"Modern" airline seating

I read the other day about how airlines are having trouble capturing and keeping business travelers. Airline travel represents even more of a buyer’s market than in previous years, according to media reports. Being a Premier Executive flyer on United (a lofty title until you consider the titles “above” me, and I’m still not permitted to use that coveted ‘red carpet’), I thought I would call United and discuss my upcoming business. I observe that while I am a Premier Executive, I almost never get upgraded in cross-country flights. There are simply higher classes of frequent flier who get in line ahead of me. Now, I think this is completely fair – the people who are flying 100,000 miles a year are entitled to ‘dibs’ on seats and service that respect the human condition. However, if this is a buyer’s market, perhaps it is time to review the relationship. This review is also based on some new personal circumstances discussed below.

What do I get as a Premier Executive?

1) The regular economy seats in United provide a profoundly inhumane experience, but are required in order to create an additional class: Economy Plus. You cannot have Economy Plus without Economy. One must provide steerage class seating in order to prod you into an impulse buy, hoping to avoid lower limb thrombosis. As a Premier Executive, I can reserve Economy Plus seats for no cost and in advance. Check!

Buttock View Section

2) While I cannot use the Red Carpet entry (reserved for 1st, business class, Global Services, 1K members), I get to board ahead of Seating Area 1 (think on that for a second: every flight has reasonable people confused that the number one on their ticket does not mean they board first). Why does this matter? Because of the consistently “limited overhead storage” that leads to some unfortunates being forced to check their carry-on luggage – adding 20 minutes to their flight experience on the receiving end in some cases. I don’t have that problem, because I can board first and get my bag into the overhead nearest my seat; a luxury when exiting the aircraft. Check!

So the benefit of being a Premier Executive amounts to this: I get to avoid the miserable flying experience of the people behind me both on line and on the plane. My experience is still mediocre, with no laptop power, no on-demand video, no internet access, uncomfortable armrests, etc. But at least I’m better off than those people back by the lavatories (given the ratio of lavatories to passengers, I call this the Buttock View Section).

Now, I have a new employment situation that will find me on an airplane virtually every week. Since airlines were eager to get business traveler dollars, and I have a lot of business coming up over the next few years, I thought I would engage my current vendor. I offered a modest proposal: Since I would be a higher class flier in a matter of months at my current rate of travel (1k), why not grant me the status now to ensure I continue to procure the services of United for these next few years? Yes, this is unfair to the existing 1K members, and therefore perhaps untenable, but I thought having an idea would help the United rep get creative in her attempt to keep my business. Even if advancing me to 1K early is not “aligned with United policy,” what ideas would she offer to keep my business?

I will spare you the extended phone call, I’m certain you can recreate the experience for yourselves and be fairly accurate. Bottom line: the entire conversation was about their policy. The poor lass was left telling me how important I was to United, while offering absolutely no reason for me to continue buying her product offering. I mentioned the in-flight experience as compared to other airlines – on-demand video on JetBlue and Virgin America, Internet access on Virgin America – and her only response was to talk up the Internet access in the Red Carpet Club. (Two problems there: These clubs are all on the GROUND and membership would cost me over $300/year.)

Personal Preference

My advice to the United Airlines Owners (employees) is this: We have come a long way since Henry Ford was able to offer any color of car, so long as it was black. If you continue to engage your customers by simply repeating your “policy,” and ignoring customer-centric approaches to business, you will lose. You are about to lose me. Does that matter?

For my new job, I commute from DC to San Francisco. If I flew every week, that would be 251,576 miles per year. If every other week, the miles would be 125,788. Currently, I’m flying every week – a pace that will continue for at least the next six months. Yes, I will be a 1K member in a few months – but United’s failure to consider loyalty strategies that are based on something other than schadenfreude regarding my unfortunate fellow travelers is a potentially fatal flaw.

For all other airlines: Does anyone out there need a frequent flier? I have approximately 200k miles per year for the winning conversation. You may reach me in the comments section below.

After 27 years in the national security business, more or less, I have accepted a position to work something far more tractable: the U.S. education system. My new business card says I am the Director for Knowledge and Innovation at the Stupski Foundation: a private, operating foundation in San Francisco whose mission is to improve life options for children of color and poverty. The foundation does so by helping education leaders accelerate academic achievement so that all students graduate with the knowledge, skills, and aspirations that will enable them to thrive in college, career and life.

