Alsop's Small Thoughts

I Love Frontier Airlines!

Right now, I am really rooting for them to emerge from bankruptcy. I don't know if Frontier operates at the same rank as Southwest Airlines, particularly as enumerated in Joe Nocera's column in the New York Times this morning. But Frontier scored right up there with Fish. (for regular readers of this blog). 

I flew from Denver to San Francisco yesterday on Frontier and sat in seat 21F. Frontier has a relatively new policy of being cashless, which means that if you want to buy a drink or snack, you can only do it with a credit or debit card. I bought a drink. And left my wallet in my lap, anticipating I might need it again. And then forgot about it. When we landed (on time), I stood up and walked off the plane. I didn't discover until I was home and decided to go out for dinner that I didn't have my wallet. 

Freak out! I have had two wallets -- one for cash and one for plastic -- ever since my pocket was picked in France about 20 years ago and I lost both in a foreign land at the beginning of a trip. Better, my theory goes, to lose either cash or plastic, but not both. 

With the changes in the 20 years, my life is now contained in my plastics wallet: debit card, two credit cards (personal and business), office door and parking garage key, various membership cards, and most significant, my drivers license. Cash is nice, but when you arrive home on Friday evening before Memorial Day weekend, it's not the optimal time to lose your plastic. I could drive, use the cash I had on me, and go home. But I couldn't get new cash, get into my office, or do recreational shopping. I would have to procure my passport to get on my scheduled flight on Tuesday. Once traveling, I couldn't rent a car without a drivers license and I would not be able to pay for the hotel or other expenses unless I could get replacement cards over a three-day weekend. 

So I was freaking. I called Frontier Airlines main reservation number as soon I realized I had left the wallet on the airplane. Airlines don't want you to call them these days since it's so much more expensive than getting you to do the work online. So Frontier's IVR (Interactive Voice Response) System told me I would wait 12 minutes. Meanwhile, I searched online and found that they also have a toll-free number for lost or damaged baggage and for leaving stuff on the plane. Fortunately, the lady I eventually got (in about 11 minutes; always good to exceed expectations, particularly when your customer is freaking out) gave me the direct number for Frontier's baggage office in San Francisco. I called and left a message. I also called the central lost-and-found number and left a message there. 

Then what? Suffice it to say that I didn't sleep well between leaving those messages about 8:00pm on Friday night and the next morning. How long should I wait before I start cancelling my plastic and replacing it? I have to travel on Tuesday, but I doubt I can get more than a temporary ATM card before I leave. Once I left those messages, the quality of my weekend was in the hands of Frontier Airlines and I didn't know what to expect. If it was United Airlines or any of my other favorite examples of companies that don't design for servicing customers, I would know to just start the process. 

You can tell where I'm headed with this. At 8:15am on Saturday, I got a call from Frontier Airlines in which I learned that they had found and kept my wallet. I went down to SFO and picked it up. Life is returning to normal. But I couldn't let the incident go by without saying how positive I feel about Frontier Airlines, how this experience cements the fundamental experience I've had with flying on their airplanes, using their systems and dealing with their people. 

It's Too Bad About JetBlue

I get really loyal to great companies, so much so that I'll often overlook poor treatment. I was really loyal to JetBlue, until last week.

I fell in love with the idea of JetBlue when it first showed up. Treat customers right; use technology to make service work better; stay focused on the fundamentals of flying -- more legroom, television at every seat, low cost operations, reasonable fares. At the time, my main alternative was United Airlines, bloated, arrogant, disorganized and sloppy.

Now every airline has been through hell, and those that made it have had to make themselves a lot more like JetBlue (and Southwest, the real model for low-cost airlines). And something has happened to JetBlue that means it has lost its difference and is now just another cheap airline. Perhaps it was the operations mess at JFK a few years ago, when people were stuck on JetBlue airplanes on the ground for hours waiting for gates to open up. Perhaps it is because the founder (David Neeleman) left the company and turned the leadership over to people with "better" operating experience. Perhaps it's just too hard to differentiate an airline when gas costs so much.

Last week put me over the top on JetBlue. At RDU, the lady who checked us in told us that the inbound flight was late and we might miss our connection at JFK. When we reached the gate, the same lady (an excellent representative for JetBlue, by the way) came to the conclusion that we would almost certainly miss our connection and started working on finding an alternative. We ended up switching (on our own) to a United connection through Denver (that actually got us back to SFO sooner than we were scheduled to).

