Here is part 1 of the story. Also, I made significant edits on my original post as it was written right after a night of drinking in Amsterdam - it should flow much better now.

I met Dirk for breakfast in the hotel restaurant where I had the worst omelet and French toast. Even though our flight to Frankfurt was scheduled to depart at 21:30, we were told that we have to check out from the hotel by 12 noon. To add insult to injury, Delta Airlines' didn't provide stranded passengers with vouchers for transportation back to the airport. In other words, we are responsible for transportation to NY JFK Airport and being placed 60 miles away from the airport by the night before, the taxi fare won't come cheap. Delta Airlines incompetence never ceases to amaze me.

Because Dirk and I shared the same flight to Frankfurt, we decided that we should hang out and do something fun to pass time till departure. Instead of hiring a cab like most other stranded passengers, we rented a car. Since I didn't retrieve my luggage the night before, I was concerned that it may be lost. Dirk has to be the calmest and most optimistic German I have ever met. He kept telling me that it is "Lucky Saturday" and our fortunes would turn around; I should be able to find my luggage. So the first order of business that day was for us to drive our spiffy rented Pontiac Grand Prix to JFK to retrieve my luggage - only this time I would ask Singapore Airlines not Delta Airlines for assistance.

The Singapore Airlines staff was friendly, he said that he will check and call me back when he retrieves it. He said that if he doesn't get me on the phone, he will leave my luggage with the counter staff when I check in later. He is friendly, thoughtful, professional, and customer-oriented - the hallmarks of Singapore Airlines. I could have just easily flown from Boston to Frankfurt with other airlines; but instead I braved the hassle of traveling to New York to catch a flight from New York to Frankfurt by Singapore Airlines says a lot about my satisfaction with the company.

Since it was a gorgeous day, we spent the rest of the afternoon in Manhattan. Our drive back to NY JFK Airport was a breeze - there weren't any traffic at all. When I arrived at the flight check-in counter, my luggage was as they said right where it was. We checked in an hour and half before departure. We got into the plane at 21:00 and were in the air by 20:00. There were no chaos and everything was on time with Singapore Airlines.

After about 7 hours of flight time, I finally arrived in Frankfurt and went through immigration and custom without a hitch. But there is still one more problem: the flight from Frankfurt to Amsterdam has not been resolved yet. Dirk, a native of Frankfurt, was kind enough to stay with me in the airport to help me sort out the mess with KLM. After my inquiry at the KLM counter, I was confirmed the next flight out to Amsterdam but it came with a penalty of 115 Euros for changing flight. Bravo! my traveling nightmare was finally over. I said to Dirk then: "You know we never really celebrated our successful arrival in Frankfurt with a toast." We then immediately proceeded to the nearest beer garden for some good German beer. Dirk, you are right - it was "Lucky Saturday."

8/15/2006 6:25:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Travels

Preposterous incompetence, that is how I describe Delta Airlines'. Here is a chronicle of my worst flying nightmare:

16:00 - Arrived at Boston Logan Airport two hours prior to departure. Completed check-in and security screening in Boston Logan Airport in 18 minutes. I thought I was on for a good start for my vacation. Boy, was I wrong.

18:00 - My flight was due to depart at 18:00 and arrive at NY JFK at 19:25 so that I can catch a 21:30 flight to Frankfurt. At 18:00, there still there was no plane on sight. Delta staff was unhelpful in explaining why the plane was late. We were repeatedly told that the plane will arrive any minute from now.

19:30 - This is the time I should be arriving at NY JFK, not the time when I boarded the plane. The plane did not arrive at the gate until 19:30. In fact, the 19:00 flight to NY JFK left earlier than the 18:00 flight - unbelievable.

21:00 - I finally arrived at NY JFK at 21:00. Because my flight to Frankfurt is operated by a different carrier, I have to run to the Singapore Airlines check-in counter in Terminal 4.

21:05 - Arrived at the Singapore Airline check-in counter, but the staff were all gone. As you can see, many international airlines in NY JFK do not have permanent check-in stations as they only have a few flights per week. These companies were assigned with temporary stations 4 hours before flight departures to perform passenger check-ins.

21:10 - Without a boarding pass, my only chance is to talk an airline staff at the departure gate. But I first have to go through security screening, which requires a boarding pass. At the security screening station, I met Dirk, a German traveler who was in the exact same predicament as I am. We explained to a security staff who finally agreed to pass the message onto a Singapore Airline staff. But by then it was already too late. We looked out of the window and watch the flight which we are supposed to be on took off - a very sad and disappointing moment.

21:45 - Dirk and I met one of the Singapore Airline staff, the first competent person whom we met that night. She rebooked us for the next flight (the following day) to Frankfurt.

