JetBlue Fail

The plan was perfect.   Fly out to the Phoenix, AZ post-Christmas to escape the New England weather for a week.  For New Year’s Eve I’d be driving up to Las Vegas to stay at the Hilton and enjoy quality gambling, free drinks, and amazing sights for a couple nights.  Then fly back in early January, refreshed, tan, and rich off my craps’ winnings.  Everything was set, and then… the storm hit.

The storm hit on Sunday so I figured I’d be fine flying out on a Tuesday, but to my despair when I went to check-in for my flight I received the wonderful message, shown below, which read “The status of your flight has changed, please see a JetBlue crewmember at our airport Full-Service counter.”  Clearly this was JetBlue’s first failure as I was not at the airport checking in on my laptop.

I had to go and check the status of my flight to find out that the ‘status change’ of my flight is that it was cancelled.  Then I had to go back to the homepage to find a contact link to uncover the 800 number to give them a call to try and fix things.  This was clearly a pain in the neck, especially after the already aggravating discover that my flight perfect plan was being disrupted.  This failure could be easily remedied by simply providing a more effective and actionable error message such as:

So my next step was clearly to give JetBlue a call to try and (i) see what’s going on, and (ii) reschedule my flight.  This experience was also a poor one.  I called 1800JETBLUE and here is the EXACT transcript from my first ~10 calls (that’s right, I suffered through this 10 times).

JetBlue Automated System (JBAS): “Thank you for calling JetBlue airways, para Espagnol porfafor marke el numero neueve. We are currently experiencing extremely high call volumes with very long hold times.  If you wish to proceed with this call, please choose from the following options: for flight status press 1, for reservations press 2, for getaways packages press 3.  Press pound to repeat these options.”

Me: [enter 1]

JBAS: “Due to extremely high call volumes all agents are currently busy.  Please stay on the line while we try your call again.”

(Hold music for roughly 7 seconds)

JBAS: “All agents are still busy, please stay on the line while we try to extend your call again.”

(Hold music for roughly 7 seconds)

JBAS: “Thank you for calling JetBlue Airways, we are currently experiencing extremely high call volumes with very long hold times.  If you need to book a flight or check your real-time flight status, please visit our website at JetBlue.com. If you need to speak to a JetBlue representative please try back at a later time.  We are doing the best we can to manage our call volumes at this time.  This call will end now, but we look forward to helping you as soon as we can.”

[call disconnected]

As I said, this process was repeated like 8 times (and then another 5 times to get the transcript perfected).  So my next step was to try and change my flight manually.  I went through the necessary clicks to get to the flight search page and got the results shown below.

Basically, “Whoops, we didn’t find any flights that matched your search” was JetBlue’s way of telling me that Monday 12/27 through Friday 12/31 all flights had been oversold / cancelled.  Leaving me with the sole option of flying out on Saturday, January 1st, just to fly back on Sunday, January 2nd.  Brilliant!  or not given that it’s roughly a 6 hour flight and the Las Vegas drive is 5 hours, and the hotel was booked for Thursday night and Friday night.

So my plan is in a tattered state at this point.  My wonderful girlfriend is in Arizona waiting for me (she flew out before Christmas to be with her family and it is her I was going to visit and travel to Vegas with) and I have no flight scheduled to get me out there.  I will work on getting a hold of JetBlue, and will return to this once I have more information.

[update]

So I was clever enough to utilize the flight status phone hotline and then press zero to access the non-advertised access an operator option.  While I was forced to listen to songs like “Answer in the Sky” by Elton John for 44 minutes and 21 seconds this option at least put me in a queue to talk with a live agent.  After the extended hold time I got a live agent on the phone and 15 minutes later both my flight to and from Phoenix were cancelled and fully refunded (well done on that part at least JetBlue).  My well laid plan fell apart and now my girlfriend is flying home on December 31st so we can at least be together on New Year’s Eve, but  with our hotel room in Vegas left empty and alone.

Final Score

New England Weather – 1, Travel Plans – 0

Holiday Delays

I am sitting in a massage chair in the Buffalo Airport getting a $1 massage because my flight to Boston has been delayed from 6:21 to 8:20. I am kind of irked at this even though its the first delay I can remember in a long time.

