Well yesterday I got into a (somewhat heated) debate over my last post, Southwest and the “Tail(s) of Two Hotties.” Granted it was with a friend, actually one of my best friends, who is just as opinionated as I am, so go figure. But I have a lot of respect for him, he raised some good points, and I would like to re-post them here. Note: I did ask him to sign up for the site but he’s rather busy as the founder of a big company and so I understand as he just doesn’t have any time except for that required of an occasional visit now and then. For the sake of anonymity, I’ll just refer to him as LKKIII.

My friend’s main points:

• Southwest should not be telling it’s customers how to dress
• Hottie #1 is not looking for 15 minutes of fame
• Southwest should put it’s customers first, not it’s employees
• My friend’s quote: “I wouldn’t have thought you’d have a problem with skimpy dressed women on airplanes, I was surprised”

I’m going to address my friend’s points now.

Southwest should not be telling it’s customers how to dress
I agree, but I guess I just didn’t do a good enough job of saying that in the post- My main focus was on the 15 minutes of fame element, the part I still disagree with as far as everything is concerned.

Hottie #1 is not looking for 15 minutes of fame
My friend said that Hottie #1 is being offered money and invites to appear on national TV, as opposed to pursuing it. Well I suppose that’s true. But isn’t Hottie #2? I can’t imagine she isn’t… So where has she been?

Southwest should put it’s customers first, not it’s employees
Ah…. Okay well I understand that’s a staple of modern business today, and I’m not going to argue with someone of my friend’s statue and position in the business world over it. I’m not saying that’s wrong either.

But exactly not doing that is one of the things that has made Southwest “work.” What I mean by that is this: In an industry where employee morale seems to determine to a large extent an airline’s ultimate success or failure, Southwest has demonstrated that by empowering their employees and making them feel important, they then become owners and therefore show a higher sense of concern for the company’s overall well being by default. Southwest president Colleen Barrett recently stated “We are in the customer-service business; we happen to offer air transportation. We consider our employees to be our number one customer, our passengers our second and our shareholders our third. If we give great customer service to our employees as leaders, they will in turn provide it to their customers, who are the passengers. And the rewards will be there for our shareholders.” I believe that any company is only as good as it’s employees.

My friend’s quote: “I wouldn’t have thought you’d have a problem with skimpy dressed women on airplanes, I was surprised”
I don’t. In fact the last thing I typed was: “Maybe Southwest will see all this as a wake up call and finally revert to it’s old (and much more preferred - Author) flight attendant uniforms…? Fingers crossed”

And with that I leave you with this: Go to Southwest’s website and take advantage of their new “Skimpy Fares” sale!

And to my friend, thank you for your interesting viewpoints and I hope to one day see you join up here.

~Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials | |

Kyla Ebbert - Hottie #1Well it sure seems like Southwest Airlines has been in the news a lot lately, and none of these recent news worthies have had anything to do with cheap fares. First it was an attractive, young, and very blond Hooters Waitress named Kyla Ebbert. Then it was Setara Qassim, an equitably hot brunette who was asked by a Southwest Flight Attendant to cover up as well. [Her assets also, presumably? Author].

I won’t get into the details of either [newsworthy?] story as the networks have done a fine job of saturating us with that. But, I did come away from both of these ‘ordeals’ with additional observations (other then the obvious) that I’d like to share with you. And for the sake of complete grammatical laziness, from now on I will refer to the young women, Kyla Ebbert and Setara Qassim, as Hottie #1 and Hottie #2, respectively.

Okay, where do I begin? Well for starters a lot of people are saying that Hottie #1’s skirt wasn’t too short, but I did find a reference to something shall we say, quite interesting. In doing research for this article, I found this: On NationalLedger.Com, they talk about the Good Morning America interview with Matt Lauer, specially when Hottie #1 sat down. You could say it was sort of like Sharon Stone’s famous “exposure” in the movie Basic Instinct. Except with panties on (white panties, to be exact). And this was the same skirt Hottie #1 was wearing on the Southwest flight. Go figure! Unless it’s already been edited, you can see what I’m talking about by clicking this link, you pervert.

