My. God. Jet. Blue. S*cks. Light posting today, I'm, er, in the airport. Update: I should elaborate. I usually like flying Jet Blue, but when I got to JFK yesterday, my flight was literally not on the board. It had…disappeared. Odd. I tried using the computerized cheeck in, and…
My. God. Jet. Blue. S*cks.
Light posting today, I’m, er, in the airport.
Update: I should elaborate. I usually like flying Jet Blue, but when I got to JFK yesterday, my flight was literally not on the board. It had…disappeared. Odd. I tried using the computerized cheeck in, and got a slip of paper that said something like “Oops! We can’t complete your transaction, go see any agent.” Well, the place was a zoo, and no agent I saw had any clue why my flight was no longer in the realm of the living. I called my office and was told the flight was still shown on the JetBlue website. I kept asking around, and after being directed to the wrong place three times, was finally put in a line for lost souls (at least they had one). That line was 30 minutes long, and in it I learned – from my fellow travelers – that not only was my flight cancelled, but so were about eight others. Why? Weather. I looked outside. It had been raining in the morning, but it was clear as could be at 3.30 pm, when the cancellation news rippled through the line . What gives? (Oh, and why didn’t they tell us?I mean, they have my cel phone, my email, and my office number.)
Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details of the surly and unhelpful person at the head of the line, or JetBlue’s inability to recognize that if they put me on one flight that was already two hours delayed, I’d miss my connection, etc. etc.etc. I left the terminal and bought a ticket on Delta. JetBlue may be great when it’s working, but when a bug gets into the system, it breaks big, and it breaks hard.
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Earlier this year I had the distinct honor of giving the commencement address at Berkeley for SIMs (the School of Information Management and Systems). SIMs graduates tend to be interdisciplinarians, and often end up at places like Google, Yahoo, or other Valley companies. While I was there, Marc Davis, a professor there who I had spoken to a few times during my tenure at Berkeley, sidled up to me and told me some news I have had to keep under my hat till now: he’s teaming up with Yahoo to lead a joint research effort. I’m very pleased that a SIMs prof is heading up this endeavor, as it means Yahoo’s research will be pushed across many fields, not just engineering. I’m looking forward to seeing what he might do.