The airport is dead. Other than the beeping of a transport car someplace far off there is not another person in sight. I’m tempted to go shoot a jamiroquoi-esque video on the moving walkways with me Storm video camera.

My massage is over with, it was bad but I’m going to invest another dollar to try its counterpart chair.

I did not bring my laptop with me which I’m of course regretting, especially because of the delay but also because of Google’s free airport WiFi promotion which I want to test out.

The airport is suprisingly calming to me with nobody around. There passenger cars have just passed by though- all in the same direction towards the end of the terminal.

I am going to investigate as my second bad 3 minute massage has just ended.

Boston vacation

Hi faithful followers! I’m guessing there is at least 1 of you out there anyways. I flew into Boston last Tuesday and have been here since then. I spent Thursday and Friday working, wednesday doing a literature review that is never ending, stopped by Bentley for an afternoon, watched a few movies and was fortunate enough to finally fix my other xbox which gives me a new project to work on in modifying a new case. I spent the week with Katie of course and have a Charles River boat cruise tomorrow for dinner through her work that could be fun. I bought 2 pairs of jeans. I also got to walk around the set for The Town which was being filmed on boylston street right by the machine and the Howard Johnson.

In IPS news, I found a new iphone game that was recommended by Megan Fox called Sally Spa. Its addicting, easy and fun, so what more could you ask for right? I also got an iTouch courtesy of my last consulting HFIDO project so I’m pretty excited to play with that.

I fly home Tuesday morning and have class after. Bye!

International Orientation Summary aka My Trip to Japan

So i’ve decided that by not frequently posting while on my trip to Japan I basically screwed myself since i’ll never recount the entire trip in writing now…  and even if i did try i’d surely forget the small bits of the trip that while minor, really made the trip exceptional…

So i will eventully post all the pictures here which should give you a good account of everything that went down, but basically here are 10 highlights/realizations in no particular order that I think are pretty good at summing up my trip:

1) Gaspanic - very americanized bar that we visited on the first night… and then almost every other night we were in tokyo.  There are actually 3 of them in all, we frequented 2 and had a great time.

2) Intelligent Design – Throughout Japan I was constantly impressed with how they had design solutions for everything we had in America, but done exactly how it should be done.  Like they found a problem and then went, hmmm, how can we solve this problem… vs in America where they say hmmm, what can we use to get around this issue quickly.  Here are some examples, but there will be many  more once i go through the hundreds of photos I have.  These are just the ones I thought of off the top of my head.

Example 1: Subway gates that remain open all the time and only close when someone tries to sneak in.  Unlike America this makes entering the subway system very quick and efficient.

Example 2: Culinary Transaction of Ichi-Ban Ramen Noodles.  This eating experience (as Drew will attest) was the most efficient culinary transaction i’ve ever experienced and would be massively successful if placed in a heavy traffic commercial locale (i.e. Prudential Building, South Station, etc…).  This was also quite possibly the best food I had in Japan.  I’m sure i had something better or comparable, but this meal (which i had twice) really sticks out in my mind.  Here’s how it works:

Step 1: You purchase ticket stubs for the food you want from a vending machine outside the restaurant

Step 2:  You enter the restaurant and choose a seat based on the interface below.  Blue lights indicate taken seats which are turned on when someone is sitting on the stool (presumably pressure activated).

Step 3:  You lay your tickets on the table in front of you and press a button. The chef comes and brings you the food based on the tickets and a sheet you circle choices on for how to prepare the food (ex. how much pork, how spicey, how hard/soft you want the noodles, etc…).  You never have to speak or say a word or deal with a bill.   You will notice in the image that the seat is like a mini-cubicle so you don’t have to deal with anybody at all.  Also there is a water spicket in the left corner so you can refill your drink whenever you please.  The chopstix wrapper also had items you could order (same as the vending machine) if you decided you wanted something else, by circling them and then handing the wrapper to the chef.  It takes about 1 minute to get your food after the tickets are picked up.

Example 3: Price tags that are digital so they can be changed quickly based on fluctuating prices or new items being placed on the shelf.

