Thread: Technology---a blessing or a curse?

A hundred years ago, it could take you the better part of a year to get from New York to California, whereas today, because of equipment problems at O'Hare, you can't get there at all.
-- Dave Barry

Yeah back in the day you had a paper timertable, flight coupons, a vague load description, an agent at a satellite office/counter who said "hello "X" where you headed?", and a good chance you'd make your flight. Today you check schedules and loads online, print out your boarding pass and usually have to fall back on plan B or C. However, the new technology does offer the opportunity to check the pass classifications of our fellow nonrevs. No more rolling the dice on when or if to use your D1, and while that may not be a "blessing", it certainly is a welcomed advantage.

Keep in mind too, loads are much higher than they used to be, so there's a good chance you wouldn't have made quite a few flights if you went without being fully informed. Personally, I'd rather spend an hour online on my own than an hour of an agent's time while looking at options for places to go (when you factor in connections, backups, times, etc as well) and be more sure that I could make it back to work.

Originally Posted by spongebue

Keep in mind too, loads are much higher than they used to be, so there's a good chance you wouldn't have made quite a few flights if you went without being fully informed. Personally, I'd rather spend an hour online on my own than an hour of an agent's time while looking at options for places to go (when you factor in connections, backups, times, etc as well) and be more sure that I could make it back to work.

Oh, I agree!
I love being able to do my own research and not have to rely on an agent who does not really have the time to help anyway.

One example of what I have said is when I was planning an EZE trip last August.
A week before, the flight had 40 open coach seats and 20 business seats with zero NRSA listed.
The day of the flight, it went down to -20 in coach but the 20 biz seats were still there.
There were now about 30 NRSA listed. It freaked me out and I did not go on the trip.
When researching after the fact, I saw that I would have made it on and up front as well.
Back in the day, I would not have seen that info and I would have gone and made the flight.

The way I look at it, you can always *try* getting to your destination. Worst case scenario, you go back home. What you really need to plan for is getting back home. If you don't make *that* flight, you don't get back to work on time. Then again, I think that getting home is easier, at least in some locations. For example, when I wanted to go from MSP-HNL with a stop, I could choose between SEA, PDX, LAX, or SFO. Getting there, I had to be really careful about what I chose, since flights to HNL are... well, I shouldn't even have to explain that one. Choose the wrong one, and I'd have to turn around and go back home. On the other hand, I can get back to MSP through any of those 4 cities (there's also a nonstop, but that's REALLY tough). However, if there are several maybes, and they all left around the same time like they did, I could take the first flight back to the mainland I could get on. From there, I can eventually work my way back to MSP. Even if I have to do a really funky routing, like SFO-DTW-GRB-MSP.

That was a really important suggestion I learned from a coworker when I first got started, actually: "If you can't get a nonstop from somewhere back to MSP, always go to Detroit. You can always get to Minne from there. Just be prepared to make a halfway stop, like in Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, etc." Sure, it makes for a long day, but that's half the fun with this stuff.