Tomorrow is the big day. Assuming everything runs on time, I’ll take 8 Southwest flights touching 9 airports, all within the State of California. If you’d like a reminder of why I’d do something this ridiculous, take a look at this post. Today, let’s talk about how you can follow along.
First, a reminder of the route. If all goes well, I’ll be leaving Long Beach at 7:00am tomorrow, and I’ll arrive back at LAX at 11:15pm. Here’s the map:
I’m planning on keeping everyone updated in 3 different ways, so hopefully you’ll join on in.
- The Blog – Tomorrow I’ll put a new post up at the regular time that will be constantly updated through the day with my location. If you’re just curious about where I am at any given time, then that’s the place to be.
- Twitter – I’ll be posting regular updates on the flights from my @crankyflier Twitter account. I’ll be actively responding to tweets along the way.
- Busker – I’m going to try something new this time and live stream at each airport along the way. I’ll be using a new app called Busker, which you can download without charge at busker.co (or via the app/Google Play stores) for iOS or Android. If you download it, you’ll be able to participate in the conversation in real time. If you’d rather not download, you can watch the feed but not participate online. I’ll post those links via Twitter throughout the day, but if you follow me on Busker, then you’ll get push notifications on your device.
Today, I’m going to do a test run going over the plan. I’ll review the flights, talk about the potential pitfalls along the way, and take questions as we go. Tune in at 11:00am PT/2:00pm ET at this link.
And that’s the plan. Sorry for preempting the usual content on the blog, but I’ll be back as normal on Thursday.
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Only one thing to say : good luck !
And of course : have fun !
What’s the line in Vegas as to whether or not cranky will complete this mission???
Joey – Southwest says the ops people are really into this and are going to do their best to keep things on time. I’m upgrading my odds to 75%.
Well since WN know about it and are into it I would say it increases your odds.
If you/they pull this off I can see some sort of article/ad/publicly value.
Let the games begin!!!!
Odds that a flight gets held, saving you but messing up other people?
AW – I’d say zero, and I’d hope they wouldn’t do that. The goal is to keep these flights all on time and have no major delays. But on several I do have connections that could handle 30+ minute delays anyway. We’ll see how it goes.
Perhaps not alerting SWA corporate departments until after the fact would be a better representation of the system.
PF – I’m not looking for a better representation of the system. I have those nearly every time I fly and I post those reports. But this is different. Nobody would ever fly 8 flights on Southwest in one day. This is just a random, fun thing, and I want to see it through. Telling Southwest in advance can only help that happen. This isn’t about the Southwest experience. It’s about me taking 8 flights touching 9 airports in one day.
we all should tell SW we’ll be flying on them so they can do their best to keep planes on time. :-).
Good luck! The weather looks decent so far on your side of the country tomorrow so that shouldn’t trip you up…
Chris – Yep, the usual summer weather tomorrow. While there is a solid marine layer expected tomorrow in several coastal cities, I don’t expect it to be a problem with I don’t do SFO until the end of the day. Other airports can handle it just fine.
Poor San Diego is conspicuous by its absence!
Bill – I tried, but that would have been impossible.
Just realized this looks like the ultimate end of year “I’m really trying to get that companion pass” run!
Who’s dropping your off at LGB and picking you up LAX or are you position a car at LAX tonight to drive home?
David – I’m going to Uber or Lyft both ways.
I just ubered to LGB last Friday and was told that they are no longer allowed to even drop off at the airport. So they had to drop me off at the skylinks golf course, then had to walk to the terminal so leave some time for that.
Rudy – Whoa, really? That’s insane. But thanks for letting me know.
Maybe I’ll cab it and make it easy.
I’d bet if you offered to sit in the front and the driver briefly remove the decal, no one would be the wiser – especially for drop offs which are much quicker and less obvious than hunting for their pickup.
To each drive their own level of risk.
Why busker instead of periscope?
Sean – Good question. There are two answers.
First and most importantly, Busker is integrating commerce into its app directly. Right now, you can “tip” someone who is streaming and in the future you’ll be able to link directly to products/services to purchase. While I’m certainly not looking for tips on this particular trip, I’m viewing this as a test for future use. If there’s no way to generate any revenue then it’s hard for me to justify doing live streaming on a more regular basis.
If this model proves to work, then I might be looking at a weekly show of sorts where we can interactively talk about the industry. I don’t really see a path to something that generates revenue with Periscope or Facebook Live.
Second, I know the people building this app so I’m always happy to try to support friends and former colleagues.
In short, this is just an experiment, but if there’s a way to integrate this going forward, then I’d like to figure out the model.
Facebook Live will have advertising, which might be a more natural way to make money off the content than asking for tips:
http://digiday.com/platforms/facebook-promising-live-video-publishers-stream-ad-options/
http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-testing-mid-roll-video-ads-live-sources/305274/
LRK – Ads don’t work well for me. I don’t have the same kind of volume of readers that you get on a general travel, political, or entertainment site, so it’s hard to generate enough revenue to make it worthwhile. I don’t expect live streaming would be any different. I do like the idea of being able to sell a service directly, could work with Cranky Concierge down the line. But it also gives people the opportunity to tip if they want. I’m certainly not going to ask for it, but if one person tips, I’ll probably make more than I would on ads.
Makes sense!
Have fun.
As I understand it, WN has brought in some DL-Atlanta people to make sure everything goes as planned. Good luck!
Hope it goes well. On another note, I look forward to a post on how Cranky Concierges handle a day like today (in which Delta’s operation went haywire).
CP – Well, it’s been ok actually. Delta seems to be recovering fairly well. I’m actually surprised so far. We’ll see if that holds. The most insane day in the history of CC was this one: http://crankyflier.com/2015/03/12/a-day-in-the-life-of-cranky-concierge-during-a-major-storm-tales-from-the-field/
I wonder if any of your SF area readers are planning on visiting you at all three airports?
Also, any 20th Anniversary Plans? Flying for a week continuously on Transcons and everything else?
Nick – If people are coming to visit me at SF airports, then I hope they’ve bought a ticket. I’m not leaving security! (But if anyone is coming, let me know. I’d be surprised except for people who work for Southwest.)
As for the 20th, if I’m still doing this in 10 more years, I think I’ll just take a bus.