- Whenever I visit some place to give a talk, when I depart why is the host always more conservative than me in suggesting how early I should leave to make it to the airport on time? More conservative even that I bet they are for themselves?
- Twitter tells me who I should follow. But what I really want to know is who are the people Twitter suggests should follow me.
- What is the point of posting the schedule of Arrivals on airport monitors that are past the security lines? Anybody who has access past that point is waiting for a departing flight, not an arrival.
- When Kellogg builds its new building I will suggest that all offices have showers built into them. Since my best thoughts come when I am in the shower, I would like to spend most of my day there.
- Why has 80s music been pretty much passed over when it comes to “Classic Rock” playlists?
- Why are roads that run alongside expressways always called Frontage Road?
- You can talk about price discrimination and loyalty programs, but these are second order compared to the real reason behind Frequent Flier programs. Since business travelers don’t fully internalize the price of the flights they book, airlines compete for them with kickbacks in the form of frequent flier miles.
Cheap Talk 
11 comments
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March 22, 2011 at 12:15 am
twicker
In reverse order:
#7: interesting – never thought of it that way.
#5: I thought they were part of classic rock lists? “Oldies” stations certainly play ’80s music (much to both my and my niece’s great shagrin).
#3: Actually, some people on the gate side of security have a definite interest in arrivals:
a) If you’re part of a group coming in from many locations (e.g., for a wedding) and you’re waiting for someone else who’s coming in on a later flight.
b) If your flight’s departure is contingent on a specific flight’s arrival because they use the same plane.
#2: Interesting idea. Might give away too much of their algorithm?
#1: If I’m the host, then, if I’m flying somewhere and I leave late, all the stress and all the risk of missing the flight rest on my own shoulders; I have no one but myself to blame, and your perception of my organization (key to my identity) doesn’t change (unless I miss my flight and you’re the person I was coming to meet). If, however, I make *you* stressed, late, and in danger of missing your flight, then I look bad, my organization looks bad, everything’s just bad, bad, bad. And much social approbation awaits my return to my organization. Heck yes, I’m going to get you to the airport with time to spare so you can relax.
March 22, 2011 at 12:41 am
MMP
yes but:
#3- I can’t imagine there’s enough of these to justify that explanation.
#2- if it does, their algorithm isn’t any good.
#1- I like that explanation.
March 22, 2011 at 8:30 am
twicker
@MMP:
#1: Thanks!
#2: Just a guess; I’m not sure what their viewpoint is. That said, what Jeff proposes sounds very, very cool.
#3: My thinking is that it’s a cost-benefit thing. As an example, O’Hare averaged about 184,000 passengers/day in 2010. Assume that only 100 of those passengers per day need to know about arrivals, and that, if there weren’t monitors, each of these people would take 2 minutes of time from an information booth agent or gate agent. 200 minutes = about 3 hours; 3 hours/day * 365 days = 1095 hours; 1095 hours*$15/hour (to include benefits, etc.) = $16,425. Way the heck cheaper to put up a few monitors.
At least, that’s my personal analysis. 🙂
March 22, 2011 at 12:38 am
Responses To Thoughts Left Lying Around « A Spoonful of Win
[…] 22, 2011 by MMP Jeff Ely at Cheep Talk asks questions. We answer them. It’s that simple. We include both his TLLAs and our […]
March 22, 2011 at 12:39 am
MMP
My answers:http://aspoonfulofwin.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/responses-to-thoughts-left-lying-around/
March 22, 2011 at 12:54 am
Vinnie
On #5, I beg to differ. The playlists have even been creeping into the ’90s of late. If you tune into 97.1 FM here in Chicago, Jeff, I would bet you’d hear an ’80s or ’90s song within an hour. Granted, it’s limited to a narrow selection of artists–U2, Van Halen, Pearl Jam, Nirvana–but it’s there.
March 24, 2011 at 9:10 am
jeff
i agree with that. i am wondering why i always hear “Love is The Drug” but never “Avalon”
March 22, 2011 at 5:22 am
David Pitkin
Frontage roads mean that property owners can build buildings on them. They are part of municipal planning zoning laws. If you own property for example that has a bypass or expressway next to it you have no frontage rights to build a building and a driveway thereby its value is less for example.
For the Arrivals, I am sure it has to do with the simple 70 and 80 economics of having a single broadcast of departures and arrivals as well as the fact that pre-9/11 you could go through security if you were picking up family. Even today if you are picking up someone with special needs you can get a gate pass and meet them at the arrival gate, behind security.
March 22, 2011 at 11:17 am
Kelvin
1. The cost to the host of YOU idling around in the airport is close to zero. On the other hand, when HE needs to go to the airport, there is a positive cost of the time lost to him being unproductive there (or unleisured, whatever).
Furthermore, imperfect information. I’m the type that aims to get to work at 9 every day, and gets there at 9:30. My last few trips to the airport have seen similar gaps. If you’re the punctual type, and you didn’t account for my inability to keep a schedule in your recommendation, the expected cost to you are quite large. Vice versa, if I told you to get to the airport at X hour, you may feel that I’ve over-budgeted a half hour into trip time, when I’ve really accounted for my inevitable procrastination.
March 24, 2011 at 9:11 am
jeff
i think you are on to something
March 24, 2011 at 11:36 am
MikeY
agreed with Kelvin – #1 is opportunity cost neglect.
Shane Frederick has a paper or two on this. One old iteration of it was called the X effect, where we estimate other people will pay more for something than we would. This is just the X effect with time