false precision

I keep getting screwed by United Airlines

I'm flying to New York this morning and pulled the loto ticket for the latest United Airlines screw you customer maneuver. It's ironic as I just completed a 20 minute customer survey a couple weeks back. I guess that will teach me.

Several weeks' back they got me using the mobile boarding pass which is was a really cool idea. They email you the boarding pass and just scan at the gate and at the security line. I'm Premier so like the paper pass you can use the premium security line which is much shorter.

Well apparently that was just too good a feature because this morning when I tried to go through security I got the big rejection (as did many others) because UAL no longer lists your status on the mobile boarding pass. So, this morning I got the 1000 person line instead of the 20 person line. Thanks United – you're living up to my expectations again.

I guess I can add this to the pay-for-baggage that makes everyone carry on, whether they are business travelers or not. That little feature creates fist fights on about 20% of flights I'm on.

But I guess this goes hand-in-hand with the Red Carpet Club that doesn't allow food to be brought in, but really doesn't sell any themselves (retarded).

Or maybe it's more like the lack of power plugs in nearly any Red Carpet Club I go in, WTF what do you guys think I want to do in there?

It used to be nice to go into the DIA Red Carpet Club before morning flights to do some email and have a mini-bagel. Now, that appears to be white bread and toaster – seriously..

I just read an article yesterday that Airlines are scratching their head over rolling out WiFi to their entire fleet of aircraft. They say they don't see the usage. Hmm, maybe it's because United only offers it on International Flights. The other airlines that offer it have about 10% of aircraft outfitted. Common guys, flying on an airplane with WiFi is hitting the lottery.

I really don't think the people at UAL that are in charge of the customer experience actually use the product. Try asking the Flight Attendants what they think about the baggage thing, I have – they say it's the number one cause of fights on the planes between them and other customers. Or ask the gate agent what they think of mobile boarding passes, I have – they hate them because it's hard to rebook the customer because of some missing information.

Fortunately the Red Carpet WiFi worked this morning so I could post this…

UPDATE: Turns out Premier Executive status still appears on the mobile pass, replaced with "Seating 1" on the Premier boarding passes.  Problem is TSA doesn't know that "Seating 1" is a premium classification.  Same net result, screw you in the drive through...

Motivations of the Left Lane Hugger

I've lived in CO for a good part of my life and for the part that involved driving I've been frustrated with the Left Lane Huggers. Left Lane Huggers are the drivers that hang out in the left lane and block faster traffic on interstates, tollways, etc. A few years ago a traffic law was passed make the point, I guess, that slower traffic should yield to faster traffic passing in the left lane. I can pretty much say that that change in traffic law made no difference at all, in fact it just kind of makes me more mad when it happens.

I assumed that regardless of the state you live in, this same phenomenon exists and just discounted the comments that 'Colorado is worst' for this kind of behavior. About a year or so ago I was reading one of Neil Peart's books, Road Show, about traveling the US/Canada/Mexico via motorcycle.

Neil is the drummer for Rush and when the band is touring he rides between venues and documents his travels. Much to my surprise, and disgust, I was reading the book and on page 160….

"…It was then I started to notice the terrible left-lane manners of Colorado drivers, so many of them crawling along in the so called passing lane without regard to anyone else…"

Wow, maybe we are famous for having poor drivers. In the three books of his that I have read he only mentions this problem once that I can remember and Colorado drivers are the offenders.

The problem is amazingly real. I recently took a few trips up to the Vail/Beaver Creek area and sat behind left lane huggers for good portions of those drives. As I sat there getting more pissed off I tried to categorize the different imagined motivations of why drivers exhibit this behavior. So far, I think I have identified at least 5 different motivations why drivers "Left Lane Hug"..

The Oblivious Driver: This driver may or may not know the rules of the road but in the end it doesn't matter because they are so -checked out- they don't even notice a car behind them.

The Sanctimonious Driver: This driver hangs out in the left lane and is aware that other behind them would like to pass. They continue on at their rate of travel because they believe that they are going the fastest safe speed for the situation and therefore it's pointless for them to move over. Simply, they know best and are helping you.

The Passive Aggressive Driver: This driver not only knows you want to pass but has decided for whatever reason that they are going –to teach you a lesson- . Their motivation is simply to control you, because they have the power at the moment to do that.

The Distracted Driver: Like the Oblivious Driver this driver may or may not know the rules of the road, but rather than just being -checked out- they are preoccupied with something other than driving. Talking to passenger, on the phone, putting on makeup, eating, etc..

The Sacrificial Driver: This driver is aware they are hugging the left lane and they also know they are blocking traffic behind them. They have elected to stay in the left lane however, because they are going faster than right lane traffic. These drivers know that to let traffic by they are going to be forced to change to the right lane and risk getting blocked themselves. Instead they have elected to -sacrifice you- rather than inconvenience themselves.

Of course the question that comes to mind is, what is the most popular motivation for this behavior? Answer the poll and lets all find out together!