Smarthouse reports about Qantas’ Problems

I was reading the SunHerald today and it had an article about the problems facing Qantas’ entertainment system. It is also been mentioned on Smarthouse here. Glad to see I am not by myself with these feelings and glad I have successfully avoided Qantas travel for the next few months.

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Going to Beijing

Myself and a few other MVP’s (Hugo and Darius) are heading to Beijing to do some training on Vista. I am really excited about this and cant wait to learn more and importantly give feedback from the mobility perspective.

No doubt will blog more about this in the coming weeks and hopefully dont have to fly Qantas 🙂

Qantas: Definately no friend of mine

I have avoided Qantas for many years, but when I had to travel to Seattle last week my options were limited so I decided its been a few years it will be worthwhile to give them a chance.

Problem 1: I rocked up to the counter and was asked for my ticket, I explained it was an e-ticket here is my passport and this is the flight number. She explained she needed a print out of my itenary and I should have printed out the email booking. Being a mobility guy I reached my pocket and pulled out the email on the device and say here it is. She explained that it was not good enough she neeeded the physical paper and i will need to go to the customer service desk. No problem I reached into my back and produced a email printout that I was going to give to my wife the night before but forgot … I read all the gumpf and it doesnt say I need to bring it with me. She takes one look and hands it back … when asked what she looked for she explains … its policy to make sure you have it with you.

Problem 2: Where would you like to sit ? First Class but since I have only paid for economy a middle section aisle seat please.  But definately dont want row 75 (ie last row seats dont lean back as far and people mingle at the back of the plane and lean agianst your seat). She says no problem and gives me seat 65 … I board the plan then the give me a new boarding pass and yep row 75. Sorry I dont want this seat, sorry sir we dont guarantee seat preferences … this of course leads to a huge problem with airlines. You pay a varying price for a service and that service for certain people is guaranteed to be worse. I picture running my business where I say sorry your the 10th customer for the month and we dont really look after that person the same as other people. To me that worse seat should be a cheaper seat. They have seats that have no leg room because of the entertainment system.

Problem 3: After 5 hours of flight, the entertainment system fails and they cant get it to work so no entertainment for the rest of the flight

Problem 4: Because I have been placed last on the plane means I am last to get through immigration at LAX … which means a run through the airport to get my boarding pass and connecting flight.

Problem 5: I arrive in Seattle and my bags dont.

Problem 6: Heading home now Get this guy who must have been 200kg sitting next to me spilling constantly into my seat (ok not qantas’ fault) but could have somebody given him a seat on the window or aisle for more room.

Problem 7: The entertainment system crashes again and only works for 50% of the content, the flight attendant explains over the intercom that people need to be patient … the system cant handle 100’s of people connecting at once. Now anybody in IT knows when you design a system you need to understand the load, now plane full of pessengers isnt rocket science to work out the maximum number of users connecting it needs to handle. There is only x number of passengers its not like its going be more unless people are sneaking onto the plane.

I will be avoiding Qantas with a renewed passion for a while yet.

Back from Seattle

I have spent the last week in Seattle spending sometime at the Mobility Partner Summit. The trip was some hard yards and makes my in built dislike for Qantas even more so.

I was very impressed about how Microsoft is taking such a whole vision into Windows mobile. The windows mobile team really understands the need to make your device intergrate into the way you live.

The bad news is everything we were told was under NDA, cant wait until I can tell people about whats happening so definately stay tuned.

Whats coming up with SWMUG

The planning committee for the user group met the other night and looks like we have a great quarter lined up for content. We have lots of give aways thanks to Andrew Coates to keep the people happy.

February’s meeting which is on the 6th Feb will be about the Vista, next platform for windows mobile and how they interact. March will be focused on embedded with some developer workshops.

Hope to see you come along.

Apple releases the iPhone

One of the worlds worst kept secrets is now official, Apple has released a phone called the iPhone … there are some quicktime movies of the phones usability and no surprise the Apple guys have produce a slick UI.

The device is running OSX which is interesting and would love to get my hands on one of these to have a play. This device will definately eat into the Nokia world with its high consumer desirability. If they have the phone functionality nailed well then Nokia should be concerned.

New MD for Microsoft Australia

Just got an email from Steve Vamos announcing that Tracey Fellows is the new Managing Director for Microsoft Australia. Not that I have ever met Steve Vamos other than a stage appearance and probably will be the same for Tracey Fellows but as my business lives and breathes Microsoft I am of course very interested to hear from the Microsoft world what this means. I wonder if she will blog ??

The great Microsoft laptop giveaway debate

I have been reading postings from people like Mitch about his new laptop given to him by Microsoft and the peoples different reactions.

People who are active in any community be it IT or anything else are usually rewarded for their efforts. I personally have been given items such as mobile devices, tickets to events and software over the years, because people are interested in my feedback on their devices and of course they also know that I am usually asked what device should I get and of course if I am experienced with a particular device I am more prone to say this one is cool. Sometimes its just someone saying well done and thanks for the effort of those free training or advice you gave.

The only time you need to be careful is if you think your “perception” is being tainted as Mitch said, ie if I thought a certain device was crap would I say that or say its great thinking I wouldnt get the next free device if I was honest.

The people that are against this I personally think its pure jealousy but hey if you want one then its simple … simply know as much Mitch, work for a company like Readify, run community events like codecamp and blog a lot then you too can get cool freebies.

Well done Mitch a very well deserved reward.