The problem: JetBlue insisted that we had to check ourselves out of the flight we abandoned before they would cancel the second half of the reservation. We couldn't do that because we had already left the terminal to get to the United gate (with about 10 minutes to spare). And once they agreed to cancel the reservation, they charged so many change fees that they refunded less than half the return portion of the fare and only as a credit on future travel on JetBlue. It was clear that the attitude of the JetBlue representative was one of reluctance: reluctant to help, reluctant to provide service. But the reason we switched was because of JetBlue's airplane being late and making us miss our connection.

That attitude isn't what made me loyal to JetBlue in the first place. That attitude is pretty much what I get from United, American or any other legacy airline. (United performed exactly what they promised and treated us better than any other traveler, simply because we've flown a lot on their airline.) It feels like the accountants have taken over at JetBlue. (My apologies to the accountants reading this.) And it's hard to see one of my favorite companies lose its way and fritter away the brand loyalty it worked so hard to create in the first place.

And I Thought I Was Free!

Remember when I cut up my United Mileage Plus Visa card and celebrated by posting here? I wasn't as free as I thought!

I got a monthly statement a few days ago from United Mileage Plus (which really is Chase) more than nine months after I cancelled the card, reflecting a charge for $29.95 from a magazine renewal from "&AEP" in Thank You, NY. (The first rep did say, somewhat humorously, "Gee, I've never heard of Thank You, NY.) So I called customer service. (That's what they call it, anyway.)

The first lady I talked to, basically said that I must have subscribed because the credit card company wouldn't just charge me. So she transferred me to "Disputes".

After I sufficiently identified myself (for security purposes) to the second lady, I told her that I didn't want to dispute the charge. I told that I wasn't paying for a charge on a credit card that I didn't actually have. She began to argue with me, to talk over me when I was explaining for the fifth time that I did not order this subscription, that the card was canceled and that I did not have any legal obligation to pay for the credit card company's mistakes. She transferred me to "Fraud" right in the middle of sentence (but at least she didn't hang up, as other Chase representatives have done).

With the Fraud lady, I established some rapport. She established that I had indeed closed the account in May, 2007. (Initially, she claimed that the account had been closed in May, 2008 and then acknowledged her error.) She also reported that Chase had rejected subscriptions from People magazine (and proud of it!) and just this part week from Portfolio magazine, both of which I had on auto-renewals. So she admitted that Chase had rejected legitimate subscription renewals from well respected companies but had passed through a fraudulent charge from an unknown company with whom I had never done business. Quote: "I'm sorry, sir, but I cannot explain why this charge went through."

Doesn't it just give you enormous confidence in Chase as a credit card company? I wonder if I will ever be truly free of this incompetent organization.

Complaining about Nikon Coolpix

It's my fault. Just like it's any consumer's fault -- for buying a product without adequately researching it. I lost my last digital camera: left it in a hotel room or rental car or whatever. So I decided to buy a new one on a whim. Went to BestBuy. Looked for the following: Digital camera that was small enough to be pocket sized, had 5x or better optical zoom, and 6mp or better resolution. Ended up with a cool looking, black Nikon Coolpix S550.

So what's my problem? I hate the Nikon Coolpix S550. The shutter speed is fine but the functions of the camera are so slow that I have missed really important shots. (Like my girlfriend's son's graduation from 8th grade.) These are functions like the time it takes the camera to wake up (not turn on, which is relatively fast); like the time it takes to react to zooming in (to refocus and set up the photo); like the time it takes to store the image to flash disk.

It keeps on going, though! The Coolpix S550 comes with a stupid little USB adapter that means the only way to move the photos off the camera is to remove the flash disk, put it in the adapter and put the adapter into the computer; at the least a laborious process. (Couldn't these people take a clue from the designers of the Flip video camera.) And why do digital camera designers insist on putting the on/off button right next to the shutter button? I turned the camera off at least three times today when trying to take a picture. And then, when you want to recharge the battery, you have to remove it and put in a little dock that itself has an entire power cord. (The camera I lost, from Lumix, had a battery dock that plugged directly into a power plug; no cord!) 

Thank you, dear reader: Now that I've got that off my chest, I'm going to buy another new digital camera.

Hacker Dad, Slacker Dad

Michael is a friend of mine. He's also a total geek. And he has a 16 year old son, who is not really a geek. Friend. Geek. Father. What a combination.

After he decided to bond with his son by getting Guitar Hero for the Nintendo Wii, he discovered his son just beat his butt. So he got back by modifying the Guitar Hero and reprogramming it. On behalf of all the fathers around the world who have been beaten by their sons, I salute you, Michael!

Here's is Michael's summary at the end of the web site he created to commemorate his accomplishment: "Thanks to my son Alex for being a great kid. He's SO MUCH BETTER THAN I'LL EVER BE AT THIS AND SO MANY OTHER THINGS. By the way, when he found out what I was doing with his Wii, he commented that this was, by far, the stupidest project he'd ever heard of. He went on to comment that he had NO idea why I would waste my time on this. My answer: I did what I had to do to beat you (which is getting harder and harder as time goes by). Now I can beat you in my sleep. Take that!"

The Department of There Is No Justice Department

When I worked at New Enterprise Associates, one of my most successful investments and one of my most energizing experiences was working with Xfire and its outstanding CEO, Mike Cassidy.

The only really troubling part of that experience was when Yahoo! sued Xfire for infringing its intellectual property. It was a spurious claim; we could never figure out what motivated the claim, other than some mysterious political infighting inside Yahoo!

But, in the way of the world, they had more money to pay lawyers than we did, so the company settled with them so that it could be sold (which it was to Viacom). It cost the shareholders a lot of money. It really reduced my personal opinion of Yahoo! as a company, since it had been founded on what I perceived to be a principle of innovation and open competition in an information economy, rather than legal bullying, and had never previously sued a venture backed startup for infringing on its intellectual property.

Yahoo! recently posted this note on its site:

http://videogames.yahoo.com/multiplayer

The irony is that, of course, no one who was involved with suing Xfire back then is actually still on the "The Yahoo Games Team" to remember that Yahoo! sued Xfire, extracted its toll, and is now freely referring people to the site, claiming to have "no formal connection".

There is no justice.

American Express: Not So Free After All

Last September, I wrote a post about cutting up my "gd" United Mileage Plus card in favor of just paying American Express $400 for a platinum card. That way, I theorized, I would get the kind of service using what's known as American Express Platinum Concierge. In theory, you call a special toll-free number and they get you what you want for travel and entertainment services, which are American Express's specialties.

That's not actually how it works. You do indeed call a special toll-free number. And you do get a friendly service representative, called a concierge, usually without waiting much. But after that, it isn't what I was expecting.

1) When you call the toll-free number, you have to choose 1) for travel services or 2) for reservations and other services. If you choose 1), that service representative can't do 2) so you have be put back in the queue or call back if you want to get theater tickets in London after getting the air tickets and hotel reservations to get to London in the first place.

2) The friendly concierge for 1) is trained to do what any reasonably sophisticated traveler would do themselves to figure out how to plan the trip. For instance, I go to kayak.com to check out routes and fares and airlines, figure out what's the best and then start buying tickets. The American Express concierge does the same thing, although I suspect I get better information from kayak.com than whatever system she was using. And, here's the trick: You have to stay on the line while they're doing it. So it ends up being a race between how fast you could have done it yourself and how fast they can do it. The concierge lost the first time I tried to do this, because the service representative was not smart to understand the concept that I wanted to land in any English airport from Birmingham to London (which includes about six airports that take international flights from the US), since I would be driving from one to three hours after landing and was trying to optimize my departure city, not my arrival city.

I gave up after an hour on the phone. I was able to do the complex routing that also included flying on to Moscow and Amsterdam and back to San Francisco; it took me a couple of hours in front of my computer. But I got exactly what I wanted for a cost that was about half of what the first concierge was quoting. The concierge did not understand the concept of booking economy and upgrading with miles; did not understand that concept of landing at one airport and taking off at another (not to mention that big cities often have more than one airport); did not understand the concept of pretty much anything that an experienced flier understands from painful experience. So... I don't think I'll call American Express Platinum Concierge for travel booking again, just so I can spend twice as much time having someone who knows half as much as I do make me tell her how to do her job.

3) American Express has the concept of profiles, but they don't actually reflect the human beings they have to deal with. Bear with me: in my first experience, I learned that you can only charge to a Platinum American Express card. My trip was mixed business and personal travel and I wanted to be able to charge different pieces of it to my business American Express card and other pieces on my personal American Express card, which is the one that was Platinum. Nope, not allowed (even though the business card is also American Express!). So I upgraded the business card to Platinum, thinking that now I could get the concierge to charge some things to one and some to the other, depending on whether they are personal or business.

I called back. I had already gone and gotten all my air tickets and hotels for the trip, so now i just wanted the concierge to find a town car to take me from LGW to LGH so I can get home at the end of the trip. I also figured I could get the concierge to get me some theater tickets while I was in London earlier in the trip. Nope! Concierge 1) only deals with travel and, when requesting a town car, only is authorized to deal with two American limo companies. (That's how you earn the discounts that American Express has so thoughtfully negotiated.) So Carey Limo came back (while I was waiting on hold) with a cost of $490 -- for a 45-minute transfer between two airports! That's almost more than my Premium Economy ticket on Virgin Atlantic from LHR to SFO!

4) Then I asked about the theater tickets and Concierge 1) said I would have to talk to Concierge 2). And when I asked her to update my profile with my second Platinum card, she said that I would have to have a separate profile for the second card! I assume that means I will also have to call back each time I want to use a different card.

So what was it that I wanted? Pay $400 a year for customer service because it's got to be better than the way that United Airlines and Citibank treat me when they give me miles? Oh, well. I guess I'm just not paying enough. I hear American Express has a black card.

My Favorite Wine Store

I had a remarkable customer service experience at my favorite wine store.

I shop at K&L Wines in San Francisco. I started shopping at the original store in Redwood City when I lived there. (Apparently, they've opened a new store in Hollywood in Los Angeles, so I assume they plan to continue expanding.) The coolest thing about K&L Wines is their inventory system; go to their web site, search for a wine (which is my habit any time I encounter a really special wine), and like any other online wine store, they will tell you if they have it. But then they'll tell you how many bottles they have in each store or in their main warehouse. Order a bunch of wines and they will consolidate the order in one store so you can pick them up in one stop. (They will ship them to you too, of course.)

That's all the reasons I already shop at K&L, but I had an experience recently that needs telling. I ordered four bottles of wine for a special event. The day after I picked them up, I got an email from a fellow named Eric Story: "I was in our back room, after you left yesterday, and came across an order with your name on it dating back to April 19th. In our computer it looks as though you have picked up the wine (6 btls. 2004 Varner Pinot Noir) in July of this year." Since he still had the bottles of wine, he was wondering how the computer showed them being picked up. So he asked!

Of course, I couldn't remember picking them up but I also didn't remember drinking six bottles of Varner Pinot either. So I picked the bottles up on Friday. Even then, I forgot to print the email exchange out, couldn't remember the name of the wine or his name, but he overheard me talking to the clerk who trying to help me and produced the box with the wine in it.

Mr. Story went so far beyond the call of duty in getting me my wine, I feel motivated to post about it. I love doing business with K&L anyway: They have a huge inventory, their inventory and customer systems are designed for great service, but they must also have a great culture that allows their employees like Eric Story to treat customers as well as I've been treated. (And the Varner is really pretty good, to boot!)

Free! Free at last!

See the picture? It's an amazing symbol of two huge changes in my life. First, I finally decided to put away the needle that frequent-flier miles have represented for me for the past, what?, 15 years? Second, because I swore off the United Mileage Plus Program, I could finally give the heave-ho to Chase credit cards! These two outcomes rank right up there with when I turned off DirecTV (after they shafted TiVo) and T-Mobile (after I got a Verizon EV-DO and was no longer tethered to Starbucks to get my wireless data. In fact, I've been enjoying coffee much more since I started going to Peets and, in Santa Fe, Holy Spirit Espresso!)

United Mileage Plus only has one credit card supplier and that supplier is Chase. It used to be some regional bank in Chicago, but that got bought by XYZ which got bought by ABC which got by Chase. I've had so many late charges from Chase, despite having a 30-day grace period; I've had my card turned off for shopping too much so many times; I've had such bad treatment from Chase customer service employees (from time to time), that I am just thrilled to cut up the card.

But I couldn't do that until I decided that I would forgo the miles that I got from this credit card. That was the lock that kept me tied to a company I really despised. I'm still mostly stuck with United Airlines since it flies more than 50% of the flights out of SFO. (Small changes lead to big ones, though: JetBlue, Southwest and Virgin America all started new, low-cost service out of SFO this year, giving us San Franciscans a whole lot more choice than we did just a few years ago. The only problem is they all fly to mostly the same places!) But at least now I fly on United when I want to (or don't have a choice) and not because I want to rack up free miles.

By cutting up my United Airlines Mileage Plus Visa card, I've now committed to not getting free miles for using my credit card. Here's the trick to consumer freedom: Pay money for service! My ATM card from First Republic (which I'm still liking even though Merrill Lynch bought the bank earlier this year) is free with my checking account and serves as my Visa card when I need it. But I'm now paying $400 a year for an platinum American Express card. I get concierge service, which is actually useful, and I am a much happier person, which is more than useful.

I love the free enterprise system!

It Coulda Been Bond's 756th

Hey, I was there! I could have actually seen Barry Bonds set a new record, the most home runs during a lifetime. And the picture would have been great, a lot like this one. But he whiffed. The Giants won. That's something that hasn't happened a whole lot recently....