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With New, Improved Free Stuff
With New, Improved Free Stuff |
ell folks, I'm sorry, but my Flyer article has been destroyed by my anger and fury based on my trip to NAB under the careful hands of America West Airlines.
OK, the week started badly with a sick son, dead goldfish and unfortunately, having to put my 12 year old daughter's horse "Buddy" to sleep after he developed colic (a stomach ailment). Jenny was devastated. Buddy had gotten old and we had a new horse for her competitions, but we had kept Buddy around because she was Jennifer's first horse and, as she says, her "friend."
These activities delay my trip to Vegas till Wednesday (sorry I missed some folks). If I had known what was in store though, I would have tossed my ticket and climbed under the covers.
Right off let me say how pleasant all of the America West people were. Their ticket counters, gate check-in folks, hostesses and baggage handlers were kind, quick and cheerful. But when there is a crisis, their whole system falls apart to the point of being insulting and degrading. Here's my tale of three cities...
SEATTLE -- Leave at 5 am to catch my 6:50 am direct Seattle to Las Vegas. Paid my extra $50 fee for the altered flight. Flight is late. Eventually we board, but soon we are told of a broken cockpit window heater (which removes ice.) They say it was broken four times the day before so they want us to leave the plane.
Half an hour later, they suggest that all passengers take another plane bound for Orange County with has a quick connect to Vegas. We go off and board the other plane. When airborne, they announce the coffee machine is broken and I'm told that there is no running water in the plane (isn't that a health hazard????).
ORANGE COUNTY -- As we arrive, I thank the hostess for their company putting us onto this connecting flight rather than leaving us in Seattle while repairs continue. Ha! We all arrive to find the connecting flight is FULL. Seattle never checked to see whether there were any seats! And we had a plane full of folks! Orange County was not even aware we were coming till 30 minutes from arrival!
They let two first class folks on the flight, and then announced that they had no flights or connections from Orange County that will get us to Vegas before 6pm. This was 9 hours later than our 9:30 am arrival time, blowing that whole day at NAB.
As for luggage. It had stayed with the original plane which was now in Vegas! Its de-mister had been fixed and it took off from Seattle before we did, practically empty. They sent us away without a connection and then took off! They could have called us back or checked ahead, but did neither.
American West (Orange County) offers to buy folks a McDonald's burger, the only conpensation offered. 32 of the passengers INSIST on being bused to LA (a 1 hour bus drive) for some other connection to Vegas. America West sets us up for a Southwest flight that takes off from LA in 90 minutes, then spends 45 minutes doing paper work till they're ready. The bus drivers laugh, they can't make it in 45 minutes. We bus anyway and take the next flight afterwards on Southwest (excellent). Arrive Las Vegas about 3:00pm. Most everyone is in good cheer, just rushed.
LAS VEGAS -- 11:30pm direct flight Las Vegas to Seattle. America West representative looks over my ticket, says everything is fine, go directly to the gate and skip the humongous ticket line. Check in at gate 45 minutes before flight time, my ticket is fine and I receive a boarding pass. We eventually board around a half hour late.
All seat-belted in, and just before take off, an American West woman asks to see my ticket, says there is something wrong and that I need to leave the plane!
I point out (in increasing volume) that they have checked me in, that no one has touched the tickets but them, and that they have screwed up everything yesterday, and that I AM going home to Seattle TONIGHT! She says this will just take a minute, but I must come off the plane.
I say then I'll leave my bags here. She says FAA regulations do not allow me to be separated from my bags -- I must bring them now. I grab them and say that I'll be FURIOUS if I am not in Seattle tonight. She says if there is any problem I'll be on the next flight in 2 hours. As we exit the plane she says "Did you EVEN pay for your ticket!" Grrrrrrrrr
It is now loud and we are in the aisleway when another woman (superior) comes up, says she can hold the plane for a few minutes. She says they have no record of me ever buying a ticket. We pull out all the tickets, she finds the full-sized receipt part of the ticket and asks whether they can take this from me. I say take anything, and she says I can re-board and hands me a $25 off certificate for my trouble.
I thought the customer was always right. Granted they must have entered something wrong in their computer when I changed my original flight down. But if THEY have the hassle, THEY need to presume some responsibility that perhaps THEY have caused an error. I had been sitting at that gate for over an hour after checking in. If there was any problem why not page me then in plenty of time.. or as we board even. Grabbing someone off the plane as the doors close is pathetic, and carried many suggestions of guilt. And making any customer miss a late flight out is ridiculous.
