10 Shocking Things About Me

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Andy

I’ve posted dozens of random facts about me already, some merely amusing, some strange, some perhaps a bit surprising. This time I thought I would post ten things that might actually shock you. I’m proud of a few of these but ashamed of most. Drumroll, please…

Remember those naked 5k races I posted about a couple of years ago? Yeah, I ran one. It was awesome. I placed third in my age group. I can show you my medal. And my souvenir t-shirt.
I once broke up with a girl over IM.
As a teenager some friends and I threw Monopoly and Life money all over a local televangelist’s yard. Years later he mentioned the incident to a reporter while complaining about how mistreated he was.
My shortest dating relationship (if you use a very broad definition of “dating”) lasted about 18 hours. We were on a church beach retreat. I made the mistake of telling current girlfriend that I still needed to break up with Internet girlfriend once I got home. Honesty isn’t always the best policy when you’re an IDIOT.
I broke up with another girlfriend the day after I took her to prom. This time I used the phone.
I once delivered alcohol to a minor. At Baylor. To a dorm room.
I skipped one class during my sophomore year of high school. At the time I thought I had a good reason, but it was actually a pretty stupid reason.
I once wore a red bandanna on my head to Six Flags. Somehow it made sense at the time. No, I’m not a Blood. Just thought I would clear that up.
I wish some people could be forcibly sterilized because they don’t deserve to be parents.
During a Truth or Dare session in high school, I was forced to pole-dance in my underwear under a streetlight. Three people were present, two ladies and a dude. They were friends from my youth group. I don’t think any of them read this blog, but I’m sure they remember the incident. Unless they had that memory erased.

Please vote in my new poll for the one that shocked you the most. As always, I welcome your comments.

Will Blog for Food?

Posted on August 16, 2009 by Andy

During high school and college, I made a bit o’ cash writing short stories and articles for Christian teen magazines. For a time I hoped to make a living as a creative writer, preferably a novelist, so trying to sell short pieces seemed like a good way to build my resume and gain some experience. Once I became a technical writer after college, I all but abandoned creative writing in favor of blogging. AndyBox.com allows me to write about whatever I want, publish it immediately, entertain you (I hope), and receive quick feedback when you comment.

Blogging only has one drawback, if you can even call it that, compared to selling pieces to magazines: it doesn’t pay jack! In fact, it actually costs a little money in hosting fees instead. Many websites generate small amounts of income by hosting online ads at the top, sides, and/or bottom of each page. However, I love you guys, and my site’s semi-clean look, too much to force ads upon you just to make a few pennies. I hate online advertising. AndyBox.com is now, and may it forever be, a cost center rather than a profit center. Praise the Lord and pass the biscuits.

However, I dug around on the old Interwebs and found that many freelance writers are making money by writing or editing online content. How? A fashion site hires a writer for a piece on spring fashions. An academic think-tank orders an ebook about the Japanese economy. A travel site hires an expert to blog weekly about green travel options. A quick search on Bing.com (my current go-to search engine) returns so many hits that I can’t begin to read them all.

I began to wonder: would it be possible, and worthwhile, to get back into the writing business? To put my writing degree to work once again? If so, how? I’m obviously interested in many topics, but which ones could I cover with any kind of authority? Should I set up a separate blog dedicated to a specific topic? These questions bubble in my head like Jenny’s potato soup in a Crock Pot, and they smell good.

Tell me, beloved readers, what types of websites are in your Favorites? Do you follow any actual blogs? What makes you enjoy your favorite sites enough to keep checking them? What keeps you coming back to AB.com?

Southwest Loses Bid for Frontier

Posted on August 14, 2009 by Andy

UPDATE: An insightful letter to SWA’s pilots from SWAPA President Carl Kuwitzky. This letter includes lots of behind-the-scenes details, much of which I didn’t realize. Again, I have no opinions to offer publicly, but this is worth reading.

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I nearly blew a gasket when I saw the news:

For a few hours I seethed, complained, planned angry email, and developed a stress knot in my neck. I wanted to wring someone’s neck, and I knew exactly which neck I wanted to wring. Jenny tried to reason with me, and I wouldn’t have it. The bid and its failure resonates with some of my deepest and strongest beliefs, making these events a recipe for levels of emotion I don’t normally feel.

I finally prayed, read a bunch on the topic, and gained some perspective. While I still think the failure of our bid is a travesty and blame all sorts of people for it, I finally realized that life truly does go on. I never wrote my angry email. I can think about things other than Frontier. Everyone involved in the bid probably learned some things, and so did I.

Pocket Sandwich Theater

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Andy

For Date Night on Tuesday, Jenny and I went to a great theater in Dallas called Pocket Sandwich Theater. Before the show you can order food and drinks. I’d wanted to go for years but never followed through until this week.

We had a great time! The food was good and reasonably priced. I had the namesake Pocket Sandwich, turkey and corned beef on pita bread. I can’t remember what Jenny had, but she was pleased. We split a brownie sundae for dessert. PST offers a wide variety of shows, generally comedic to some degree. Our show was called 4 out of 5 Doctors, an improv and sketch comedy show that had us rolling. Normally PST has one show that runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights and random acts during the week. Their website offers movie-style ratings so you can know which shows are kid-friendly. Our show was not, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as some improv shows. Apparently the PST tradition dictates that the audience members throw popcorn at the cast during some of the shows, which sounds fun to me. If you’re into funny, live theater and want something different to do one evening, check out Pocket Sandwich Theater at Mockingbird and Central in Dallas.

