Jeremy Tanner Life in Boulder: Every day an adventure.

Finally Some Win From Frontier Airlines

When I call you out, it’s not because I don’t like you.  It’s usually because I do, and we both know you can do better.  I’ve been a fan of Frontier Airlines since making DEN my home airport, flying upwards of 30,000 miles. Last month, I fired the shot that started a Frontier hatefest (Empty seat PHX). If you’ve not been following along, Andrew Hyde wrote:

• Frontier Fail
• Frontier Fail II
• Frontier Fail III : Fly Hard With a Vengance
• He even whipped up frontierfail.com

In short, fellow light packer Andrew and I make it to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport and try to fly back to Denver. I make it. Andrew doesn’t.  Not for lack of seats (though that was the excuse given.)  Unbeknownst to  most travelers, Frontier had changed their policies to no longer allow free same-day standby.  Switching to an earlier flight was now $150 plus the difference in ticket cost (Impossible if you were flying on miles.)  Frontier later drops this charge to a flat $75. Every time I’ve flown since, I’ve been told “We’re working on it, it’ll be better soon.” Instead of an email I learned about the policy switch at the airport when flying out for Christmas. Frontier had placed standup posters up and down it’s terminal. Introducing AirFairs, Frontier’s new 3 tier ticketing system.

• Economy is a bare bones ticket to which one can add à la carte “perks” (Luggage, In air food, tv, standby confirm)
• Classic is pretty much the way you’re used to flying with lower fees and lower penalties for standby, etc
• Classic Plus includes all “perks” and drops all fees, in addition to awarding 150% mileage credit

From a quick look at fare prices, economy seems to be priced lower than the standard ticket was before AirFairs came along.  If you’re packing light, willing to take a middle seat (Economy plan gets last choice of seating) and don’t need earlier/later flight flexibility, by all means, save yourself some money.  If you want some flexibility in your flights, Classic Plus allows you to pay a bit upfront (about $50 extra) to insure against a $150 change/standby fee.

Well done Frontier! I appreciate the options. The program has made me a good deal happier with your company (good thing too, as I’ll be wheels up on another Frontier flight in 24 hours.) As you continue to listen more closely to your customers, your airline will only get better.

Danger Lies Ahead

The US Army Survival Manual (FM 21-76)  has this to say: The greatest dangers to your continued survival and freedom are: A desire for comfort and a passive outlook.  These aren’t threats only to soldiers, but to all of us.  The most common barriers to your personal growth in the coming year will be: A desire for comfort and a passive outlook.  The greatest dangers to your career are: A desire for comfort and a passive outlook.  Nothing will kill an adventure faster than… You guessed it. A desire for comfort and a passive outlook.  Desire for comfort can keep you from taking the risks that are required to reach your goals.  In traveling, a desire for comfort leads to packing bags full of just in case items, making jumping in a taxi or running through an airport difficult.  Planes are missed because of baggage check cutoffs that wouldn’t be an issue if the traveler was able to pack down into a single bag.  By decreasing your choices, you’ll increase your options.  A passive outlook results from lacking the will to keep trying, ending in indifference. If everything works on the first try, you’ve mastered what you’re doing. I’ve come to believe that it isn’t a real win if you were never in danger of losing. So try something new and fail, figure out why, then try again.

How comfortable are YOU?

6th Photo

Grace Boyle tagged me in the 6th Photo Meme that’s going around. My mission should I chose to accept it: Go to page 6, image 6 on my Flickr stream and post it up. Tag 6 more, call it a post. That image and an explanation follow.

The Cutline theme for Wordpress was acting up and Vimeo videos weren’t embedding properly. This is the cheap hack I used to make a fake embed for the Inside Startup Weekend series from Startup Weekend Boston. A confessional stye video of my friend Ben Brightwell who came out to help out with the weekend. The video in question. Ben’s twin brother Len.

Up next are…
Kath
Ben Carlson
Matt Gist
Tyler Willis
Heather B
Aimee Greeblemonkey

Annnnnnnd GO!

Phoenix brings the heat

In October I flew down to Phoenix twice, first to run Startup Weekend Phoenix, then for PodCampAZ. Had a great time and made quite a few friends. Startup Weekend came off great, due to on-the-ground planners Gregg Drennan and Brian Shaler. Gangplank was a perfect location with plenty of space and several breakout rooms for the individual teams.  Fruits of the teams labor were TechCrunched.  I’ll be watching Twitrratr develop and anxiously awaiting the public launch of Reserve Chute (Back that SaaS up!)

I was back 11 days later for PodcampAZ. Brent Spore, Evo Terra and a small army of other volunteers pulled off a solid event. Sessions were great, I caught video with Clintus, Jack Mangan’s Pod Taint, Jeremy Vaught and Pam Slim on making real money, introduced Andrew Hyde and saw more Shaler than you can shake a stick at. Also made it to Austin Baker’s ‘How Social Media changed my life’ and was there for the temporary death of TheMacMommy’s car.  I nearly pulled a Raising Arizona and stole a baby, but carry on luggage has been limited to one piece.

I came away with an appreciation of Phoenix and a strong desire to return, especialy over the winter when it’ll be something like 80º there. Anchored by Gangplank and several local coffee meetups, the Phoenix tech community is building, slowed slightly by covering an enormous land area (5th or US City) There are upsides to this, since there’s space for it, everyone seems to have a huge house. “Why are you renting a 6,000 square foot place with a ballroom?” “Because it’s cheaper than the house with the indoor tennis courts.”

Keep rockin’ Phoenix, see you soon.

Ignite Boulder

I’ve been off the keys for a while.  I know.  I’m back now.  Excited inspired.  Committed to bleeding off a bit less of my energy on Twitter.  Now that that’s out of the way…

I gave the first of what I hope turns into many Ignite Boulder presentations a week ago.  Ignite allows 20 slides that auto-advance at 15 second intervals making for a 5 minute presentation.  Topics are incredibly varied, rules are, no spam, no pitches, be interesting, have fun.  Sort of a Turbo TED for the rest of us.  I presented Practical Party Crashing, a mini boot camp aimed at those about to rock (in a stranger’s house)  That was the most fun I’ve had at a tech event in quite some time.  Tseng, Tara and our Australian visitor John Allsopp KILLED it.  I can see doing this quarterly in Boulder going forward.  Below is most of my presentation.  Big thanks to Chip for manning the camera.