Two weekends ago, I went to Seattle on a quick Veteran's Day weekend jaunt. We were pushing the envelope for getting back at a reasonable hour, considering our flight was to arrive at 11 pm on Monday, and we were traveling with two teachers who had to be up super early the next morning. After both of our flights were delayed, we ultimately got in at 12:30 in the morning, killing us for the next week (including the non-teachers).
I hate it when mediocrity is deemed acceptable. From the Times:
Workers at American found that printers that produce adhesive tags for bags were often dirty. That made bar codes hard to read, leading to misdirected bags. Regular wiping of the printer heads helped, but even with a clean printer, the bar code readers are only about 90 to 92 percent accurate, said Denise P. Wilewski, manager of airport services for American here.
“We never hit 100 percent — 90 percent is acceptable,” she said.
Airlines are fond of saying that they have a success rate of more than 99 percent in getting luggage to its destination along with its owner. And every big airline has stepped up efforts to improve its operations.
But the baggage problem is getting worse. One in every 138 checked bags was lost during the first nine months of this year, compared with one in 155 bags a year earlier.
What if one in every 138 children were stillborn? What if one in every 155 toys had lead paint? The 99 percent standard is meaningless. We're not talking baseball here, where one hit in three at bats equals success. Just get it right, guys. Fix it.
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