If I do not wish to miss the flight, then they should either strap on the seatbelt and come for the ride, or ask that I meet their representative at Seattle to resolve it. I was insulted by being so obviously removed from the plane.
In hindsight here is how I should have handled it. I refuse (loudly) to leave saying I've bought my ticket. She threatens to drag me off. I appeal to the other passengers for an attorney or for an actor who can act like an attorney. Then I appeal to this NAB group for anyone with a video or still camera to shoot me being removed. Then we set up lights etc. We could all share the rights.
What do they use their computers for? They probably did not use them to connect my return flight with my altered ticket. They certainly did not use them to check if there were seats on a connecting flight before bouncing a plane full of folks. And they don't use them at check-in till the plane door is shutting.
I flew home in fury, and I still am furious. In all three cities, their offices had to deal with something unusual and blew it. Seattle was stupid for sending a plane full of folks to a different city without checking for seats on a connection. They were also gutless by not calling us back to the direct flight plane when the original problem was repaired. Orange County was tactless by offering McDonalds as a substitute to a lost day in Vegas. Some folks had plans, one had to testify in court, others do not appreciate fatty food. They were also un-realistic with a connection through LA. The Las Vegas office was indifferent, accusing and unapologetic when they had some sort of ticketing problem.
What worries me is that each of their staff in all three offices will go home feeling that they have performed their job well. Each one dealt with their crisis and is totally unaware of the impact they have each caused. I doubt that each city knows what it even did to the other.
Their staff was great but their crisis plans are pathetic. They need an overhaul in supervisor training techniques and operating procedures totally. What will come of this? I never got my free McDonald's burger (I took the bus) and I'll never use my $25 off America West coupon. Anyone want it? Of course, I'm writing to them too. Also NAB, the FAA, and all three AmWest offices.
Sorry to waste my column space on this all but my deadline is here and my feelings are high. I feel we are all friends and I can share both the good and the bad with you. America West turned a week that started with heartbreak and added two flights from hell.
NewTek's Calibar is amazing; Ritchie Havens was awesome; take Play's announced Trinity price and multiply it by 4; and I'm looking at adding Dolby surround to my Flyer system. The Dolby gear is great but their NAB presentation was real weak. I hate it when a presenter adds nothing except reading titles off a screen. I can read them myself. Anyway, I want to add surround sound to tourism tapes and future video projects. Now all I need is a 16:9 ratio Flyer system, Tim. An HDTV Flyer would suit me fine.
Till next month. Then we'll talk about real Flying, with a focus on tips for Co-Pilot Audio.
"We hope you enjoyed this flight. If you did, you're on Southwest Flight 218. If not, you're on America West Flight 1015"
I have been unhappy with the slo-motion rendering of flyerproc. Its speed is fine, but the clips it creates have problems. When I was editing our China tourism tape last year, I experimented with slowing down the acrobatic acts by writing an arexx routine for use in ToasterPaint. It looked pretty good, but it sure is slow. I had mentioned it to a few folks and have had a number of requests for it.
So, here then is SlowDown.rexx and SpeedUp.Rexx. Unarchive with a command like "lharc x TPSpeed.lha Toaster:Arexx/ToasterPaint" The files go into your Newtek/Arexx/ToasterPaint drawer. To download the file (4k .lha), click right here.
On my 040 4000, using ToasterPaint... speed up a 2 sec clip to 1 second = 22 minutes! (22 seconds per rendered field) slow down a 1/2 sec clip to 1 second = 17 minutes! (17 seconds per rendered field)
See, I told you these were slow. But they look pretty good, smoother than FlyerProc. Maybe this will encourage other third party efforts -- a challenge of sort. Fastest rendering of smooth slo-mo. I don't care who writes it. We will all profit from it.
To use:
It will ask for an output file name. Find a video drive and enter a NEW name. Then it confirms that you wish to proceed.
You may not see anything happening for the first 30 seconds. Often the screen may look like nothing is happening. While it is rendering you can check the status by pressing LeftAmiga + n. (If status window is still not visible, toggle your workbench window to the back.)
When these routines are completely finished, they will put a notice on your ToasterPaint screen. Then exit to Switcher and find your new clip.
Some notes...
Enjoy, Aussie
Michael Holten is an Emmy award winning video editor, a theatrical Sound Designer, and a third party Flyer programmer. His Seattle based company, OZware, has released three programs for use with NewTek's Video Flyer: Co-Pilot Audio, Co-Pilot Video, and Aussie's Fast Frames. Watch for more.
OZware
21230 Meadow Lake Rd.
Snohomish WA 98290
(360) 805-0148.
ozware@aol.com
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