There’s been much buzz this week about Northwest’s plan to offer an aisle or emergency exit row seats for an extra $15 when you check-in. I think this is a great idea, of course – I would almost always be willing to spend an extra $15 for a better seat. And this isn’t something to feel guilty about – ultimately, in the hyper-competitive airline industry, differential pricing will result in lower base fares than would have otherwise been the case. So someone who couldn’t afford the ticket if all the seats were the same price might be able to just barely scrape together the money for a middle seat in the last row (which should be the cheapest seat on the plane. Although the back row aisle seat can be pretty awful too – people waiting in line for the bathroom like to lean against that seat while they wait, seemingly oblivious to the passenger sitting there, trying desperately to get some sleep…).
The only problem with pricing each seat is that you cannot properly value each seat statically. Yes, an aisle or a window is more valuable than a middle seat. But an aisle or window with an empty middle seat is yet even more valuable. Probably worth an additional 15–$20 beyond the initial premium. But how to price this? How about another option on the ticket where you agree to pay an additional amount if the middle seat remains open? The airline could then move middle seat passengers around to maximize the ‘bonus’ revenue from passengers who agreed to pay more for an empty middle seat.
There’s at least one big complication to all of this from an economic perspective. There could be more demand for a given class of seat (ie ‘exit row’ or ‘window with empty middle seat’) than is available at a particular price. The best way to address this issue would be to have an ebay-like auction, where each individual would specify in advance the maximum that they would be willing to pay, and then the system would effectively run the auction to determine who gets any particular seat, charging everyone seated in a particular class the market-clearing price for that class (ie the lowest bid that still won a seat). It seems unlikely that the airlines will be able to implement a system this complex anytime soon, but it would be pretty nice for all involved. (albeit there would be a slight learning curve for some people)
Wow, Amanda really took a liking to Bumper.
Ideally it would be fully automated – whenever I buy a book, rent or watch a movie, tv show, eat at a restaurant, buy a new CD or listen to a new release on Rhapsody, buy a new piece of software or electronics, etc, there should be a new entry in an RSS feed with the appropriate tags. I can then go back and review any particular entry if I feel like it, and/or change the status – for example, if I bought a book and then I actually finished reading it, or gave up on it, or whatever. DMD pointed out that I could use my treo to ‘scan’ the barcodes of stuff not purchased online – I know there is software out there to read the number out of a barcode photo, so it should be possible for the treo to at least grab the UPC and email it into the system.
There is a certain amount of tie-in to the clickstream logging that organizations such as Attention Trust are spearheading, although I don’t think I am quite ready to make my entire clickstream public. It would be nice to have an interface, where I could look through my clickstream and check some boxes to make interesting pages public. You can of course do this reasonably well with delicious or other similar tools.
An interim step, short of full automation, would be to at least have a web app where I could enter in new purchases or experiences and then review them either at that time or later. This should be pretty easy to build although I have not yet seen anything that would work exactly the way I would like. I am hoping that Dabble will enable me to build this out once they give me an account.
I had a dream last night. I was in an apartment with family/friends (don't remember who was there exactly) and a number of cats. I had a rather long conversation with a grey cat. At some point the conversation turned to the subject of the loons. We were having a problem with loons. The problem was that the loons were making too much noise. But...they weren't outside the apartment per se. They were actually in some sort of other dimension/universe, and the noise was somehow leaking through into our kitchen. The cat and I went a bit closer to investigate. We sat down next to the large Oak tree in the kitchen, which is where the sounds were the loudest. I then discovered, quite accidentally, that if I pushed on a particular spot on the side of tree, we would be transported to the loons' actual location. We were then in the middle of a jungle clearing, next to the tree, and surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of loons. Except that they actually looked like pink flamingos.
The whole 'transported to an alternate universe/reality' concept was undoubtedly inspired by The Atrocity Archives, which I read recently at John Shim's urging. But mostly I blame the bartender in North Beach who gave us each a free shot of everclear (mixed with lemon and sugar to smooth it out) just before we ended our night last night.
This isn’t a tip so much as the beginning of one of the funniest cover letters I’ve ever received:
Dear Prospective Employer:
The opportunity to hire a certifiable superstar has arrived. This one of a kind individual glows with personality while positive energy reflects a humble attitude. A team player that takes ownership of mistakes and/or problems because, it is a step closer to the solution. Honest and proud represent a work ethic will become obvious with time and recognized in the bottom line. An eccentric creative thinker who is driven by success and fearless to any challenge is always searching for improvement…
I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.