Notes from the road #11 - We're not going anywhere edition

Submitting this dispatch to the Notes from the Road series from another Delta Sky Club at a ridiculously early hour. 

Short story - Weather/air traffic control/mandated pilot rest period (or some combination of, we never really got a full and/or definitive story), caused cancellation of a bucketful of late night flights heading out of NYC last evening, including the one your humble correspondent had boarded and had been patiently waiting on for about 3 hours before No Joy was called. Nothing like a planeful of angry passengers who, at about 1:00 AM, get informed that they are not, in fact, going to make it home at all after such a long delay, and had better scramble to make alternate arrangements or prepare to sleep in the airport.

Good times.

Me being the smart and savvy frequent traveler that I am, managed to book the best available alternative flights home, (and I do mean flights, I will enjoy flying about 300 miles past where I actually live, in order to get on another flight to come back). I then pulled some Elite Status traveler magic (or so I thought) to get a room at the closest hotel to the airport, figuring I could get about 4 hours of decent sleep before coming back in the morning. Only when I arrived at said hotel did I find that no, there were no rooms at all available, and the reservation the nice man on the Elite phone line made for me was actually for TONIGHT and not last night (which had already turned into today, as it was about 1:45 AM when this was all happening).

So now who was the savvy traveler?

Not me. Now I was looking at only about 3.5 hours or so I had to kill before heading back to the airport, sitting in a deserted hotel lobby that had no room for me, (except on the couch in the lobby where I hunkered in to ride it out), and praying that I didn't wake up and freak out from not knowing where the heck I was.

Sure, things happen in business travel, these kind of bad nights are almost unavoidable from time to time. But there were a few customer service/training and employee empowerment kinds of things I noticed that if handled better, could have at least taken some of the sting out of the problems.

1. I'll will try to find out is better than I don't know, which is better than the wrong answer

I had to try and figure out, since I was switching to a different NYC departure airport, if I needed to get my checked bags back from the original plane. I think I asked 4 different airline personnel questions about how to make that happen. I basically received three 'I don't knows' and one essentially incorrect answer. Only when I pursued the line of actions that proved to be incorrect did I find out what was really happening. No one offered to actually try and help, (except for the guy who simply gave me the wrong information).

2. Generalists are more valuable than specialists most of the time

I think the primary reason why it was so hard to find out what the process should be for recovering my bags lies in the fact that every person I encountered had one primary role and if that role did not directly involve the baggage handling procedures, they were simply not able to offer any advice. I may have well been asking them to break down the quadratic equation or recite some sonnets. Customers can't be asked to maneuver their own way around your org structure and hierarchy when they need assistance. Having even one or two people that could reliably address a wider range of customer issues would have made everyone's lives easier last night.

3. Different parts of the organization need to communicate more effectively

The hotel debacle last night was pretty simple when you analyzed the cause - the agent on the phone did not back date my reservation by a day, and since it was already past midnight local time, the reservation was made for the wrong day. A bad error on his part, but sort of understandable at least. But the bigger issue was when I arrived at the hotel and the counter agent told me about the reservation problem, he added that 'This happens all the time when flights get cancelled late at night. Phone reservations keeps sending people here with a reservation for the following night'. Sure enough, two more folks after me turned up in the ensuing hour or so in the same situation. So obviously the moral here - if this happens all of the time, why can't someone at the hotel near the airport talk to someone at phone reservations to build in some kind of process to safeguard against it happening in the future? Ticking off your best customers because two parts of your organization don't know how to communicate is simply not acceptable.

Ok, that is it - rant off for the day. Going to try and get on another plane. Hopefully this one will go a little farther than the end of the tarmac and back.

Happy traveling.

Notes from the road #10 - Missed Connection Edition

Random notes from the Delta Sky Club lounge on a Saturday morning (I know, it's really glamorous and sophisticated, this business travel thing).

1. Cargo pants stop being a good choice for men once they hit about 30. Note: I still wear cargo pants.

2. When the airline presents you with your best 'Cheap hotels near the airport' options after you have missed the last flight out for the night don't pick the least expensive one.

3. Two years ago it seemed every middle-aged to older woman on the plane was reading 50 Shades of Grey. Now the book I see the most is Lean In. 

4. It's completely worth the $15 Uber ride from the cheap hotel back to the airport on a Saturday morning just to see the expressions on the mugs of the 38 people who are fighting for 20 places on the shuttle bus when your black car comes to pick you up.

5. It is hard to get a decent bagel south of Maryland, and possibly even Delaware.

6. Charleston, S.C. might be my new favorite place in the world. 

7. Casinos and airports have at least one thing in common: folks drinking heavily at six in the morning.

8. We as a society have become completely, totally, and almost irrationally obsessed with locating power outlets. People stuck in airports practically set up little power outlet shanty towns, complete with a mayor (the guy who carries his own power strip and doles out access to slots like he is handing out water bottles after a hurricane).

9. I am encouraged that so many of the American traveling public now have decided to wear their 'nice' flip-flops and tank tops on the plane. You never know when a beach party might break out at 35,000 feet.

10. Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there - especially the ones who have to try and navigate airports, airplanes, trains, and the like with a bunch of little ones in tow. 

Have a great weekend!

Notes from the road #9 - The 'Which car is in your airport?' test

Really quick shot from me on a travel Friday - a revival of the long-dormant 'Notes from the road' travel series as I have, fittingnly, been on the road this week. For this installment I have two observations/data points and a then some questions for you.

Observation #1 - On display in the terminal of the charming Greater Rochester (NY) International Airport (I think we have one flight a day to Toronto), was this fine vehicle:

This is a Fiat 500

Observation #2 - On display in the terminal of the West Palm Beach International Airport was this little beauty:

This is a Ferrari 458 

What does this difference in Italian sportscar display say about the two airports/cities?

What does it make us think about what life might be like living there, (because on any trip one of the cities will not be home for you).

If you were flying in a candidate, or if you were the candidate maybe, and she/you take off from a Ferrari city only to land in a Fiat city, would that influence the opinion, attitude about the city, and impact the likelihood that the interview would go well, and they would perhaps even take the job?

Last one - which car(s) are sitting in your home airport right now, or which one should be there that would be a good reflection of your city?

Have a great weekend!

Notes From the Road #7 - On Chatty Cab Drivers

Quick dispatch from sunny Las Vegas where I am attending and presenting at the Oracle HR User's Group, (OHUG), annual conference.

On the cab ride in from the airport yesterday  I was either lucky or unfortunate, (depending on your point of view), to have a classic chatty cab driver. The kind of guy not only interested in sharing a few choice nuggets about his city, fun things that might be happening in town, the most recent and noteworthy local news items, and whatever else is on his mind. The chatty cab driver scenario usually ends badly, particularly if you've been traveling all day and just are not in the mood for small talk.

Yesterday my cab driver, a man of about 55 or so years old I'd guess, somehow, (I am really not sure what set him off, I only said something incredibly mundane and boring like, 'Wow, kind of windy today'), got set off on a little monologue about the value of hard work, the need for more people to suck it up and just quit complaining, and simply find something, anything valuable and positive to do with their time, and just do it and shut the hell up.

I believe his exact, (or near enough), quote on the topic was something like -  

People need to drop the ideology that you have to get your dream job. There's no such thing. And even when you think you have it, in 2 years you'll just want to chase some other dream. Look at me, you think I dreamed about driving a cab in the desert? You do what you have to do.

It was an interesting and realistic take and whether or not you agree with the folks (mostly life coaches, I think), that proscribe chasing your dreams or doing the work that you are passionate about, every time you talk to a real working person about their careers and their choices it always provides some great perspective. 

You think I dreamed about driving a cab in the desert?

No, I don't think you probably did. Probably hardly anyone does. But as you said, Mr. I-did-not-catch-your-name Cab Driver, and as you rightly conclude, sometimes, maybe more than you hoped for, you do what you have to do.

And honestly, lots and lots of people doing what they have to do make life a heck of a lot easier for those of us who feel like chasing (often elusive) dreams. So thanks for the ride and the conversation.

Back to Vegas. I have the Heat minus 3.5 tonight.

And Matt 'akaBruno' Stollak likes Michigan State to win the Big 10 this Fall.

Notes From the Road #6 - Accountability in the Air

The scene was the start of the cross-country Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta - San Francisco. As the last few passengers were getting settled, the head flight attendant commenced her normally familiar and standard set of pre-flight announcements. You know these standard flight safety announcements, you tune them out just like I do - I mean what person alive is actually not familiar with how a seat belt is fastened?

But on this flight - the announcements were different and distinctive. No, not for being all that clever or funny, like sometimes are found on Southwest Air flights, but for being more real, personal, and accountable that most. 

Before launching into the speech about the faster seat belt light and turning off cell phones, the flight attendant said something along the lines of this:

'I know that you many of you may find air travel frustrating or stressful or too expensive. I know what people sometimes write or say about flying on our airline. I understand that feeling sometimes myself. But I want to let you know that it is my personal responsibility to make this flight an enjoyable one for you, and to take some of that stress and frustration away. So if and when you need something, you let me know, and I will take care of it.'

What I loved about the speech, apart from the sincerity from which it was delivered, (you kind of had to be there to get that sense), was that the flight attendant talked in first person, using 'I' and 'me' in her statements, rather than the softer and more general 'we' or 'us'. She was not suggesting that the other flight attendants on the flight did not share her desire to make the flight a successful and enjoyable one, but rather she was taking personal ownership and accountability for results. It is a small thing, but I thought it stood out, and to me it was pretty refreshing.

And as the 5-hour flight passed, from what I observed she backed up that statement with her performance. Cheerful, attentive, professional all the way. I think demonstrating some of the best leadership I've seen in action in a long time. 

Recognize the issues, take ownership, have a plan, be personally responsible, and then follow through.

Very cool and a definitley helped make a Sunday night cross-country flight much better.

Have a Great Weekend!