Tour, leg 2, is officially concluded.
We had a family day at Universal Studios on Friday, which was a lot of fun. The Simpsons ride is great, and we did that one twice. On the studio tour, I realized just how many of my tie-in books and comics have some sort of Universal connection, whether it's just that the studio has occasionally been used for episode shooting or that the property is owned by NBC/Universal: Buffy, Angel, Las Vegas, CSI, and probably others I'm not even aware of now.
Maybe Universal should buy River Runs Red or Zombie Cop, just to bring it all full circle...
Saturday was the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association's annual Author's Feast. I wandered onto the trade show floor in mid-afternoon, and was immediately put to work signing River Runs Red in the Penguin booth, which I had not anticipated--I was dressed very casually, and unprepared for the near-Arctic temperatures in the room. But I survived and got to meet lots of great booksellers and other authors, as well as visit with some old friends from the publishing community.
That evening, the authors taking part in the Author's Feast had dinner together before the feast, so we could be witty and charming while the booksellers ate. I got to have dinner with Jan Burke, Joe Wambaugh, T. Jefferson Parker, Robert Crais, and other interesting folks at the unofficial crime fiction table, which was a treat.
Then the actual feast started. There were two authors assigned to each table, and we rotated three times during the course of the meal, so we got to talk to lots of different people. The most important lesson I learned was to hang onto my water glass, so when they bring dessert at the last table and I need a drink, I don't have to play "water roulette" with whatever glass is in front of me. Next time, I'll know.
Sunday we drove down to San Diego for the horror event at Mysterious Galaxy. Another great group of authors, fans and friends was gathered there, and fun was had by all.
Then the ugly part happened. The short version is that, for the second time in 8 days, Southwest Airlines was responsible for me being behind the wheel of a vehicle after 1 am--which, given our up-with-the-sun ranch lifestyle, is not a good idea. The last time, Orange County to Phoenix via Las Vegas, they blamed on "mechanical" problems, although I have my doubts about that, since the OC-Phoenix passengers and the LV-Phoenix passengers combined still didn't come close to filling the plane, so I suspect it had more to do with finance than mechanics.
But last night's was blatantly financial, and Southwest's attempt to make it seem otherwise was crude and insulting.
18 passengers coming from San Francisco were delayed by weather conditions in the Bay Area. That's never fun. Our plane's departure time was pushed back from 9:15 pm to 9:30, then 10:20, then 10:35. We finally got off the ground somewhere around 10:45.
The obvious conclusion was that Southwest didn't want to have to shell out for hotel rooms and new flights for those 18 people. But by making the entire plane wait for them, they were not just seriously inconveniencing those 18, but the 100 or so waiting around the terminal. They were putting their short-term financial interests ahead of the long-term cost in lost customer satisfaction. Not everyone has to drive two hours + to get home from the airport, like we did, but not everyone wants to land in Tucson after midnight, either.
The worst was that they tried to make the passengers, not the airline, the heavies. When I complained that I had had a very long day, and my calculations for that day involved getting home around midnight, not well after 2:30 am, they said that if I was on a late flight, I would want the connecting flight held for me. That's probably true--but I've had connecting flights not held, especially when the original flight is well over an hour late. I wouldn't have minded waiting 20 minutes or so, and doubt that anyone would have complained about that. When it became clear that it was more like an hour and a half, we were constantly harangued about how heartless it would be to demand a timely departure, how much we wouldn't want it to happen to us--one Southwest employee even likened the company's crass commercial decision to the Marine Corps' vow to "never leave a man behind." When another passenger suggested putting the delay to a vote of the existing passengers, he was warned that if he tried to he would be arrested by Harbor Police for interfering with Southwest's business practices.
Southwest's decision to put their own financial interests ahead of real customer service, of an on-time departure, then of blaming the 18 late people and trying to guilt the 100+ paying customers into believing that our lateness (with potentially lethal consequences for those of us who had to drive dark country roads well past our fully wakeful hours) was a matter of honor and decency, rather than being about Southwest saving some coin, disgusted me. I'm writing to the airline today, and although I already have tickets on Southwest for later this month, that'll be the last time I fly that airline unless they come up with a sincere apology for their actions.
Since it's happened twice in slightly more than a week, I have to think that Southwest is in such dangerous financial straits that on-time performance, especially on nighttime flights, is a thing of the past, and that if you need to fly anywhere at night you consider other, more reliable, airlines.
