Joel on Software

Outsmarting your airline

Last Friday, I was sitting at the San Diego airport, trying to figure out if my flight was going to be on time.

Of course, Continental thinks it will:

Being suspicious, I notice that there's no plane at the gate.

Where is it?

Aha, looks like we're waiting for flight 1726. Where's that? I'll check FlightAware:

Arriving 3:21. A bit later than the display at the gate is showing, and a total of 39 minutes late. And indeed, we took off almost exactly 39 minutes late.

Thanks to Joe Farrell for this idea.

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You’re reading Joel on Software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams, designing user interfaces, running successful software companies, and rubber duckies.

About the author.

I’m Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software, a New York company that proves that you can treat programmers well and still be highly profitable. Programmers get private offices, free lunch, and work 40 hours a week. Customers only pay for software if they’re delighted. We make FogBugz, an enlightened project management system designed to help great teams develop brilliant software, and Fog Creek Copilot, which makes remote desktop access easy.