Category: Uncategorized

Ooh, a direct hit

Take this, American Airlines. This is what you get for costing me sixteen hours of bachelor party in Vegas. What follows is my letter to the airline that I mailed this morning. They’re going to be sorry if they make me bust out the BBB. You don’t mess with a man’s bachelor party.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to tell you about the worst airline experience I have ever had. On July 20th, I left with my brother and two friends to fly from Dulles Airport in Virginia to Las Vegas, Nevada for the weekend. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:26PM, arriving in Las Vegas via Dallas, Texas at 10:40PM. Our troubles began when the first flight was delayed, and we were told that we would miss our connection in Dallas, and that there were no more flights to Las Vegas from Dallas, either that night, or the next morning. Rather than risk being stranded indefinitely in Texas, we returned home after being booked on an America West flight through Phoenix the next morning.

Unfortunately, in the morning, our flight was again delayed, such that we would miss our connection. American called one of my fellow travelers, and we managed to get a flight for the four of us from Washington National airport through Newark. We rushed to National and arrived approximately one hour before our scheduled departure at 7:17AM. When we got to the America West counter, we were forced to literally run back and forth between the American counter and the America West counter, trying to get the proper documentation so that our boarding passes could be printed. At approximately 7:14AM, we had our passes and rushed to security, assured by the America West counter agent that the flight knew we were coming and would wait for us.

However, this was a lie, and the flight was already backing away from the gate when we arrived at approximately 7:19AM. We returned to the American counter and were booked on a flight through Continental at 11AM. Continental finally provided us with good service. When our 11AM flight was delayed, again making us miss our connection, the Continental agent found us another flight that left immediately and brought us to Las Vegas, through Cleveland, arriving at 2:30PM the day after we were scheduled to arrive.

I can understand delays. I understand that they happen sometimes, and sometimes there is nothing the airline can do. But when we are forced to change flights three times, change airports, and do all of the running back and forth to get the proper documentation ourselves, it becomes unacceptable. At no time did any employee of American Airlines apologize. At no time did any employee acknowledge that we had been subjected to unreasonable delays. The only thing that American employees did was dump us off on other airlines, hoping the problem would go away.

I have already written to you using the complaint submission form at aa.com. However, the 1500 character limit did not allow me to fully explain the situation. The reference number is XXX.

I travel a lot. My fiancée’s family owns a travel agency. At this point, I have no interest in ever flying with American Airlines again. You have made a mistake, which is understandable. But you have done absolutely nothing to fix it, which is unacceptable. Please contact me as soon as possible if you have not already done so as a result of my complaint online.

Thank you very much

I’ll keep you all posted on what transpires. I also submitted a thank you through Continental.com’s web form, because I figure I shouldn’t only contact the company when they screw up.

Look, the ABA agrees with me

CNN.com – ABA: Bush violating Constitution – Jul 24, 2006

A little while back I wrote about how some people thought President Bush’s signing statements might be overstepping the bounds of his position:

Honestly, when you have prominent Republicans like Specter saying that our Republican President is overstepping his bounds, we’re all in trouble.

And now the American Bar Association, which might know a thing or two about the law, says that, sure enough, President Bush is doing “grave harm to the separation of powers doctrine”.

Perhaps more worrisome is that those very same people who may lose power to the President are backing him in this.

The ABA report said President Reagan was the first to use the statements as a strategic weapon, and that it was encouraged by then-administration lawyer Samuel Alito — now the newest Supreme Court justice.

That suggests that the Supreme Court might not fight back very hard if something relating to this pracitce came across their respective desks.  It also means that the signing statements might carry more weight if the Supreme Court thinks they’re okay.  Now, that may be reading too much into what could be a coincidence.  But when it comes to the Bush administration serving its own interests under the guise of fighting terror and at the expense of our freedoms, I’m not inclinded to give much benefit of the doubt.

Im back

And boy, do I have some complaints for you.  I have complaints about American Airlines first, who decided that I didn’t need to get to Vegas Thursday night, but that getting me there Friday afternoon without so much as an apology was just fine.  I have complaints about the place where we’re getting married, who have now charged my credit card twice when they were only owed once, and a complaint about Discover, who blocked the first charge, then let a duplicate charge go through two weeks later, putting me over my limit.  I also have complaints about Vegas, primarily that it was way too hot and I didn’t win every time I played craps, but those are probably not really so legitimate.

In any event, I will be posting the saga of our trip out there soon.  It’ll be fun, just wait.

John Scalzi on marketing

Whatever: How (And How Not) To Market To Me When I’m in Blogger Mode

I think I’ve linked to John Scalzi’s blog before.  He’s a science fiction writer and a blogger and I’m sure some other things, too.  This particular post is about two different marketing pitches, and why one’s bad and one’s good.  The basic idea of his post is that mass marketing, even when it’s trying to be slick (Or maybe especially if it’s trying to be slick), comes off as being intrusive and doesn’t work.  At least not on smart people like us.  But if you take a minute to show that you know a little about the person you’re marketing to, and then offer something worthwhile, people will listen.

I understand that companies want to sell their products.  I don’t fault them for wanting to make a buck.  But intrusive marketing drives me up the wall.  My blog doesn’t have a following like Scalzi’s (yet), so I’m not on anyone’s radar (Except for a few F’ing spammers).  But if I get to that point, I’ll probably react a lot like he did.

By the way, sending me free stuff is always encouraged.  If you send me free stuff, I promise to review it on the site.  I don’t promise that anyone will read it, and I don’t promise to review it positively, but I promise to review it honestly.

Thats what Ive been trying to tell you

Daily Kos: Happy Blogosphere Day!

The most telling part of this whole post is the final line: “Our biggest enemy isn’t the GOP. It’s our own inaction.”  That’s exactly my problem.  Both with everyone else, and with myself.  I complain, and I vote, but that’s about it.  I need to find a way to get more involved.

Actually, I think I should run for office.  I’ll destroy bi-partisanship and return the government to the people.  Would you vote for me?

CNN ticker is crazy

Anyone have the CNN headline widget on their Google homepage? I do. Someone over there has a weird sense of humor, because they like to juxtapose the weirdest articles. Currently, they have these three headlines displayed:

I mean, sorry, John, I loved Grosse Pointe Blank, but your stalker is not headline news. Good luck with that, though.