Example 4: Japanese Currency.  The Japanese currency is the Yen.  The current exchange rate is about 100 Yen to 1USD.  So basically 1 Yen = 1 Penny.  So why is there system better than ours?  Because they don’t have change AND dollars… they just have then Yen.  How much is this piece of fruit?  840 yen, so if i give them 1000 yen, my change is simply 160.  Instead of it being $8 and 40 cents, with change of $1 and 60 cents when i pay $10.  This is not a huge improvement but it did make life much easier for me.  And it makes currency transactions faster and more efficient.  And yes, this orange was $8.40… and it was not worth it.

3) Japanese Proactive Hospitality.  On multiple occassions in Japan I found myself (either alone or with others) staring at a map of the area trying to figure out where I was supposed to be going.  On these occassions I found if I stood there long enough, someone would come up to me and simple ask, where are you going?  Followed by, Let me show you the way.  This first happened when looking for a Tokyo Hands department store with Drew in Tokyu.  An anime artist in training lead us on a 15 minute walk to find the store and then with a picture and a thanks, that was it. The exemplar case was when i was looking for a hostel and politely asked (in japanese) for a young girls help.  She spoke absolutely no english and didn’t know where the hostel was.  So, she walked with me looking for it for 10 minutes (which was awkward since we could’t talk to one another), then walked to a pay phone and used her money to pay for a call to call 3 different people asking where it was (none knew), then walked with me to a 7/11 and asked the person working there where it was, finally walking me to the hostel.  The most extreme case in my opinion was in Hiroshima.  I got off the JR Rail and was looking at a map trying to figure out where i was in the city and where I needed to go to visit the atomic bomb dome.  A Japanese girl (probably around 20 years old) came up to me and asked where I was trying to go.  I told her and she said oh, well i’ll take you there.  She spoke fairly decent english but struggled and became frustrated trying to say some things.  She had actually been in Kyoto the same time I was there so she showed me all her pictures on her camera.  We took a trolly to the Atomic Bomb Dome which was about 20 minutes away and not hard to find but it would have taken me 15 minutes or so to figure out.  When we got there she showed me all around the park and then proceeded to tell me that she was from Hiroshima and that her great grandmother lived there when the bomb was dropped and was killed… to which I had no idea how to respond other than i’m sorry to hear that.   She is in the picture below with me in front of the dome.  So we walked around until she had to go and that was that. There were of course examples of hospitality beyond tour guides.  Restaurants would go out of there way to make sure you got what you wanted, often even if they didn’t serve it.  The hotel concierges would do ANYTHING you needed.  Basically, the Japanese are everything Americans claim to be, but aren’t.

4) Americans lack the foundation provided by millenia of growth, traditions and cultural development.  So another thing that i realized while in Japan (which had not been as prevelant in Australia, similar to USA, and Ecuador) is that America is really really young and lacks history and it’s own culture.   After visiting Japan it has become clear to me that American culture is based on nothing but capitalism which is a very bad thing.  The idea of the American Dream is a good one in the sense that you an be what you want and accomplish great things (fiscally speaking), but we don’t have any shared culture or traditions or plagues or losses which bind us together as American people.  It could be argued that 9/11 and Katrina fall into this category, but I think those are still too recent and Katrina at least, was not as large scale as it what i’m thinking of.  The japanese have cultivated and developed a culture entirely based around their country and its origins.  The isolatedness of Japan can be seen in how the country is self-supporting and focus on group culture.  Nobody litters, nobody steals/cheats other people, everyone has a sense of trust with one another.  It is amazing for me to see this as in America it is the opposite.  Most likely because America is such a melting pot of cultures with nothing to call its own.  Regardless, the group culture of Japan, the idea of lifetime employment (even if this one has fallen recentely due to global influence), universal healthcare, master/apprenticeship business, etc… All developed based on millenia of growth and maturing…. PS Samuri and Ninjas are something every country should be founded on.

5) Geometry isn’t always fun and excess is bad.  This one is really only for those who know what i mean, sorry to the rest.

6) Japanese technology is not ahead of us, just better applied.  So in visiting gadget stores, best buy-esque stores, and in speaking with Japanese people about technology what I realized is that American and Japanese technology are pretty much on par despite what I originally was expecting (this was a dissapointment).  Honestly, American technology is possibly better than theirs if anything.  The main difference is that the Japanese are more creative in their application of technology.  Two examples are seen below. 

