Getting down there was pretty effortless, although I was surprised that Delta flies 737’s from Atlanta – Manaus – smaller than the 757’s it flies from LA – Atlanta. Half the wedding was on my flight down, and we had a good time.

The way back was a different story. We took off the day after the Detroit terrorist scare –which obviously is not Delta’s fault. The rest of it, is.

The plane was completely full – more than half the wedding was on the flight. Everyone was going everywhere after the wedding – I was headed to Miami (via Atlanta) along with a friend on the same flight. Others were going back to LA, to cruises, to New York, etc.

Shortly before take off they come on the PA and tell us that we “may have to stop off in Orlando to get more fuel.” I travel a ton, and I’ve NEVER had an airline, domestic or international, “possibly” have to stop off before our final destination and refuel.

The plane wasn’t happy. But what could we do. We’re just passengers sitting in the back. And safety, of course, is #1.

Then the doozy. The plane is getting ready to charge the runway and the pilot comes on:

“Folks, we’re getting ready to take off. We had to remove some of your bags because the plane was full… sorry about that, hope it doesn’t inconvenience you too much… have a great flight!”

He said it so cavalier that we all looked at each other and thought he must be joking.

At 5am in Atlanta, we found out he wasn’t. Twenty of us didn’t get our bags, including me, my friend who was going to Miami with me, and another friend who was going on a cruise that day. We were told we had to wait until we got to our final destination to file a complaint.

The situation was more complex than it seemed. Delta only flies Manaus – Atlanta three times a week. We left on Sunday and arrived on Monday. They didn’t fly again until Thursday, arriving Friday. I hoped that someone at Delta preempted the situation and rerouted the bag on another airline which flies every day from Manaus – Miami direct.

In Miami, they couldn’t give me much information other than tell me it had been “expedited.” I asked if that meant it was on the Manaus – Miami flight that left that day. They had no idea. I asked if I called later (after the time that flight left Manaus) if they could confirm it’s on that flight. They couldn’t confirm a thing until it “showed up in their hands.” Have they ever heard of a bar code or scanner?

We went to the hotel in Miami after dropping $20 on basics – toothpaste, tooth brush, etc. It wasn’t the money that bothered me – it was Delta’s policy of not giving you anything within the first 24 hours. I guess you can just not brush your teeth or wear deodorant if you are on a budget?

Tuesday we call asking if our bags have arrived. We’re told that my bag has, and only one of my friend’s has – and that they’re out for delivery “soon.” We wait until past midnight that day before going out – the second night in a row – in the same clothes.

More frustrating than not having our stuff is the lack of information – when did the bag get to Miami, when will it be delivered, and are they all together? I asked Delta for the phone number of the delivery service. The agent tells me he’s not allowed to give it out to customers. I asked him if he’s joking. He hangs up on me – I guess he wasn’t. I did get the name of the service out of him, and thanks to Google I find a phone number for the company – they tell me they are very “backed up” and the bags will be delivered within another 24 hours… what!?

Wednesday morning around 5am we get two out of three. I’m amazed that after purposely taking luggage off the flight and rerouting it “expedited” that somehow the three bags get separated. My friend calls the airline and they tell him that it will be delivered “soon” – he then calls the delivery company who tells him that his bag hasn’t been picked up yet – but that it’s been sitting at Miami airport since Monday night and he could pick it up if he wants. He goes and finally gets his bag.

Friday afternoon comes around – time to leave Miami. Delta, in their neverending compassion and generosity for our situation – has authorized $50 each for our trouble. I ask them the easiest way to get my money. They tell me to go to the baggage office at the airport, show my receipts, and I’ll get cash. Easy enough.

I get to the airport early, check in for my flight back to LA (on American this time), and then walk to the other side of the airport to Delta’s baggage service office. I present my receipts and a confused rep tells me I need to call the 800 #. I explain that is the very # that told me to come to her – so she hands me a “lost luggage form” – I explain that my bags were delayed, not lost – at which point she tells me she really can’t help me and I just have to call. I leave, exasperated, and the agent on the phone explains to me that they don’t give cash out at the airport, and haven’t for “years” – seriously? Delta, get your shit together. I’m still waiting for my check.

Shit happens. Airlines lose bags or have delays. Fine. But if you can’t fly a plane big enough to take a full load from one destination to another, with all their bags, and without making an unscheduled fuel stop, then you shouldn’t be flying that route.

I fly a ton – and I’ve seriously never had such a neglectful experience with an airline that purposely delayed my bag – and made the experience in getting it back miserable. So – beware of Delta’s international reach – the destination may be on the map, but if it’s a full load, your luggage may not arrive with you – and you might have an unscheduled stop to get more fuel – and hopefully pretzels.

I’m writing this flying back to LA from Nashville. I was upgraded to First Class for free (one of the few times I actually got to use that benefit) but the person I’m traveling with was flying coach. When I checked in, I asked if we could fly together. The agent checked my balance of “500 mile upgrades” and told me that he would be first on the list if there was an open seat – and that there was still one unsold seat. Great.

Twenty minutes before the flight, we find out that he’s confirmed for first class. Cool - we get to sit together.

