Dear jetBlue...
30dayflight.com
30dayflight.com
I wonder what their backgrounds are that would make them good resource to interview JetBlue passengers and make them deserving of special treatment from JetBlue.
1. The letter did not need to be open at all. If you want to travel the country for 30 days without paying, more power to you but why not just send it to the jetBlue CEO directly?
2. The people behind this letter obviously think their idea is amazingly brilliant. Which it isn't. Everyone has interesting stories. You could go into a Dunkin' Donuts at 3AM and hear some pretty crazy stuff. No need to be at 30,000 feet.
3. These people probably WILL get free flights or some other special support from jetBlue because God forbid a publicly-traded company didn't listen to any and every simple Jack who asked for something on the internet.
I don't think this trip is a smart idea. 43 flights in 30 days? They'll be spending their time running to and from and around airports. I doubt they'll enjoy it.
I have to admit that I'll follow the blog though.
42 flights in 30 days does seem a bit much though. For many of those flights, they are just going to be sleeping through the flight anyways (and unable to talk to 'interesting people').
1. It did not need to be open. But I am making a website documenting my journey. Sorry if someone thought it was interesting and posted it to this site where you were forced to read it.
2. We don't really think it's amazingly brilliant. It is remarkable, though, in that most people have never done anything like this. We just thought it would be an interesting way to spend a month and I personally hoped it would help me accomplish some goals: I want to become a better designer and a better writer. This journey will allow me to practice both of those things. I don't have any data, but I think the people on airplanes are more interesting than the people at Dunkin' Donuts.
3. We won't get free flights. We paid our 600 dollars and we are abiding by the rules. We just want to see if they will help us out if their planes are late or cancelled.
Good luck on your travels
I'm not saying he won't, but I don't see any value proposition mentioned on the site. If I were the CEO, I'd be thinking they're going to ask for even more after we have just exchanged 43 flights for $600? Talk about give an inch and they'll want a mile!
But then again, if they offer these guys special favors which they document on their website, everyone who has the JetBlue pass will probably expect the same.
Because of this, I don't think that JetBlue will give them any special favors.
@dcurtis' tweet: "My two-month goal is to have a beer with a Fortune 500 CEO. Can anyone help me with this?" (http://twitter.com/dcurtis/status/2096133916).
Now, he has an "excuse" to do so.
(Just don't tell him JetBlue isn't in the Fortune 500 :-).
Most importantly, why do I care? As a pitch, the story isn't captivating or well written, and 30 days in airports sounds both depressing and boring -- I'd be surprised if you're capable of carrying out non-monosyllabic conversations after the first 5 days.
"Have a beer with a Fortune 500 CEO" is a pretty pitiful goal. Does he not even care which one?
I always seem to meet interesting people when I travel, especially sitting next to them on the plane. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you incorporate the experiences with your obvious knack for slick designs. And I only noticed your site because of this experiment. So you have one additional fan exactly because you're courageous enough to try this and be open about it. Enjoy!
Please read: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=759577
Before suggesting that the article is not appropriate for HN. The Idea of traveling to all these cities was first discussed on HN.
And to all the naysayers - These guys are going to do something more interesting than I've ever done. I don't know what adventures and enterprises and entrepreneurial ventures you've rolled out over the last few years - but they must be impressive if 30dayflight doesn't appear to be HN fare to you...
Spending a lot of time on airplanes is very tiring, but it's not what I'd call an adventure, an entrepreneurial venture, or an enterprise.
This just sounds like a silly stunt.
And, to be specific:
o They booked the flights
o They're taking the time out to hit
all of those airports.
o They came up with a theme "Stories
from 30 days of flights"
o They put together a website - clean graphics,
nicely laid out fonts.
o They're reaching out to JetBlue Executives,
promoting themselves, getting a nice HN exposure.
And, an important part of the experience of course, is completely ignoring the naysayers, the detractors, and pushing onwards.
I'm actually very interested in seeing how it all works out.
I genuinely hope his trip goes as planned, but this social networking media web 2.0 garbage is a waste of the internet.
Why is this necessarily a waste of internet? Are you worried that we're going to run out of internet, and there won't be any left for you?