21:50 - Now it's our time to get even with Delta Airlines. Finding a Delta Airline counter was onerous because of the navigating around in termnal 3 was difficult with many doors locked and sections sealed.

22:40 - Yeah, it took us this long to find a Delta staff who could help us with our problem. Dirk and I were going to demand Delta for free accommodation and other compensations for the trouble they have caused us. To our surprise, we weren't the only passengers whom Delta has left stranded at NY JFK. There were about 50 (at least) passengers waiting around that section to sort out their logistical mess with Delta. They were fuming with frustrations and worry. I empathized with them. While there were some yelling and shouting, the situation was pretty civil.

23:10 - After 30 minutes of waiting in the line, we finally spoke to a staff. Despite our rage at the airline, Dirk and I decided to play it nice while talking to the staff so that we can at least get our issue resolved and have Delta to put us at some hotel for the night.

23:13 - I got free vouchers for hotel accommodation and food. The problem is that the hotel is located in Ronkonkoma - in the middle of Long Island, about 60 miles from NY JFK. We were told to wait outside the terminal for a bus that Delta had charted to transport stranded passengers to the hotel. We couldn't believe our eyes, there were literally hundreds (yes, read my words hundreds) of ticked off stranded passengers waiting outside the terminal for the chartered bus to take them to the hotel. Some passengers had been waiting for more than 4 hours for he bus. From talking to my fellow stranded passengers, I found that they either have their flight abruptly canceled or delayed, hence missing their next flight. Yep, there were plenty of delayed flights that night. One of the airport staff told me that it has been like this the whole summer. He said that this is the busiest traveling season since 9/11. One may argue that with the elevated terror alert and high traveling season delays are inevitable. Even this assertion is true, why do I observe that Delta Airlines is the only carrier at NY JFK having logistical problems? I am convinced that it is not demand or security threats, but rather poor operational management at Delta as the root cause of all woes at the airport.

23:45 - The bus finally showed up but it only has a capacity for about 50 people. Perhaps people were so ticked off or simply dead tired but no one were in a hurry to get onto the bus. I told Dirk that we should rush into the bus right now while there is still room, and we did.

23:55 - The bus finally left NY JFK. I started talking to Alex, an attractive lady who was sitting right next to me. We shared our horror stories but hers was definitely more distributing. She was on a layover in NY JFK while traveling from Boston to Richmond, VA (yeah, it turned out that we were on the same flight from Boston to NY). While waiting on the plane, she was suddenly told by the crew to get off from the plane. So she and other passengers complied. Once they were in ther terminal, they witnessed the plane flew off without them. Upon further inquiry, she was told by the staff on the ground that their flight to Richmond has been canceled and that they should go find a ticketing rep to reschedule them for the next flight. This story is distributing in many ways. Fundamentally, it violates the terms and conditions of a transportation service. Here is an analogy to the story: Imagine taking a taxi to a destination and halfway through the journey, you are suddenly kicked out by the taxi driver in a middle of nowhere. Such practice is totally unacceptable!!!

0:30 - We have been traveling for the last 30 minutes and we are now in the middle of nowhere.

1:00 - Can you believe this? We are still on the road. The driver was lost!!! He stopped twice to asked for directions.

1:05 - We finally arrived at the Holiday Inn in Ronkokoma but we were told by the hotel manager that he can only accept two passengers from the bus as the hotel was filled to capacity with stranded passengers. Thankfully, they have arranged to place us in another hotel two blocks down the road.

1:10 - We arrived at Hilton Garden Inn. I was assigned with a room with two king size beds. I asked the hotel manager how much the room would normally cost and he said: $99 + tax. Wow!!! This is what I don't understand. I paid $70 for a single trip ticket from Boston to NY JFK and Delta has to spend:

Cost of flight operations (very rough assumption, let's say 50% of the ticket price) = $35
Cost of hotel (assuming that Delta don't get any bulk discount rate) = $99
Cost of meals (what an insult, we were offered only $7 for dinner and $7 for breakfast) = $14
Cost of chartered bus service = $25
Total cost for Delta = $173

In other words, based on my very conservative estimation, for every $100 that they earn, they lose about $247!!! And with hundreds of ticked off passengers stranded in NY JFK each day (during this summer according to the airport staff), that translates to a huge operational loss. Personally, I incurred a big loss because of Delta's preposterous incompetence. I had to pay $115 euros to rebook my flight from Frankfurt to Amsterdam; not to mention the loss of my precious time, and the stress, grief, and anger that they have caused. And I am not alone. Seriously, why would these stranded passengers be flying Delta airlines ever again? Overall, Delta Airlines' incompetence translate to a much bigger opportunity cost for them. How can they continue to sustain their business with flight delays, unannounced cancellations, and incompetent staff? I feel bad for the employees at Delta too. They were severely understaffed and their morale completely shattered because of the company's financial dire straits. How can they be motivated, quality-oriented service providers? More importantly, how can the company continue to operate under such strains. After some digging on the Internet, it has become clear to me the circumstances surrounding my snafu last weekend. Earlier this year, Delta made the announcement of offering both domestic and international flights at NY JFK. There many similarities between Delta's expansion to JFK and the People Express case that I wrote a month ago. I think that Delta's expansion to JFK is a grave mistake. From my observation, Delta seemed ill-equiped and resource constrained to manage this new move successfully.

