still check my bag, even though I "know better", because unpacking at the checkpoint is a big pain. I don't think I carry anything on that doesn't have to be taken out of my backpack.

Does security still prohibit >3oz bottles? I've flown domestic and international out of LAX this year, and they never bothered asking or checking.

Also, I have to open my bag anyways, it has my laptop in it.

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

#100

Post by Vivtek »

ErrantX wrote: post #62
Vivtek wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, when I flew from Puerto Rico to Florida with my dog this spring, JetBlue not only didn't have facilities to fly my dog, they had no answer to my dilemma at all. And instead of refunding my ticket, they gave me credit, with JetBlue, who ... can't fly my dog. And then they said, "Well, have a nice day." No help, no money back, no nothing. It took them fifteen minutes even to tell me that they couldn'…

I don't wish to be rude but did it not occur to you to check they could handle your dog when booking?

Actually, no. I'd never flown with a dog before and was a rank amateur; it didn't occur to me that dog crates might be a different category of luggage/cargo. I freely admit that this was my fault (in a way), and I'm not saying they should have flown the dog anyway - but the way they handled it was not good. Instead of just saying, "I'm sorry, we can't fly dogs because they're a different category of luggage we're not permitted to handle here" and refunding my money, they were very strange about it and didn't refund my money.
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