David J. Danto
Principal Consultant,
Collaboration/ AV / Multimedia / Video / UC
Dimension Data
Director of Emerging
Technology
Interactive
Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance
eMail:
David.Danto@DimensionData.com Follow Video &
Technology Industry News: @NJDavidD
(Read David’s Bio) (See
David’s CV) (Read David’s Other Blogs & Articles)
Giving Thanks To Turkeys
As we approach another Thanksgiving week here in the US - and prepare to feast on the
traditional Turkey dinner - many people take time to look back at their year
and feel thankful for the many blessings and joys they’ve experienced. It’s also a good time for us road warriors to
look back at the pain and inconvenience we’ve experienced and be thankful for
getting through it for another year – living through the turkeys we had to deal
with every other day. Rather than just
heave a silent sigh of relief, here’re a list of everyone we have to thank for
all that misery we had to trudge through.
·
Thank
you to the current US airline management for teaching us that loyalty is a
one-way street when greed is a factor.
Whether it’s my MillionMiler status on United
that only gets me the perks of any branded credit card holder, or Will
Allen’s five million miles on Delta that only gets him a luggage tag, the US
airlines have certainly told us that we mean nothing more than cargo to
them. That kind of bad-faith will most
assuredly come around to bite these firms at some point, but regrettably the
management teams that caused it will have already retired with their golden
parachutes.
·
Thank
you to the firms that invented and manufactured smaller, thinner seats to fit
on the airlines we fly – so more passengers could be squeezed into the same
space. May their CEOs wind up in a
special section of hell where their eternal task is trying to fit a standard
water bottle into a mesh seatback pocket.
·
Thank
you to the many surly gate agents that asked me to test my carry-on bag in the
airline’s tiny sizer. I had to throw out
a perfectly good carry-on bag that has fit on planes with me for years to get a
smaller one that fits the sizer. Special
thanks to the guy in front of me on my flight last week who’s bag didn’t fit
the sizer, was given a tag and asked to bring his bag to the end of the jetway, and who ripped the tag off the second he passed the
gate. Yup, his bag fit just fine lengthwise
on the plane. He’s my new hero.
·
Thank
you to the TSA and their completely broken Pre-Check program. I am a cleared, vetted, approved trusted
traveler according to the US Customs and Border people, but I still have to
take my shoes off and remove my liquids if they haven’t staffed their security lanes
adequately. They
miss over 90% of mock threats but they make sure they hassle people that
pre-agreed to be vetted and inspected.
Well done.
·
Thank
you to Uber for reducing the required qualifications for driving my loved ones
around to only ‘someone that has a car.’ Just like Russian roulette you don’t
get your head blown-off most of the time – but smart people still don’t think
it’s worth the risk to play.
·
Thank
you to Marriot for agreeing to buy Starwood.
You’ve provided yet another chance for the US DoJ
to look at all the past ‘mega-mergers’ in the travel industry to try and find
even one that turned out to be better for anyone other than the management
team. The important equations are 1) Consolidation
= consumer/employee loss and 2) Management teams’ testimony = lies to gain
approval – it’s not even that hard for the math challenged amongst us to
understand.
·
Thank
you to the hospitality industry in general for hiding increased costs in the boondoggle
called ‘Resort Fees.’ Even the airlines
were forced to show their total costs (with ridiculous fees and surcharges
included) in a single quote. How the
hospitality industry can get away with quoting a room for $70 a night but then
adding a fee listed elsewhere on the page that brings the cost to over $100 is
beyond me – that’s just intentionally being deceptive.
I’m sure there are more people and firms I could include, but
as we approach the end of the year and the start of a new one what’s clear is that
the experience of being a frequent traveler is a lot worse than it used to
be. Anyone who thinks it’s the glamorous
life of George Clooney’s character in Up in the
Air isn’t really in-touch with today’s realities. That’s why the videoconferencing and collaboration
solutions I design are more popular than ever – people are just tired of the continuous
hassle. I and many others wish these
were the turkeys we could be carving up.
This article was written by David Danto and
contains solely his own, personal opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.