The moral of this story is simple:

DON'T FLY DELTA AIRLINES!!!

8/14/2006 1:22:37 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [4]

Travels

I get to hear more and more of the term Long Tail these days. Chris Anderson first coined the term in this article in Wired magazine. Recently, Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Jounal wrote this article to criticize Anderson's thesis on the Long Tail. Even Harvard Business School Working Knowledge recently started a forum where you will find some interesting contributions from readers on this subject.

8/8/2006 12:31:27 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Business

Some classmates of mine from the SDM program suggested earlier this year that we should all play soccer this summer. So when summer came around, I took the liberty of organizing a soccer match against our sister program, LFM. After weeks of deferment due to conflicting schedule and rainy weather, we finally played last Friday.

We put up a good fight, especially with Nick's and Ankur's drive to their defense line. But we fell short in scoring a goal. The LFM team not only had good defenders but their mid-fielders and strikers were able to pull back quickly to reinforce their defense, making it hard for us to penetrate their defense. Ultimately, the LFM being younger, faster, and more skillful beat us 7-0. We were all exhausted after two 45-minute rounds of game play. Nonetheless, it was fun and a great way to network with the LFM.

Big thanks to those who showed up in the game. Especially to the LFM/SDM staff who sponsored the field and refreshments. Last but not least, special thanks go out to the LFM who volunteered to help me in cleaning up the field and carrying the coolers and drinks back to my car when my SDM classmates have all but deserted me at the end of the game.

8/8/2006 12:21:43 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

School

I was reading BusinessWeek last saturday and this phrase caught my attention: "Say what you mean and do what you say." Unfortunately, not many people live by this creed. That article points out two types of trust-killers. First, there are those who aren't candid with one another. These people often use baloney to sugar coat their talk while making things look more obscure and themselves less accountable. Second, there are the people more often than not say one thing and do another (or worse the opposite).

I recently encountered both types of people. I hate to dwell on negativity on this blog; but my recent experience with these people have less than desirable. First, I have still yet to receive the money (quite substantial may I add) that I lent to an individual despite all the empty promises that he had made. Then, there are those who say that they will make it to events that require their presence; but ended up as no-shows when the day came. If one can't make it to an event, just indicate no or maybe (I always treat maybe as not a yes, so I'll understand if you say maybe). Even if you don't plan on showing up at the event, just send me an email telling me that you can't make it. When I say something, I will almost always back it up with action. That's why I don't like to commit to something unless I know I can do it. So it really breaks my heart to see this happening.

8/7/2006 11:29:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Rants

Finally, I am starting to make some progress on my thesis, which explains the lack of effort on my blog lately. I have finally devised a more plausible hypothesis for my thesis as I found the original one obscure, which resulted in the scope of the thesis too lofty. Another benefit of the revised hypothesis is that data supporting the thesis is easier to obtain. I hope that my new hypothesis will finally give me the momentum that I need to write a good thesis and get it done on time.

From now on, I really need to focus on my thesis and other pertinent school-related work in order to complete my degree program by the end of the year. As far as blogging is concerned, I am going to try writing blog posts that are terse from now on.

8/2/2006 12:32:08 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [3]

Personal

Interesting, I have just learned that French has no real words for seventy, eighty, and ninety.

Seventy in French is: Soixante-dix; literally, sixty ten (or 60 + 10)
Eighty in French is: Quatre-vingts; literally four twenty (or 4 * 20)
Ninety in French is: Quatre-vingt-dix; literally four twenty ten (or 4 * 20 + 10)

What ever happened to the metric system?

7/27/2006 8:32:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [11]

Personal

Do you remember how websites look in 1996? Here is a glimpse of what corporate websites look like 10 years agi. Yikes, they certainly look primitive.

7/26/2006 11:46:50 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Internet

I have been using French for Beginners, a podcast series of French lessons for adult beginners, for the last three weeks. This podcast is offered by the French Ecole, a London-based language center specializing in teaching French. New lessons are available for download almost every week but recent lessons have been updated less frequently. The lessons are available for free under the donationware model. In other words, you try it for free and if you like it you donate whatever amount you like.

So far, I am very impressed by the podcast. Each lesson is moderated by language instructor Alexa who makes the lessons incredibly easy to follow. The pace of the lessons suits me perfectly - not too overwhelmingly fast or boringly slow.