This sounds like the sort of idea that in years past someone would embark on to write a book about. Nowadays it's on the internet instead. This attitude is just as bad as the 'a crime is a worse crime when it happens on the internet' attitude that people seem to have today...
> Not only is this chick completely irresponsible, but this "trip" is a joke.
The 'chick' that spent her last bit of money on plane ticket was someone that the two creators of that site met on a plane trip, not someone who is embarking on this journey. If you're referring to the two creators of that site, then how is this 'experiment' (though I use the term loosely) irresponsible?
> He's going to be living in an airport for a month, all for what? No one cares about people who live in airports, nor do they care about the fascinating lives of airplane passengers.
The popularity of the movie 'The Terminal' (and somewhat similarly 'Catch Me If You Can' -- strangely enough also starring Tom Hanks) indicates otherwise.
> social networking media web 2.0 garbage
What does this site have to do with social networking? They are planning on doing something, then blogging about it, and possibly being popular enough to earn some advertising revenue. The cherry on top would be endorsement money from JetBlue. I fail to see how that is 'social networking' anymore than the rest of the web.
That comment added nothing to the discussion, other than a poorly formed 'get off my lawn' opinion. If all it takes to gain popularity on HN is copping a curmudgeonly attitude, then we're starting to go downhill in my opinion.
Alaska managed large sums of money, but could not manage her own. Irresponsible.
You're right, movies are often good indicators of how interesting real life is.
Social networking was just a hyperbolic adjective in my (critical) remarks about modern marketing.
So that this comment isn't entirely useless, here are my two points for you:
1. This shouldn't be on HN because this is neither interesting nor hacker-related. 2. Reading comprehension.
I don't see anything on that site mentioning that the woman in the story is Alaska Miller. Seems more like an example of the type of 'interesting people' they want to meet during this adventure.
> You're right, movies are often good indicators of how interesting real life is.
Fact is often stranger than fiction.
> 1. This shouldn't be on HN because this is neither interesting nor hacker-related.
The marketing angle seems related to startups. At least more so than conspiracy theories about Russian ship and missiles to Iran.
Also, in re-reading my comment, apologies if that first sentence came off brash...
But yes, I agree that this could turn out to be an interesting book, so long as they gathered some interesting experiences or stories. Seems like the sort of thing you publish after the fact, since the odds of meeting your content-related goals seem slim.
No disrespect, but that's not fascinating, it's stupid.
Basically, she had no savings. No rainy day fund. No retirement funds. No investments.
What's the first think Suze Orman types tell all of those women that watch her? Have enough set aside for 2-3 months living expenses - minimum!
There's simply no excuse for someone working so close to money to be so irresponsible with her own. I feel for her, but perhaps this is lesson learned.
You could call her stupid, but I find it fascinating.
In fact, I'd say they're often highly correlated.
And since you are engaging in a publicity stunt you might look for sponsorship beyond JetBlue.
Meet Wired.com’s Terminal Man: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/terminal-man/
Actually: Who wants to meet up for Pho tonight at, say 10pm, on El Camino?
Feel free to bring along a Fortune 500 CEO, but please make sure the guy can shoot a mean 9-ball and can hold his own drink.
If they don't show up, they should pay the price!
(Who cares what I think?)
It's going to be a documented journey, and for the sake of transparency, why wouldn't you contact them? And why wouldn't you make it an open letter? This is how blogging works nowadays. They just aren't waiting to be picked up by a news spot days after they're back home.
All this is apropos of whether they should be asking for anything, or whether it's a good and worthy idea, or if you like or don't like Mr. Curtis. Feel free to knock them for doing it wrong, but don't knock them for trying.
They have a tremendous value proposition. They'll be able to tell JetBlue things about their customers that no focus groups and marketing research can tell them, at a small fraction of the cost. I'm genuinely surprised this idea got such a bad reception here - reminds me of some of the TechCrunch comments. If anything, it's a little like "around the world in 80 days", which is cool for its own sake.
Must be doing something right to get seats like that.
i'm sure their trip will be super memorable. i can't wait to follow along on the blog.
If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)