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| Janet Savoie Vice President, OSS |
I have to travel a lot for work and one of my regular stops is Atlanta. Since I am in Nashville, I can drive it, but because I do not read, write, text, dial, answer emails while driving (Merrill), I prefer to fly so I am not away from work too long during productive hours. The problem is that one airline controls the skies between Nashville and Atlanta and the fares are beyond ridiculous for a 45 minute flight. We are talking about as much as $600-$1000. I always check the fares and to my surprise last time another airline popped up that was just over $200 . . . Kentucky Skies.
I checked them out on the Internet and they seemed okay. I figured it was going to be a small plane and I wasn’t disappointed. It was quite an experience, not bad but definitely different. The terminal for this airline was not at the Nashville airport but just outside it in a separate building. The good news was that there was free parking right outside the front door. When I went in I was told to go into an office where I would be checked in. The person checking me in, who turned out to be one of the pilots, asked me to grab my carry on and step on the scale. I was a bit shocked but apparently on small planes they have to balance the weight. The pilot loaded all our bags onto the plane and then we were ready to board. There were no boarding passes or security and when we were ready the pilot called out our seat assignments . . . I was in row 2 on the right. There were only 8 of us on the plane and the pilots were right in front of us . . . no locked cockpit and certainly no flight attendants handing out peanuts and Cokes.
The flight itself was very uneventful. We left on time and landed on time even though it was a cloudy and rainy day. I have to admit looking out the front windows of the plane kind of freaked me out. There was no visibility and we flew in the middle of a big cloud the whole way. Upon arrival at a small terminal outside the Hartsfield airport, the pilots unloaded our bags and drove us in a shuttle to Hartsfield so we could pick up our rental cars. We followed the same procedures for the return flight. This time however it was nighttime and very clear. I hadn’t realized how low we were flying. I could see lights on the ground all the way home.
Would I do it again? Not if my kids have anything to do with it. They were horrified. I however might consider it because of the price certainly, but more so because of how much easier it was, how nice all the people were and how calm I was after the first few minutes. I really felt for once I was flying "the friendly skies".
- What do you think of my experience?
- Have you had a similar experience to mine?
- What is the smallest plane you have ever been on?
I look forward to reading your comments.
Spence Bilkiss, Gene Filipi, Lance Hoffman, Drew Judge, Marisa Pope, Brad Solomon, Ted Watson and countless others have all witnessed OCD at its best, DINNER at my house with my wife, Angela Miller, as the hostess. I must admit, I am truly amazed each and every time we have dinner guests and the rituals that she has. Angela will prepare dinner, dessert (usually soufflés), all while she is vacuuming, doing dishes, washing under the feet of our guests, eating, while bathing the kids and everyone’s favorite — shaking out the rug.
The refrigerator can NOT have an item missing (see picture). When a bottle of water is taken from its perfectly positioned location in its line-up it is immediately replaced with a fresh bottle from the reserve we have (approximately 3 cases on deck AT ALL TIMES) and rotated into the mix. All items in the fridge look like soldiers, all standing front facing in perfect order
When I was asked to be a guest blogger, I was torn on the subject of my entry:
It was the unbelievable attention to detail when it came to the vision and creativity that went into the conception, planning, and execution of this massive production. I was captivated by the details in the story it told and how it all unfolded and the transitions it made between all artistic forms: performance art, choreography, costume, colors/lighting, timing, music, illustration, technology, martial arts etc. It was awe-inspiring, and just the thing that made me jump up off the couch and run to the computer to blog about it.
Whenever anyone talks to me about Respondent Cooperation, I invariably tell them that we should place more emphasis on Respondent Satisfaction. I say this because I believe that if we continue to focus on the former and ignore the latter, we risk losing our audience (our respondents).
I can still remember the dinner conversations growing up and my father instilling the message into our heads. You need to give back to your community. It is not only about your money, it is also about your time and your commitment. Devote at least 10% of your yearly income and more important, devote at least that amount or more of your time. He lived these thoughts and truly believed in acts of charity and kindness. I can still hear his message echoing in my head.
A little over a month ago, I had my first experience in a charity race. Although I have participated in many charity events, this was my first actual race to raise money for a charity. It was a regional 5K Race for the Cure for 
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"If enough of us refuse to answer, the polling data will become so unrepresentative and unreliable even the media would have to admit it was useless." — Ariana Huffington on her blog, The Huffington Post shortly after the New Hampshire Democratic Primary.
Steve Runfeldt (Senior Account Executive for Quantitative Research) came to Schwartz Consulting Partners in September 2007 with a total of 27 years of research experience. His expertise is in innovative research design, statistics and analysis. He has a BA degree in Psychology and Anthropology from Brandeis University, graduate work in Behavioral Sciences, Genetics and Neurobiology at The Rockefeller University and Comparative Psychology at Georgia State University. Steve has worked as project manager, statistician and director of Internet research at Elrick & Lavidge (now TNS), principal and VP of Research at Customer Sat.com and founder and CEO of Justaskthem.com.
Have you– your avatar, that is–stepped into a virtual world lately? Are you familiar with Second Life?
Merrill got stuck in an airport last night and asked me to cover for him today.
I have been asked numerous times what my favorite instrument is. Hands down it is the guitar (piano, saxophone and Hammond organ follow in order). In the proper hands, a guitar can produce sounds ranging from a butterfly fluttering in the wind to that of two high-speed trains crashing head on. The guitar has been the weapon of revolutions, the flame that ignites romances and recently the inspiration for a popular computer game. In any genre of music, when it is the guitarist’s turn for a solo, the audience/listener senses that a leader, a rebel, a genius and a master is taking over.