Southwest Bids for Frontier Airlines

Posted on August 11, 2009 by Andy

DISCLAIMER: Although I am a Southwest employee, I am just a dispatcher and have NO inside knowledge regarding this transaction. The following analysis is purely speculation. This post and the rest of AndyBox.com are solely my own and do not reflect the position of Southwest Airlines, its Board of Directors, its Leadership, or anyone else who has any authority whatsoever over anything.

On Monday Southwest submitted a binding $170 million dollar bid to acquire Denver-based Frontier Airlines, which has been operating under bankruptcy protection since 2008. Frontier is a low-cost, hub-and-spoke carrier based in Denver. Republic Airways Holdings Company had previously submitted a bid for $108 million. Southwest claims its plan is to purchase 80 percent of Frontier’s Airbus aircraft and all of its subsidiary regional carrier, Lynx. We will maintain service to all existing markets and add new ones from Denver. Over the first 24 months, we will dispose of all acquired Airbus aircraft (about 40, mostly leased) and replace them with Boeing 737s. As needed we will hire Frontier employees to fill any openings that develop at Southwest. All of this information is available in Monday’s press release.

Here’s my take. I think this is a brilliant move by Southwest. Frontier is a good airline with great routes, annual revenue over $1 billion, and profitable operations over the last several months (unlike us, I might add). We might be able to buy such a valuable company for less than $200 million. Denver is the fastest-growing station in our history, but we’ve been competing hard against United and Frontier, which has a loyal following among Denver residents. By purchasing Frontier, we eliminate a major competitor and gain both significant pricing power and a huge amount of market share, more than doubling our current share in Denver. The Denver benefit alone could be worth the price. Based on what I’ve read, I’m fairly confident that we will be the winning bidder.

Regional Carrier

On top of this, for the first time we will own (and operate, it appears) a regional carrier, something I have wondered about for years. Regionals are typically used by network carriers to feed their hubs. For example, American Eagle flies (in part) between DFW and many, many small Texas cities to fill up mainline American flights via connections. I figure we might do some of that, but we might also use those Q400 turboprops for point-to-point routes that aren’t popular enough to fill a 737, such as HRL-ELP or DAL-CRP. Currently Lynx flies between Denver and small cities like Aspen and Jackson Hole. With only about 10 Q400s, we won’t have a ton of options unless we take the concept systemwide and buy a lot more of that model or possibly some Embraers. Keep in mind that smaller aircraft generally have higher operating costs per seat. It’s also possible we might sell off Lynx instead to avoid the extra cost and complexity. But the truth is that Southwest’s low costs depend on growth. Excluding the Frontier deal, we are currently shrinking, which drives our costs up and threatens our profitability. A smaller aircraft could be a great way to open up potentially hundreds of new markets.

New Destinations

Frontier flies to many interesting destinations that we don’t serve yet. Some are in the US. Anchorage. Jackson Hole. Durango. Atlanta (currently the biggest hole in our route map, IMO). Others are international. Cancun. Cabo San Lucas. Cozumel. San Jose, Costa Rica. Our 737-700s could reach all of those destinations without modifications, and our customers would love it.

Frontier Route Map

DCA and LGA Slots?

Frontier operates at Washington National and New York LaGuardia, two slot-controlled airports. We might or might not get those slots with the purchase. If we did, those assets alone would be extremely valuable.

Denver

Assuming we keep the same level of service, Denver will become by far our biggest airport, with perhaps 300 or more daily departures. We’ll need to add a maintenance base and crew bases there. Fortunately it’s a great airport with modern facilities, 6 huge runways, 3 simultaneous CAT III approaches, and room for more gates as needed.

People

Employee and culture integration has always been one of my biggest concerns in any acquisition or merger. I’m sure many of you have heard about or met some unpleasant airline employees whom we don’t want at SWA. I don’t know much about Frontier’s people except that they seem to be very spirited and loyal to their company. The culture is quirky like ours, as you can see from the cool animals painted on the tails of their aircraft. I’m sure they have many talented people on staff, and I hope that many of them end up joining our family.

I suspect that most of them at the stations will stay. The headquarters folks would have to move to Dallas, and many will balk for various reasons. Heck, if I lived in Denver and all my friends and family were in Denver, I doubt I’d want to move to Dallas. I also fear that many of them might be understandably bitter about the loss of Frontier’s identity.

Lots of questions abound among the unionized groups regarding seniority, which is very important to many union members due to the associated benefits. No perfect method exists for combining seniority lists. By design, each union wants whatever is best for itself. Frontier is only about 20 percent unionized versus 80+ percent at SWA. I know the pilots and dispatchers are union. They have about 15 dispatchers. If any of them join our office, I will do my best to welcome them regardless of how the seniority plays out. For the record, I am embarrassed by some of the negative and arrogant things that some Southwest employees are saying and posting about Frontier employees. I’m just happy to have a job myself and hope the Frontier folks get to keep theirs, as well.

If you really want to dig into this issue, you can listen to an interesting conference call with two of our execs regarding the bid. The Dallas Morning News also has a nice piece analyzing the conference call.

The auction isn’t until Thursday, and even if we win, we still have many, many details to work out. I am very excited and eager to see how the drama unfolds.