What follows is my personal observation following an extremely short time with the Foundation – and is certainly subject to change as I learn more about this exciting new challenge (I was kidding, this problem is quite a few postal zones away from tractable). When I write on behalf of the Foundation, I will be doing it somewhere other than on this blog site. These musings here will always represent the addled mind of yours truly.

Specifically, we take the following approach: Until we address the systemic breakdown in the educational “system,” we cannot have enduring change for the children that are our focus. Core to these systemic issues is the failure to innovate. Good ideas are not transferred across the system to other districts or other states. Districts forget core understandings about “what works” when the leadership changes. Innovation helps an industry adapt to change and survive (right, Detroit?). Where is the innovation in education? Where is the research and development (and distribution) that characterizes the innovation engines in other sectors?

At this early date, this is how I understand my new job. Help an extraordinarily talented team by bringing KM principles to bear in building out the R&D capacity for U.S. education. Partner with states, school districts, research firms, technology companies, philanthropic institutions, and an increasingly vital federal Department – developing ways to conduct multi-disciplinary investigations in order to spread “what works” to the most under-served in our educational system. There are great opportunities in methods and technologies, a willingness to invest in meaningful change, and an unprecedented need to develop a ready workforce suited to the emerging global economy.

This is an exceptional and humbling opportunity, I am most fortunate to be presented this chance to serve. It should be quite a ride, and I’m hopeful my friends and casual readers will be there to enjoy it with me. Oh, and if you have any ideas in this area, this is no time to be shy.

Thank you for the opportunity to tell my brief story about the events of 20 January, 2009.  With my Purple Ticket to the North Standing Area in hand, I arrived at the intersection of 1st and Louisiana at 0800 to find a line along the fence and up 1st street.  This line appeared relatively orderly for the most part, but it appeared to be merging with another at the 1st and C St intersection.  I found two policemen standing near the fence and asked them which line was for Purple tickets.  One responded:  ”This along the fence is the Purple line, and it goes up 1st Street.  These other people are from the Yellow ticket line.  We tried to keep them apart earlier, but it’s pretty much a mess now.”

I took my place halfway up 1st, towards 1st and D St.  1st St. was wall to wall people, and we had to squeeze to let the occasional wheelchair through – people headed to 1st and D St.

0944 ET, 1st St

  Inevitably, these people would come back through the line headed South, which told me there may be something blocking 1st and D.  My time  on 1st St was spent avoiding frostbite and watching the officials on a nearby rooftop scan the crowd.  At one point, voices started singing “we shall overcome” very softly – but with a modified second verse: “Deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall get inside someday.”

By 1030, I reached the intersection of 1st and C St again, hopeful that I would be able to enter before the ceremony.  People around me started to question why we weren’t hearing the music scheduled for 1030. This is when I realized there were no loudspeakers near us – if we did not gain entry, we would not be witnesses in any sense of the word.  More troubling, the two policemen I spoke with earlier were now gone.  People were standing on the jersey wall barriers, and the line had lost all integrity.  The crowd was packed in tighter, and was merely a large disorganized mass covering the 1st and C St intersection.  This satellite view from 1119 ET  

1119 ET, The "Line" at the Purple Gate

shows the extent and organization of the Purple ticket line.  By 1100, the rooftop officials were also gone, and the only authority consisted of a woman’s voice over a megaphone repeating ‘This line is for Purple ticket holders only!’ This was followed by many holding their tickets aloft – all of them purple.  The lack of security alarmed many, and people started to give up, voicing their fear of mob dynamics.

I gave up and headed towards Union Station, but noticed that the crowd of people further East along C St appeared to be closer to the actual entrance – and so I joined them.  I eventually got within 30 feet of the entrance, but it was noon and the doors slowly closed on us.  A few voices from the back called out for us to rush the gate, but thankfully this idea was shouted down quickly – there were parents with children in the street and, for once, maturity won out.  Given that our group was physically pushed back as the gates closed, I believe the security personnel and gate would have been easily overwhelmed had we taken a more radical stand.  People around me heard the oath of office in my wife’s voice, as she repeated it from home over my cell phone as it happened.

What you cannot see from this satellite photo is the elderly woman of color from Kentucky who came with her special ticket to be part of something ineffably transforming.  I will not soon forget her quiet tears as the doors closed on her day.  The most watched event in our lifetime was invisible to her and thousands of others.  