At the gate they tell us a different story. Because he was flying on mileage, my upgrades didn’t work. I asked if I could upgrade him using mileage. I was told I would have to call AA, pay to redeposit the ticket, and then get it reissued, and with fifteen minutes till take off, I didn’t have time. I argued that first class had an empty seat anyway – that I’m one of their best customers – that I was willing to use my upgrades or pay more miles… didn’t matter.

This post isn’t just about an absurd policy – you can use your 500 mile upgrades to upgrade ANY purchased fare (ie. their cheapest fares are OK) but you can’t do the same if you use mileage to get the base ticket. And it’s not about not letting us sit together even though first class had empty seats.

Why is aviation one of the few businesses where your best customers don’t really matter? If a top Mobile Roadie client ever called me and asked for something within reason – and against our normal policy – I would do it in a second, no questions asked.

Somehow, we’ve become used to this. We’ve become used to mediocre service, and it not mattering, no matter how loyal we are to a brand or service. The agents at the gate – who told me they agreed with my logic – said they were just following policy. Which I’m sure they were. But that doesn’t mean the policy is correct.

I’m now in coach (so I can sit with my friend) staring at an old CRT screen glued to the ceiling. I bought a $10 chicken “sandwich” that reminded me why I never go to Boston Market, and $2 headphones that sound like tin with my iPod. I just got yelled at by a flight attendant for “stealing” bottled water. There was a huge pack of bottled water near the lavatories. I went up and helped myself to one. Walking back, the agent stopped me and told me that I “couldn’t just take that.” I apologized and told her that on other airlines they have bottled water at the back that you can just take. She told me that if an airline did that, she wanted to fly on them. I told her Virgin America does that on every flight. Defeated, she gently took the water out of my hand and told me that if “I wanted water she’d bring me a cup” – I’m still waiting 45 min later.

Something needs to change. Usually, the customer that spends the most amount of money with a company has leverage, is treated better than others, and allowed to bend The Rules as part of that loyalty bonus.

American has to realize that giving up guaranteed WiFi, good food, clean planes, and friendly agents (ie. Virgin America) becomes not worth it. Virgin’s a young airline – but is night and day above any other domestic carrier. As soon as they fly everywhere AA does from LA, I’m never flying American again. And in the mean time, I hope AA removes all bottled water from their flights, to avoid tempting thieves like me when they get thirsty.

With all of these various computers and devices, the chance that I would want to play a song on my iPhone that was only on my Apple TV, or the chance that I would need a file at home that’s only on my work Mac is very high. I hated the idea that I would need access to a document, PDF, track, or movie, and not be able to have it locally, regardless of where I was at the time.

After much trial and error, I have found what I believe to be the ideal solutions for syncing my documents, photos, music, email calendars and contacts.

This post was done as a guest blogger on PC World. Click here to read the full post.

I have been a card member since 1999. During this time, I have accumulated the following cards:

American Express Platinum Charge Card (no “pre set” limit)
American Express Starwood Credit Card ($35,000 limit)
American Express Business Platinum Credit Card ($60,000 limit)

I opened a second business between 2007 and 2009 and had a second American Express Platinum Charge Card during that time as well for that business.

Prior to the end of 2008, I sang American Express’ praises to everyone I could. I enjoyed feeling like a privileged card member at Airports, Hotels, and anytime I interacted with American Express.

In March of 2008, my spending on the charge cards was so high (some months were over $75,000) that you offered me the Centurion (“Black”) card. I nearly accepted, but somehow couldn’t justify spending $7,500 to get a credit card.

For the record, in ten years of being your customer, I have never had a single late payment or missed payment. I have paid all bills on time.

Everything changed in early 2009. You started shutting off my credit limits.

In March of 2009, my business started to pick back up (thankfully) and we started charging more on our Platinum card, which has been our main credit card for the last ten years for the business.

You shut off our credit line because it was “over our six -month average spending limit.” You asked me to produce burdensome documentation “proving” that I had the financial resources to pay the balance when it came due. I asked if a ten year perfect payment history was enough; you said no.

At the end of March 2009, after making several “deals” with you (that took hours of my time) to open up $5k here and $10k here in credit (on a card that has no “pre set” spending limit) we paid our balance in full, like we always do.

In April of 2009 we started with a zero balance and began charging again. You shut off our credit line after $35,000 in spending. Then, you did something that sent me over the top. You called me on my cell phone asking if I could pay the balance in full that day. The statement hadn’t even closed yet, and we you hadn’t even billed us yet!

Upon stating that to the representative, she said she understood but that American Express was “uncomfortable” with the balance and wanted an immediate payment. My response was that there was absolutely no way I was paying American Express a dime before my statement closes. I explained that if I have to pay for the charges as I go, I might as well put the card away and simply pay cash.

You’ve called weekly and harassed my accounting manager, asking for payments on charges that you haven’t even billed me for yet.

At this point, you’re denying $10 charges, causing my accounting manager to switch to our VISA to pay small monthly recurring charges, like our phone bill. You have wreaked havoc on my business’ day-to-day cash flow.

