Ryan’s Blog sheds some light on a serious flaw in the Southwest Airlines boarding procedure. Now armed with your html editing software of choice, you too can always be a part of that elite group known as “The A Group”!!!
Ryan’s Blog sheds some light on a serious flaw in the Southwest Airlines boarding procedure. Now armed with your html editing software of choice, you too can always be a part of that elite group known as “The A Group”!!!
16 responses to “Why
Graphic ArtistsANYONE should fly Southwest Airlines.”Personally, I think that was extremely irresponsible of that dude. I mean, it’s a big enough pain to get on an airplane. Nothing like exposing a weakness and passing it on to the public to muck things up more.
What a blown opportunity also to take this to SWA and possibly gain something positive from it.
[shakes head] Kids.
Weird, I was just in a meeting and everybody was talking about how they don’t serve peanuts anymore (because people are alergic to them).
Am I the only person that wants to get on the airplane last? My opinion is this: the less time I spend on the airplane the better.
Mark,
Irresponsible for him to post the information, or not to report it to Southwest. I tend to agree with the latter, and while I wouldn’t use use this information myself (I get up at 24 hours before my flight like the rest of us 🙂 ) don’t feel his post was irresponsible. After all, there’s even services out there like http://www.boardfirst.com, guaranteed to give you that A pass. I also did a bit of research and found no legel consequence of this, since by design Southwest doesn’t even record your information in any A, B or C classification in their system.
IMHO, The ethics of actually performing the task are in question, but his right to speak & share the information should never be classified as irresponsible…it’s what we do (or don’t do) as individuals that warrant a level of responsibility. Posting this online is actually the quickest way to get it noticed by Southwest, I can all but guarantee that if he sent a private email, or called and spoke to a “support” person it would take months/years before the right individual found out about this, let alone did something to change it. (Large corporations are renound for their ability to not perform the simplest of tasks because of cluttered process & red tape procedures). I think he did them a favor 😛 …
Chris, agreed! I’ve actually had my name called out over the loudspeaker because I was sitting waiting for everyone else to board while I did the crossword. I’m definitely in no hurry to have cramped legs and stuffy air!
Altering your boarding pass is never a good idea.
Look at the T+C’s – invariably have details on such things + punishments.
Jeff –
Showing others in a public forum how to forge a document (which is a felony, by the way) provides no value to anyone, least of all to SWA.
Absolutely. And deciding to speak and share information, and show folks how to falsify information instead of informing the injured party of fraudulent activity is irresponsible.
Regarding reaching the people in charge. Funny, I’ve worked for and with a lot of corporations in my 22 years of working professionally. I’ve never had a problem in getting to at least the CEOs Executive Assistant when the situation warranted — even in the airline industry.
Boardfirst provides a service and states in their T&C that you are in effect hiring them to be your personal representative. That’s a far cry from document forgery.
Bottom line? It was irresponsible — period.
I thought the message was clear. Airlines should be more careful about the technology they choose. This is an example of how 911 could happen again.
Man, let me guess. All of the people that think this is a major security hole are also the people that think you ‘have’ to swipe your badge at the gym.
Mark,
I agree with everything you stated, i think the confusion lies wherein “what” exactly is irresponsible in this case. Is it irresponsible to excersise your right to Freedom of Speech?…maybe, but unfortunatley that’s not what the world looks at. Showing someone how to commit a crime without actually having commited the crime yourself, while it poses ethical questions, is NOT a felony. And while the majority of people know how to download music illegally from the internet, most(a elast thats my inerpretation?) don’t do it, yet information flows freely about the topic.
So, the debate becomes that the posting of information, if it exhibits instruction on potential illegel activity, should be deemed “irresponsible”. Things like…
How to pick a lock
http://www.gregmiller.net/locks/mitguide/
http://www.lockpicking101.com/
http://home.howstuffworks.com/lock-picking.htm
A possible hurdle to overcome with this line of thought is that pretty much any information can be used/analyzed and repurposed for illegel activity, leaving us with the dilemna of never being able to publish anything since it could endanger people or be used maliciously. Based on this fact, wouldn’t it be difficult to say that any groups/people posting information on the internet are irresponsible?
…yes, I know the comparison is weak 😉 (but for the benifit of others am playing evils advocate), yet the principle is the same.
—–
Also interesting…
here’s a lesson on how to kill someone with Lemon/Lime Gatorade and 10 ounces of antifreeze. If you take antifreeze and pour it into the Gatorade and mix it together. Then give it to someone to drink, they’ll die.
…why does my post on how to conduct the illegel acivity of poisening someone seem not as irresponsible as the one about Southwests boarding pass? The consequences are much larger. Is it because we knew the effects of such a combination before hand…does that mean it is only irresponsible to post information about illegel activity when it is not yet known…how do you quantify that!?
Dude, if someone put 10 ozs of antifreeze in my gatorade I totally hope I would notice! That is like drinking a can of soda! Wow.
One time I totally picked the lock to my sisters house. I was extremely proud of myself and only used a paper clip. Pretty much As Seen on TV!!
There was recenlty a women in the news that poisended her husband with anti-freeze in lime jello…crazy thing is you couldn’t tell it was in teh jello! The police tried it and everything. It was the second husband she had poisened too!
http://www.courttv.com/trials/turner/background_ctv.html
Jeff –
I’m tired of kicking this horse, so we’ll just agree to disagree. However, to clarify — I was stating that the forgery is a felony, not the demonstration of it. Also, I’m not suggesting that this guy necessarily be held responsible (legally speaking) or that what he did was illegal. All I am stating is that his post was irresponsible.
Wow, that’s a crazy story, Jeff!
The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true! – from The Court Jester.
Well, it’s not like more people are getting on the plane. It’s just that the same people are getting on in a different order. I don’t really have a problem with this. It would be funny if everyone showed up for the flight with an A boarding pass.
That would be right hilarious!