1206 ET, 1st and C St

Beyond my personal anger, and this woman’s irretrievable loss, this is my chief concern: According to the Washington Post, authorities claimed initially that all ticket holders were admitted, a claim made around 1330 ET and then quickly retracted. Why would officials lack information about the crowds outside the Purple and Blue gates, fully 90 minutes after the gates closed?  It appears local authorities had no situational awareness regarding the crowd, a most troubling observation given our times.  In addition, there are anecdotes claiming that people with Silver tickets overwhelmed their gate and obtained access to the Mall grounds.  If true, this means people were on the Mall without having gone through the extensive security screening. Again, local authorities did not seem aware of this.

Beyond the lack of any visible authority outside the Purple gate, the sight of police chiefs congratulating themselves on a job well done – self-praise that appears to have been based on an incomplete awareness of events – is most troubling.  On this day, law enforcement was not good – it was lucky.

[Update 1/25: Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Gainer finally "gets it."  This just reinforces my point that basic situational awareness was not present - no presence, confused roles and responsibilities, and reported communication problems among authorities according to this Washington Post article.  Their latest excuse:  They depended on a large number of no-shows, based on past inaugurations.  Classic prediction error, even in the face of data patterns that indicated people felt, shall we say, differently about this new president.]

Listening carefully to the commentary about a certain young platform diver representing China, I pick up some language odd to my Western ear. Pausing the DVR, I ask my bride if she heard. I rewind, and listen again.

“initially, she was selected for gymnastics progam. Then, a few years later, she was switched to diving.”

It was the use of the passive voice that struck me. After hearing interviews with other athletes, who speak of their personal choice, I had scoffed at the odds that people made such life-changing decisions at such young ages. Did Tiger Woods really choose his life, after all, when he appeared on television at age 3? Did the Williams sisters have a real choice?

But in this circumstances, I faulted or scoffed at over-eager parents. I hadn’t fully considered the children whose State selected their life direction. My bride and I chatted briefly, lamenting the loss of individual freedoms for so many millions. A nagging voice, however, still whispered to me regarding the relative freedoms for children of stage parents here as well.

When I re-started the DVR, the hints of moral equivalence vanished.

“She was switched to diving when the program heads learned she didn’t like to eat. She is 4′10 and approx 65lbs. She says she prefers being thin, and the coaches realized she was therefore better suited to diving.”

So faced with possible anorexia nervosa, a stage parent would likely seek medical attention for their charge. The Chinese State, however, re-assigned Xin to a sport more suited for an underweight if troubled Chinese Girl.

These Olympics are getting harder to watch with each passing day.

Crosby Stills & Nash in the DC Suburbs

So the Crosby Stills & Nash tour rolled into Wolf Trap last night.  Perfect weather, white wine kiosks, seats under the canopy – a perfect night.  Gentle times, listening to legends (this is their 40th year playing together) and grooving to nostalgia.

Until Graham Nash decided to play Joel Rafael’s “This is My Country.”  Seems talk of jackasses in public office and lyrics that include “And I know when I say these words that I am not alone/It’s time to stop them in their tracks/it’s time to take our country back” were not expected by this boomer crowd who seems to have forgotten the muddy field in New York where the boys got their big break.  

Cries of “music not politics” and “nobody cares” came from some (a minority) in the audience, prompting Nash to point an accusing finger and yell “we care!”  Crosby came over to rest a hand on his shoulder, and Nash sat at the keyboard, with some energy lost.

Crosby walked to the microphone to begin telling a story, obviously trying to regain the audience, but a few jeers continued.  ”Well, ok.  I was going to tell a joke, but you wouldn’t get it anyway.  We’ll just sing, that’s all you want.”

Most of the audience was either thrilled with their political statements, or just respectful of them.  If you go to hear CSN, you may hear anti-war politics.  During a war, count on it.  I am curious about the people who were offended, but more sad that the legends realized some considered them curios.  Pleasant aging museum pieces, who shouldn’t upset anyone anymore.  Their audience has jobs, 401ks (many appeared to be drawing rather than depositing into these retirement accounts), and in the case of this audience – government positions and security clearances.  

Amidst the pinot grigio, the single defiant whiff of herb outside the men’s room, and the shuffling of former revolutionaries – Crosby Stills & Nash have not changed.  Everyone should be ok with that.

Years from now, I hope to play their songs for my grandchildren and tell them of the one night I was finally able to see them live.  I won’t leave anything out.