Language learning is mainly consists of two parts - perception and production. The more one listens, the better one gets in recognizing the phonetics of that language. This is where the podcast shines. With digital audio compression, I can load hours of lessons into my iPod and listen to it whenever and wherever I want. I have been carrying the iPod with me and listening to the podcast repeatedly whenever I have time. I am not putting any major efforts in learning the language (yet) but repetitive listening has made the learning process effective and pleasant.

7/25/2006 11:05:55 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Personal

I have talked about System Dynamics (SD), and its application in business and social science before. Yesterday in our System Dynamics class, we finally had the opportunity to play the Beer Distribution Game (or simply Beer Game) to illustrate application of System Dynamics in the field of Supply Chain Management (SCM). Electronic versions of The Beer Game can be found here and here. However, the Beer Game is much better played in teams than individually on a computer.

I took an operations and supply chain class last year and even scored an A in that class. So I know what Bullwhip Effect is and its implications in supply chain management. In fact, a majority of my classmates who played the game yesterday have taken the same class before. We were confident of contributing positively to the game and likewise had expected all of us to do very well in the game. Given that the game is easy to play and that we all understand the ill effects of the Bullwhip Effect, we should all do very well in this game, right? Wrong. While the final score of our team was decent, our decisions made during the operation was not optimal - our final score hovered around average. We all understand the bullwhip effect and even told ourselves before the game that we have do whatever it takes to minimize it as much as possible. However, once the backlog rises, we seemed to have forgotten some of the tenets of good supply chain management. We underestimated how real bullwhip effect can really take hold and its negative impacts. But in some way, I was glad that we didn't do as well because the game really made us appreciate the Bullwhip Effect.

The Beer Game is typically used to demonstrate the principles of Supply Chain Management; but the game can also be used to illustrate three principal System Dynamics-related effects in a time-delayed, complex system: oscillation, time lag, and amplification. In terms of Supply Chain Management, these three effects are effectively captured by the phrase Bullwhip Effect, which according to Wikipedia describes the effect of the Bullwhip Effect as: "variations are amplified the farther you get from the end-consumer." But the take-away lessons from the exercise are summarized as follow:

• Bullwhip Effect manifests itself not just in the context of supply chain but in almost every complex system.
• The root cause of most problems is attributed to the behavior of the system, not external variables or psychological factors. Ultimately, it is the structure of a system that influences the behavior.
• People tend to focus on their own decisions and don't understand how their decisions can affect others. Sometimes, these decisions can come in full circle and one's decisions can eventually affect oneself later (feedback loops).
  

7/19/2006 7:07:33 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

System Thinking

The phrase The Long Tail was coined by Wired Magazine writer Chris Anderson who observed that the future of Internet business is selling of less of more. Such effect has been studied and well documented in academia, and Anderson attributed to several key academic papers in his article. Nonetheless, it was interesting to listen to the discussion of The Long Tail on NPR earlier today. An archived of the radio segment can be found here.

The notion of the The Long Tail is based on a statistical distribution called Pareto distribution, which starts off from high-frequency population from the left of the chart, then drops off quickly to a very low-frequency population with a long, gradual decline to zero - the shape is similar to the exponential decay. In terms of ecommerce business, the more popular goods (top hits and such) that sell a lot are on the left of the curve and less popular goods that sell little are on the right. Traditionally, with limited shelf space, the few things that sell a lot dominate. So not so long ago, big hits rule. Well not any more. With a huge virtual shelf space, online stores can offer much wider variety of things, including many low demand items, to consumers (aka niche markets). When this happens, the tail end of the curve stretches out and the resultant accumulation demand of less popular goods can outnumber that of more popular goods. What does this mean? From the introduction of the radio program: "shop online and everything becomes available to anyone, no matter when it was made and where. Top ten hits whether they are on the radio or TV or on the bestseller books list are giving ground to a universal ground of more obscure music, films, and books." Well... that pretty much describes the business model of iTunes, Netflix, and Amazon.

7/18/2006 11:56:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Business

I wrote about System Dynamics and growth a few days ago. Can the same reasoning mentioned from that blog entry be applied to policy, especially policies on climate change and world growth? After all, it took millions of years for humans to reach one billion people in 1800 and the next 130 years to reach the second. Today, the population stands at 6.5 billion - 4.5 billion increase in world population in one lifetime. The bigger question is: does this planet has enough resources to sustain such growth? Indeed, this is a morbid topic to many people and honestly, I don't claim to have a solid idea what the future may hold. But the book Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update was suggested for people interested in exploring this topic from a System Dynamics point of view. I haven't have the chance to read it yet but here's a review of the book.

7/15/2006 3:06:22 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

System Thinking