Moving on, if you’re a beautiful young female with a stronger balance sheet then ExxonMobil and a flight attendant tells you to cover up, how far you run with it when you get off the airplane is up to you- Or, you could just jump right out of the airplane at 35,000 feet and start early. It sure seems as though Hottie #1 did just that, doesn’t it? I mean she’s been on every news broadcast around. I wouldn’t be surprised if she even goes on Dr. Phil to work through her Southwest inspired “trauma.”

Update: Since starting this article I’ve learned that Hottie #1 is really going on Dr. Phil! Yes!!! The show is set to air on Tuesday, September 18, 2007. If you don’t believe me, CLICK HERE or HERE. Folks I wish I could make this stuff up, really, I’d be in a whole different career.

Now, I don’t want you to think I don’t have any compassion here folks, really… I do! What both of these women went through must have been embarrassing. I just have a problem in general with what people are willing to do in order to get 15 minutes of fame. Southwest said it apologised back in August and it should have been left at that.

So, having to deal with one woman’s pursuit of fame at their expense, Southwest has decided to take this story run with it themselves. And so in their typical good old fashioned humor, they’ve turned it into a marketing ploy with the Skimpy Fare sale for the next 10 days… And I say good for Southwest.

But at first Southwest wasn’t going to apologise for anything. In wanting to uphold the time honored tradition of putting their employees first, Southwest president Colleen Barrett said in a speech recently at Texas Christian University “I just can’t do that to the customer service supe (supervisor), he handled the situation discreetly and with patience, and he did not deny her boarding.” According to that same source Barret also said “I’m sure she will probably have a movie contract by next week…”

Setara Qassim
Hottie #2Hottie #2 has yet to do much of anything along any of the same attention getting lines (that I could find), other then this interview. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps she realized she actually wouldn’t get long lasting fame and fortune from it.

Out of curiosity though, I did an extensive Internet search on Hottie #2, however. Other then the usual single news article, re-printed on various news sources, I did find something interesting. Hottie #2’s picture came up on a WireImage.Com listing from 2006. In case you’ve never heard of WireImage, their About Us page says in part that they’re “an authority for celebrity imagery.” Here’s the picture I’m referring to: here.

I presume it’s the same person as in the WireImage photo. That distinctive name, same hair color, figure, etc. It was taken at the Korn “See You on the Other Side” Tour Launch Party at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Friday January 13, 2006 in LA. And actually I have no idea what to make of it other then she’s Hollywood Elite who frequents such events. But WireImage took the time to take her pic, cite her name, etc and I just find that interesting. A Google search of the other girl (her sister?) in the pic doesn’t return anything meaningful and life-changing either. Oh well, poo-hoo I’m devastated.

And with that folks… This dog, goat, horse & pony show must come to an end. Or will it? Maybe Southwest will see all this as a wake up call and finally revert to it’s old (and much more preferred - Author) flight attendant uniforms…?

Fingers crossed!
~Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials | |

This is my least favorite day of the year. I wasn’t even going to make a post about it. I’m so disgusted by the events of September 11th, 2001 that I can’t stand to think about it- What it did to over 3,000 people… What it did to the world we live in now…. What it did to my industry. All of it… I hate it.

But then it dawned on me that people are starting to forget that day. Not that they’re forgetting the actual date, but rather, they’re forgetting how that day made them feel. People are like that, it’s just more comfortable for them. But that works to our disadvantage, because as soon as we forget, we get attacked again.

The videos of the jets slamming into the towers on 9/11 should be played every September 11th, if that’s what it’s going to take to keep people from forgetting.

Goodnight all
~Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials | |

It’s quickly becoming apparent that Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza either…

A: Doesn’t fully read his emails, or
B: Is truly the rude, arrogant corporate suit that he came across as of late.

Recently passengers James and Christine had sent Baldanza a lengthy, well thought out and carefully written email regarding the customer service (or lack there of) they had experienced on a recent Spirit exPIRiment from Orlando to Atlanta.

Baldanza then sent this internal email out:
“We owe [the passenger] nothing as far as I’m concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He’s never flown us before anyway and will be back when we “save him a penny.”

(As a side note, the ’save him a penny’ line fully validated the author’s recent ‘Pick-A-Penny’ spoofs, although the spoofs were in no way meant to portray Spirit Airlines in any way, shape, or form, either inferred or implied. It was still validating though, none the less)

In what could only have been a complete surprise to James and Christine, Baldanza must have mistakenly hit the ‘Reply All’ button when he sent his internal email response out, because they received a copy of it. In case you didn’t know, hitting the ‘Reply All’ button means sending a reply message not only to an e-mail’s original author, but also to any other recipients that were listed in the original To or Cc lists.