Example 1: The first is just the dome on the right of the Dragon statue.  The dragon statue isn’t actually a part of this piece of technology.  The dome itself is a speaker that works by active contact.  Basically it is a speaker without a diaphram (the part of the speaker that vibrates creating soundwaves/what you hear).  How it works is by making whatever surface it sits on vibrate, turning that surface into the diaphram.  So in this picture the base of the statue vibrates making the nose and you can plug any headphone jack into it (mp3, computer, tv, etc…).  It is amazing, not super innovative and definitely not the best speaker you can buy for the money… but sooo cool… at this moment it is sitting on my desk, making my desk into a speaker so i have ‘surround sound’ when i sit at my computer.

 

Example 2:  This is a very simple example but pretty much encompasses Japan.  It is a keychain with 8 buttons, some tactile domes and a speaker.  What is its purpose?  Well to hold your keys of course… what is its secondary function?  To simulate popping the bubbles on packaging bubble-wrap.  AMAZING.

7) American arcades suck.  This one is pretty straight forward too.  There are arcades pretty much in each city district and they are pretty sweet.  Japanese apparently love the claw game which over there is impossible or requires too much skill for Americans to to comprehend.  Nonetheless, the arcades have rows of games setup where you can sit and play a plethora of games, games we have here and games we don’t.  The games we have here (ex. Tekken is EVERYWHERE) are dominated by Japanese robot kids and salary men… i didn’t even try an roll with these kids.  Then there are rythm based games… (see the 3rd picture) which are a complete sensory overload and again Americans can’t help but fail at.  Drew has a fantastic video of this happening first hand, but for now her is an example of the same exact game he was lucky enough to tape.

8 ) Drinking is an international past time.  Another pretty clear statement, but basically the japanese are hardcore drinkers.  Look up the ritual of Otari if you get a chance.  But basically, like the hobbyists of Japan, everything the Japanese do, they do the best they can, including drinking.  Videos document this best so the pictures are just of das boots from the Ginza Lion, our Japanese style beruit table (aka beruit sitting down on the floor of our hotel with ninja swords), and Scott about to do a car bomb.  Scott was the ‘guide’ of our group and pretty much made the trip.

9) 3 phrases are all you need to survive in Japan.  Honestly, these are pretty much all you need to be able to say and understand in Japan to survive (which is suprising given the very low number of people who speak english).  Of course other words like help, where, this, how much, etc… can be helpful, but as Seth will attest this is pretty much all you need to survive.

Excuse Me: To be used at the start of every sentence and whenever you make eye contact with a person.

Please:  Self-explanatory, but especially useful when combined with pointing for transactional interchanges.

Good Morning:  This one can be replaced with Hello but that is not quite as fun to greet people with at 3:00 in the afternoon when you can pretend you are a foolish foreigner and don’t know any better.   If you’re ever in Japan try going on the train during rush hour and just say Ohayo Gozaimas over and over like 4 times in a row… they’ll love it.

10) Kareoke Japanese style is so much more fun than in America.  For those of you that don’t know, Japanese Kareoke is done in individual rooms where your group gets its own TV and lounge area (see Lost in Translation for a great example) and you basically just get free drinks for X amount of hours and you sing whatever you want… It’s good because A) There are no inhibitions when you’re amongst friends  B) You can be loud when nobody you’re amongst friends.  Plus since everybody is in rooms on the same floor so you can go room to room and meet new people and everybody is drunk and singing so they want more people to be drunk and sing with. 

Special Bonus Item: The people you are with, wherever you are, make it memorable… not what you see or what you do.

Hello Michael, i’m afraid I can’t let you do that.

After travelling around Japan for a night/day i’m amazed at HAL’s presence.  He is in every hallway, every building, every train station just waiting….

According to Kanji *last name omitted* Ninendo Wii, Hideki Matsui, and Ichiro Suzuki are the only good things to come out of Japan.  His views were based on the fact that Japan is/has become a sick nation (not in the physical sense) since the bubble burst in their economy ~20 years ago.  The declining birth rate, increased suicide rate (35K/year), and dissapearance of the healthy japanese diet thanks to American influence is creating a crisis. 

Interestingly however, he thought that cell phones were  a major major issue especially with kids (<20) and believes there needs to be a cell phone control act similar to the gun control and knife control act that currently exist.

H2S is a toxic gas which is easily reproduced with household products.