Godammed SDN

[Darth Fanboy]

Normally I feel I get along with Thanas pretty good, but I think some of you will enjoy the way he moves the goalposts in the NFL thread when trying to compare Roethlisberger and Ray Lewis, even if you hate the Steelers you should get a laugh out of it.

[Zod]

the nfl

pft

[starku]

It is a huge lol to me that almost he only person discussing the content of me3 is a bikie

[thejester]

ergo thanas is cool with calling julian assange a rapist and bradley manning a traitor in every thread they appear in amirite

[Darth Fanboy]

Probably not, but the double standard being applied just within NFL related examples is funny enough.

[Questor]

So, I have discovered a webforum with more seething hatred, bitterness and anger than even ARSE. And more pointless whining than ever before seen on the Internet!

It is known as: FlyerTalk!

[thejester]

I assumed it would be about Philly

[Questor]

These are the people you see bitching out gate agents because the one armed, one legged man with his wheelchair bound, deaf, dumb, and blind wife and thier three quadriplegic children get to board the plane before them.

Check out the United forum to see them complaining about 4 fewer frequent flyer miles on some trips, and about the fact that merging two of the biggest airlines in the world's IT systems did not go perfectly.

[Darth Fanboy]

I assumed it would be about Philly

[weemadando]

Ahahahah. Man, I should look at that. I have to say, aside from the soul-destroying corporate attitudes and reckless scheduling, a real high point of working in QANTAS call centre was that they pretty much didn't give a shit about 90% of the customers we dealt with, because they were "frequent shoppers" who used Flybuys and other rewards programs and then got indignant when they didn't get special treatment.

My absolute highlight remains my best friend to this day dealing with Darryl Braithwaite, who, as it turns out wasn't a valued customer (according to our available info). He was told "That's just the way it's going to be" and "You could always ride some wild horses."

Seriously, our shifts were often spent just dealing with the worst dregs of humanity. Sure, polite people got good treatment, but if someone went "YOUR FARES ARE UNREASONABLE AND I DON'T LIKE YOUR FOOD" our response was generally "you fly once a year and never actually pay for your ticket, why don't you call Virgin Blue."

Or my favourites: "I'm stuck on the Harbour Bridge and my flight is in 15 minutes, HELP ME!"
"Well, you should have planned better and left home earlier."
"Can I at least get a refund?"
"Nope. You clicked that box on purchase screen saying you had read and understood the terms and conditions of the fare, so you shouldn't be asking me this. But I can sell you a fully flexible, fully refundable fare on the next flight leaving in 90 minutes for one thousand dollars."

[Questor]

I've flown multiple times a year almost for as long as I remember. This year, for various reasons, I'll probably fly enough to hit the top tier in my FFP, that's how I stumbled on these maniacs, trying to figure out if I could make something work (I needed to figure out if 60 mins was enough connecting time at an airport).

I'd never dream of behaving in public the way I've seen some "Frequent Fliers" behave.

[weemadando]

How top tier are we talking? Like capping out your Bronze or Silver level, or actually Gold, Platinum or a "Chairman's Club" (I'm guessing not that last one as you aren't a CEO or head of state).

[Zod]

The way one of my coworkers describes her flying experiences it really seems that frequent fliers are some of the most horrible people on earth. (She flies at least once or twice a week to train clients.)

[Questor]

How top tier are we talking? Like capping out your Bronze or Silver level, or actually Gold, Platinum or a "Chairman's Club" (I'm guessing not that last one as you aren't a CEO or head of state).

I hit Silver last week, and should have over 100,000 miles before the end of Q3. I'm with united, so that will equal 1K, maybe their "super-tier", depending on exactly how last minute things are.

Basically, I'll be flying across the Atlantic from California 2-3 times a quarter.

[weemadando]

Fuck yeah buddy. Get ready to have some perks.

[Questor]

I'm just glad I can sleep even in economy.

[Darth Fanboy]

I'm just glad I can sleep even in economy.

Fucking jealous, i'm not that tall but im so cramped in economy that my legs and neck just burn after more than two hours.

[Questor]

I'm 5'10", but even being overweight, I can somehow fold myself into a comfortable position if I'm in a window seat. Aisle and middle are killers though.

Premium economy seats make it really easy, with extra legroom.

[timmy]

Either you can sleep in a chair or you can't

Anything more is just icing on the cake

Anders did you guys really actually tell people to go to the competition?

[weemadando]

Pretty much. If people said they wanted to change over, if they weren't valuable we didn't fight it at all.

Like I said, people who fly once or twice a year on non-purchased tickets weren't really valued.

[timmy]

That I get, as long as you weren't actually saying 'lol guy fly VB'

Because that would be a total CustServ

[Agent Bert Macklin]

Normally I feel I get along with Thanas pretty good, but I think some of you will enjoy the way he moves the goalposts in the NFL thread when trying to compare Roethlisberger and Ray Lewis, even if you hate the Steelers you should get a laugh out of it.

What the hell? There's a debate going on about a shitty sport?

[weemadando]

That I get, as long as you weren't actually saying 'lol guy fly VB'

Because that would be a total CustServ

No, a bunch of folks would tell people to try Virgin if they were unhappy, because the cost of even five minutes effort of trying to retain these once a year frequent shoppers far exceeded any possible return. Especially considering that at the end of spectrum at which the company did care, you had folks willing to pay for two first class round the world tickets for an employee to babysit a bottle of wine which got a seat to itself, just to retain the no) 1 frequent flyer position.

So, that mixture of the individual traveller not being "worthwhile" and toxic culture meant that most staff gave precisely zero fucks.

Hell, I had a case there where I tried everything I could think of to help someone out and couldn't (medical needs issues for an injured junior footballer iirc) and it ended up on the news and front page of the mockery about heartless corporate this and that. So when I got in that morning I went to see the manager and told them that they people had been dealing with me. He couldn't give a crap and told me not to worry about it. I never heard about it again.

[timmy]

Especially considering that at the end of spectrum at which the company did care, you had folks willing to pay for two first class round the world tickets for an employee to babysit a bottle of wine which got a seat to itself, just to retain the no) 1 frequent flyer position.

I want to hear the rest of this story

[Darth Fanboy]

One of my real experiences. "Why doesn't your zoo have Pandas I thought every zoo had Pandas? San Diego Zoo has Pandas! That's the only other one I've been to."

And you just sit there and think..."this will be the fourth time I've had to explain today how rare Pandas are to some stupid chick here with a class not paying to get in and wasting my lunch because the dumb broad asked for a manager in the fucking gift shop without saying why."

I love where I work and what I do, but for perspective I work at a very small municipally owned zoo sandwiched between San Diego and Los Angeles, two of the bigger zoos in the country with far for massive budgets. So its always just great to hear that despite putting in numerous hours of volunteering on top of a hard workweek, someone who comes in for half price can just shit all over you because you can't compare with fucking SDZ. Nobody, except Columbus really, can do that.