Upon receiving Baldanza’s response, Christine promptly forwarded it to blogger Alexander C. Rudloff where it has since garnered the attention of not only the entire travel blogosphere, but also MSNBC. Ooop-sy.

“Let him tell the world how bad we are.”

Indeed, Mr. Baldanza, he did just tell the world how bad you were.
~Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials | |

A large portion of this podcast is spent reporting on the poor situation in the airline industry. Most of us have heard how bad it is, if not just bring up the Yahoo Aviation and Aerospace Page and surely somewhere on there you’ll find a related story.

In my heart of hearts I really don’t think any of this stuff is purely intentional on an individual scale of the people involved. But following this paragraph I have listed what I think are very strong indicators that point to the heart of the recent airline failures, in this post 9/11 recovery period.

Durable Competitive Advantage
The airlines need to solve their problems on a massive scale but I doubt that they will anytime soon, due to the concept of durable competitive advantage. According to this article, durable competitive advantage is, in its simplest form, the scale of a business in its field vs. its peers. In the case of the airline industry, with it’s post 9/11 cost cutting mentality, as long as airline ABC is putting out crappy service with low employee morale, so will airline XYZ. Interestingly though the article states that the airline industry has the worst durability of any business sector, and if I were an outside investor I would have to agree. But I’m not and so I see this concept as it can be applied here- Look at it from a standpoint within the airline industry and it truely becomes a notion of durability among peers; a temporary durability then, if you will. It’s ‘whatever works to keep the airline afloat’ and the ‘do more with less’ philosophy that have been in place since 9/11. Both seem to have worked out quite well infact, as far as the bottom lines are concerned.

Severe Weather
Now we turn to the massive weather delays on the east coast earlier this year, specifically with regard to what the airlines are willing do long term about it right now. An airline will not spend any money to beef up any department (IE the ramps and ramp support in it’s major hubs) so long as it has durable competitive advantage in its field vs. its peers. Again, if every airline is putting out crappy service what’s the point in spending money to get any better? So a passenger rants that they’ll never fly airline ABC again and they go to airline XYZ. Eventually airline XYZ will piss them off too. In theory, they would go through every airline out there until they’re back at airline ABC again. And this concept has worked fine as far as the bottom line is concerned for all the carriers. That’s why we haven’t seen any real change to the under staffing and therefore it’s contribution to low employee morale, even now that the airlines have returned to profitability.

And So a Front Liner’s Standpoint - Do More with Less
Whether you’re a mechanic, a ramper, a gate agent, or a pilot, when you’ve got a 7 course meal on your plate so to speak from the company with only room enough in your stomach for an orange, what do you think is going to happen? You’ll start eating as much as you can until you get fatigued. Then you’ll call for help for the rest, except no one responds, because there is no one there. They’ve also got too much on their own plates to help you, let alone eat what they have on their plates to eat. Eventually as much as everyone doesn’t like it (morale) they do what they have to in order to make it all work somehow, which usually means somethings going to get swept off everyone’s plates. Eventually morale is lower then it’s ever been before because the front liners feel the company doesn’t care about them anymore, since they’re doing the work of three for the price of two thirds.
——————————————–
Morale (Wikipedia):
Morale, also known as esprit de corps, is a term for the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others. The term applies particularly to military personnel and to members of sports teams, but is also applicable in business and in any other organizational context, particularly in times of stress or controversy.
——————————————–
The cycle continues until customers suffer, there’s public outcry and ‘disbelief’ and that’s when the government steps in to force changes. And that’s when the company’s finally put out (huge) sums, but to the PR and recovery campaigns. In fact, you can even see this cycle just about everywhere today as a result of the ‘Wal-Mart Way.’

When it comes to stopping this cycle, the FAA is exactly the same pain in the arse to airline managements as the unions are- On a broad scale they are both fighting against the same thing.

If you were an airline manager, so long as ‘the Joneses’ were putting out the same crappy product as your airline, you’re gonna be fine.

And that’s today’s airline’s durable competitive advantage.
~Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials | |