Customer Service MSY-ery Style

Today I left town again. Because of my flight time and her schedule She dropped me off at the Airport earlier than necessary.

I decided to have breakfast. That turned out to be a mistake. I was on the B Concourse so there is only one establishment there that serves actual breakfast food. Another place does serve a bacon and egg po-boy.

I got in line and decided to order the $8.50 breakfast special which includes pre-scrabbled eggs, bacon or sausage and grits or hash browns off the steam table. Not a real good price, but whatever. I got into line and said "I'll have the #1 Special Breakfast with bacon and grits" the response was "We're out of grits". I later found out they were also out of bacon.

Now my first question is how do you run out of grits? They are cheap you could make enough to feed an army for a couple of dollars. Surely at the prices they are charging they could make extra. Even instant grits are better than no grits at all. I decided to pass, not mostly because they were out of grits (I like hash brows just fine) but mostly because the person serving seemed completely uncaring about me the customer standing right there. The announcement that they were out of grits was not prefaced with even a perfunctory "I'm sorry" or any other indication of interest.

I suppose no one in the tourist industry cares because no one stops to eat at the airport on their way into town. By the time they get to airport food the tourist industry has already separated the tourist from as much money as they could manage and don't see a need to be nice any longer.

That is a shame for two reasons.

First is that most places in New Orleans do a pretty good job of Customer Service maintaining a fairly good balance between hospitality and respecting guests privacy. There is very little of the TGI Friday's institutionalized perkiness "Hi! I'm Heather and in addition to bringing you your food I'm you new best friend!" and the sort of haughty service some pseudo-star restaurants affect announcing "The Chef prefers to serve you food his way, so sit there and like it remember to leave a big tip."

The second is it damages the name of a fairly well known Soul Food Resturant, The Praline Connection. I don't blame them. I understand that they and a few other places ( Acme Oyster House) licensed the food service vendor at the airport to use their name. While they may get some royalties they have no control over the operation. I just hope it doesn't hurt them too much.

Enhancing Security through Preferential Treatment

TSA is at it again. They are enhancing Security by reducing privacy and providing preferential treatment to some people.

WASHINGTON – The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) today announced that it began testing a limited, voluntary passenger pre-screening initiative with a small known traveler population at four U.S. airports. The TSA PreCheck initiative implements a key component of the agency’s intelligence-driven, risk-based approach to security. This pilot program will help assess measures designed to enhance security by placing more focus on pre-screening individuals who volunteer information about themselves prior to flying in order to potentially expedite the travel experience.

This is apparently an effort to salvage the failed program where travelers paid a fee for expedited clearance.

One of the Airports is Atlanta and one of the Airlines is Delta. I frequently fly to and from Atlanta and just after this pilot program started I flew through the Atlanta airport.

Part 1 -Assured Success

I usually park my car in the Airport Park and Ride and use the South Security Screening Area as it is closer to the first bus stop at the terminal. Delta and TSA have selected this area for im0limenting the pilot program. It should work out well, you see they have dedicated one of the 3 ID check lines for the PreCheck program, and judging by the traffic those traveler should be very expedited, you see there was only about one passenger ever 15 or 20 seconds in that line, meaning the the TSA agent sat there frequently with nothing to do. Of course diverting one third of the passengers using that Check Point into the other lines delayed everyone else.

Part 2 - It Gets Better
I am an Airtran A+ Elite and our company has an A2B Corporate Account.

On Wednesday October 12, 2011 I arrived at the Atlanta airport early for my flight to New Orleans, about 4:15 PM. I parked in the Airport Park and Ride. Since I had my boarding pass and no luggage to check I went to the South Security Screening Area as it was closer to the shuttle bus drop off.

This is the area Delta and TSA are running their pilot PreCheck program in. This is the second time I had been through this check point since the program started and I expected that one line would be dedicated to that program (although very few people seemed to be using it the previous time). I was surprised to see several uniformed Delta Employees pre-checking boarding passes and directing each passenger into one of the three available ID checking lines. I paid little attention at the time, however once I was in line it became apparent that the Delta employees were not merely directing people to the appropriate line but screening passengers and reserving two lines for their preferred passengers. As I result it took me 15 minutes to clear security while two uniformed TSA agents sat in plain sight with virtually no passengers going through their lines. Of course those passengers were "expedited". Of course diverting two thirds (or more) of the passengers using that Check Point into the other lines delayed everyone else.

As a Corporate customer and as an A+ Elite passenger I am supposed to be eligible for "dedicated check-in lines and security entrances at select airports". In the past I have always been able to access the Preferred check-in lines for airline frequent flyers.

I don't expect any airline to be able to block anyone from using government services we all pay for.

Does anyone beleive this SHIT?

The latest dysfunctional Government fight over FEMA was resolved because;

FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Racusen, said the agency had $114 million left in its disaster relief fund, enough to last until Thursday or Friday, the final business day of the current budget year. She said the exact timing would depend on the number of emergency victims who apply for aid, and whether any new disasters occur.

I think FEMA loses or denies more applications in a week than $114,000,000 and if they could write a check for anything between now and Friday I'd drop dead from surprise.

I applied for aid once it took the six months to deny me.

Rising Tide 6 - Slacker Post

I have been involved with the annual Rising Tide Conference from the Beginning. This year I was a slacker, significantly reducing my involvement to barely anything. Probably as a direct result the conference experienced a surge of new organizers and a big increase in attendance. Even the MSM had some nice things to say. Like this excerpt by Dave Walker, The Times-Picayune

David Simon gave one of the keynote speeches at Saturday’s (August 27) Rising Tide conference, an annual gathering of the tribe that articulated an impassioned online defense of New Orleans after the levees flopped six years ago.

In season one of “Treme,” John Goodman’s Creighton Bernette used some of the words blogged by the late Ashley Morris, whose name is on an award handed out annually at Rising Tide. This year, the award went to Dedra Johnson, who blogs as G-Bitch and was the author of this excellent first-person account of “Treme’s” Jazzfest re-creation this past season. Other panels hit on topics of interest to anyone interested in “Treme,” including the BP oil disaster, New Orleans food and brass bands.

Unfortunately he more or less ignored the many other topic covered at Rising Tide 6.

LSU in the Sugar Bowl

Following the BCS madness I'm expecting LSU to play in the Sugar Bowl. If as seems likely Auburn wins out they will be in the BCS Championship. It seems likely that LSU will be the highest ranked SEC teams and the Sugar Bowl will pick them. It seems likely that they will also pick whoever is left, from TCU or Boise State. Mark Schlabach of ESPN seems to agree, here are his picks.

BCS National Championship Game (BCS No. 1 vs. BCS No. 2)	Oregon vs. Auburn
Allstate Sugar (SEC #1 vs. BCS)	LSU vs. TCU
Discover Orange (ACC # 1 vs. BCS)	Virginia Tech vs. Wisconsin
Fiesta (Big 12 # 1 vs. BCS)	Nebraska vs. Pittsburgh
Rose Bowl presented by VIZIO (Pac 10 #1 vs. Big 10 #1 )	Michigan State vs. Boise State

Fox/cfn has LSU in the Sugar against Boise State. and CBS, who expect Alabama to beat Auburn, have LSU in the Orange. I found a link that keeps several predictions current ( usually a day or so after they are released). I'm not sure the order of the replacement picks but I know the bowls that lose a team go first. But if two bowls lose a team who is first (I'd guess they go in order of ranking)?

CBS says this

The champions of selected conferences are contractually committed to certain bowls, unless they are No. 1 or No. 2. (ACC: Orange; Big Ten: Rose; Big 12: Fiesta; Pac-10: Rose; SEC: Sugar). If a Bowl loses a host team to the title game, then the bowl gets first choice at a replacement team. The rest of the selection order for 2011 is as follows: Sugar, Orange, Fiesta.

Assuming that the BCS rankings stay the same (although if Auburn beats Alabama convincingly or Oregon stumbles they could move up) the order of selection would be;

1. Rose Bowl to replace Oregon
2. Sugar to replace Auburn
3. Sugar
4. Orange
5. Fiesta

That would mean that the the Rose Bowl would probably select either Boise State or TCU. I'd guess they will select Boise State, since they are a western team, but maybe that's wishful thinking. Sugar could select LSU and TCU. I think TCU is a better team and a lot of people would follow them to New Orleans. I don't think the Smurfs travel that well.

Of course all of this assumes everybody does what people expect them to do and Les Miles doesn't get fired first.

The actual Rules for the BCS selection are fairly complicated, and I'm not sure anyone has actually considered all of them. Here is the meat of the process, There is a lot more dealying with what happens if enough teams don't qualify under these rules.

BCS selection procedures

Automatic Qualification, At-Large Eligibility and Team Selection

Automatic qualification

1. The top two teams in the final BCS Standings shall play in the National Championship Game.

2. The champions of the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, and Southeastern conferences will have automatic berths in one of the participating bowls through the 2013 regular season.

3. The champion of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, or the Western Athletic Conference will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game if either:

A. Such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or,
B. Such team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS Standings and its ranking in the final BCS Standings is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.

No more than one such team from Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, and the Western Athletic Conference shall earn an automatic berth in any year. (Note: a second team may be eligible for at-large eligibility as noted below.) If two or more teams from those conferences satisfy the provisions for an automatic berth, then the team with the highest finish in the final BCS Standings will receive the automatic berth, and the remaining team or teams will be considered for at-large selection if it meets the criteria.

4. Notre Dame will have an automatic berth if it is in the top eight of the final BCS Standings.

5. If any of the 10 slots remain open after application of provisions 1 through 4, and an at-large team from a conference with an annual automatic berth for its champion is ranked No. 3 in the final BCS Standings, that team will become an automatic qualifier, provided that no at-large team from the same conference qualifies for the national championship game.

6. If any of the 10 slots remain open after application of provisions 1 through 5, and if no team qualifies under paragraph No. 5 and an at-large team from a conference with an annual automatic berth for its champion is ranked No. 4 in the final BCS Standings, that team will become an automatic qualifier provided that no at-large team from the same conference qualifies for the national championship game.

---

At-large eligibility

If there are fewer than 10 automatic qualifiers, then the bowls will select at-large participants to fill the remaining berths. An at-large team is any Football Bowl Subdivision team that is bowl-eligible and meets the following requirements:

A. Has won at least nine regular-season games, and
B. Is among the top 14 teams in the final BCS Standings.

No more than two teams from a conference may be selected, regardless of whether they are automatic qualifiers or at-large selections, unless two non-champions from the same conference are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the final BCS Standings.