You have destroyed your reputation with me and many of my CEO and Entrepreneur friends. I have several friends that spend $100,000/mo on Black cards that are going to cancel.

You have harassed your best customers and turned what used to be a stellar reputation into one of the most hated companies in the business world. Personally, I cannot wait for the day when I pay off 100% of my balances with American Express and cancel my cards. I will never do business with you again after that point.

I understand times are tough and financial institutions have gotten burned. This tough time will pass, but the damage you’ve done to your reputation will stay with you. Customers like me – who spend a lot and pay their bills on time every month – are who you need to get you through this time. Instead, you’ve lost me for life.

Michael Schneider
CEO, Fluidesign

Santa Monica, CA

Ps. I am not the only one that has written publically about problems with Amex. Here are a few others:

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/05/im-feeling-the-costs-of-credit-card-fraud-and-defaults.html
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus29-2009apr29,0,5853535,full.column

To start, I need to tell you that up until 2006 I was an avid PC user. Starting with my first computer when I was five, an IBM PS2 Model 30 (without a hard drive), I’ve been loyal. I started with DOS, then Windows 3, 3.1, 95, and then XP. Then came Vista. Before Vista, I spent a lot of time rebooting but it was more or less bearable. After Vista, which is by far the worst operating system ever made, I had to find another solution.

This was done as a guest blog post on PC World, finish reading here… http://tinyurl.com/cvz3pa

Forget the fact that a firm is offshore. From one US-based company to another, building the relationship and trust enough to do business together is hard and takes time. If you’re offshore, you have a much steeper hill to climb.

The email I’m about to post came from India. For the record, I love India as a country (spent time there in 2008), love the food, love the people, and love the entrepreneurial spirit. I’m not trying to pick on India. I also get emails from Russia, the Ukraine, and Argentina, among others.

Lastly, I want to say that the purpose of this post is actually to help offshore companies improve. If you’re serious about the US market, stop sending emails like this (and 99% of the emails I receive resemble this). Do the opposite. Be focused. Speak the local tongue. Be detail oriented. Show your quality through a few powerful links. Show why you’re the exception to the rule. US firms will pay you back in spades.

(in case you’re having trouble with the embedded PDF viewer download the PDF here)

In your business, it’s more important than ever to paint an optimistic yet realistic future for your employees. Now is the time that you need good people by your side the most; now is the time you need them to be accept less and work more; now is the time for real leadership.

I wrote this post as a blogger for PC World - click here to finish the post on their site.

But, if you can’t afford an agency like Fluidesign, here’s a do-it-yourself guide to manage your brand and get free marketing through social media.

1.    Get online identities. This may sound obvious, but I’m constantly amazed at how many companies aren’t yet embracing social media. Sign up for Twitter. Get a Facebook Group going. Create a company page on LinkedIn. Depending on your industry, get a MySpace page. There are also countless industry-specific online identities.

2.    Create a blog. Wordpress is quick, easy, and free (we can help you with customization if necessary). Publish content often (quality over quantity, however) to gain an audience.

3.    Link the identities together. Install the Twitter App on Facebook so updating your Twitter status automatically updates your Facebook one.

4.    Encourage key employees to set up their own Twitter accounts and link them to their own Facebook statuses.

5.    Sign up for Twitterfeed and link your blog(s) to it. Encourage key employees to do the same. Then, when anyone posts a new blog entry, this service automatically updates the associated Twitter accounts, and if the Twitter accounts are linked to Facebook, those Facebook statuses get updated automatically. Done right, your message gets blasted to thousands (or tens of thousands) instantly.

6.    Use Twitter’s search to routinely monitor what people are saying about your company and your products/services.

7.    Be responsive – if your customers/fans take the time to write something about your brand, take the time to respond. The more responsive you are – even with negative issues – the higher your company’s reputation will be. Studies show that when customers have a problem if they get a response from the company quickly they actually become more satisfied with the brand than if they had never had an issue to begin with.

The above tips represent a crash course in online reputation management and using social media to blast out blog posts, press releases, product announcements, and really anything your company has to say. Remember, in order to stay relevant, you need to push content out often, and respond quickly to what others are talking about. Do it right, and your social media presence will quickly become more relevant with greater ROI than anything offline.

EO (Entrepreneurs Organization) just released an episode of EOtv featuring tips to survive and thrive in the recession. Fast forward to about the five minute mark to see mine - they involve a Nintendo Wii, Love Sac, Bar, and Ocean View.

Apple recently surpassed an incredible milestone - 500 Million (yes - million) apps have now been downloaded since the launch of the App store July 10, 2008. That’s over 2 MILLION apps per DAY since launch. And there are now 15,000 Apps available. The image above is from Apple.com.

This is starting to look like a crowded market. But, as late comers such as Tweetie and iFart show, it’s not about when you launch, it’s about the quality of the App. We’ve spent the last few months preparing, and we can build literally anything - from a simple, local App to a full fledged game.

Have a burning iPhone idea? We can tell you if it’s technically possible, and can generally predict whether it will sail through Apple’s approval process. We’ll also use our 10 years of business and interactive experience in helping you perfect your business model.

Check out http://iphone.fluidesign.com. Contact us today.