Apr 21, 2009

Book Me Update - Round one from Gary Kelly's office

I received a reply from Southwest during April turning down my request to allow me to offer "Book Me" to users for a small fee. My request went to Gary Kelly, Southwest's CEO, but the response came from one of his underlings. I assume that Mr. Kelly never saw the request, but that it was rerouted by an established filtering process. The letter I received explained the rational for the denial was partly due to security concerns. The reply was very direct in spelling out that due to legal reasons, they did not open or copy the software demo that I sent to them. I am trying to understand how they could ascertain that "Book Me" might create security issues when they didn't even review the demo. I can only assume that someone has ESP.

I have a couple of options. The first is that I could accept their rejection and just give up on my idea. The second option is that I could just give the software to bunches of my friends and let the viral effect do its work. I wouldn't receive anything for my work, and the power of the people would do its work. The third option is that I can give Southwest another chance to do the right thing and allow me to make a few dollars from my creativity and provide a tool for their customers to use. I am not asking them to endorse "Book Me", only to authorize me to automate the booking process to create a better experience for their valued customers.

I have decided that I will choose the third option and will be resubmitting my request to Mr. Kelly. I would hope that Mr. Kelly won't pass the request on to someone that is going to glad hand me for a second time. I would appreciate serious consideration of my request. As a user of Southwest's services, I know that my program is a value add for a certain segment of their customer base.

I still have the utmost respect for Southwest, Mr. Kelly, and his team. I trust this time they will do the right thing.

Persistence is the paint that creates a better world. I intend to be one of the painters.

Herb

1 comment:

Rob said...
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