Don't Lower Your Expectations

https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/dont-lower-your-expectations

by jkuria • 9 years ago

101 73 9 years ago

virgin.com

ikeboy• 9 years ago

Short and to the point. I like it.

SallySwanSmith2• 9 years ago

Sadly I'm forced to lower my expectations when Virgin America was sold to Alaska :(

brogrammernot2• 9 years ago

I've never had a poor experience on Alaska. They're my preferred carrier when going to SEA.

What don't you like about them?

losteric2• 9 years ago

Some people are just irrationally biased against mergers - on my last flight, the couple next to me could not stop blaming the merger for us leaving SFO 5 minutes late, even when we arrived at SEA on time. It was Friday at 7PM, heavy travel time for SFO-SEA.

I try to fly Alaska everywhere too - never had a bad experience, on-time every time.

SallySwanSmith2• 9 years ago

To be entirely fair, a lot of my grief is based on my experience transitioning my frequent flier miles from virgin to Alaska. They had some sort of fault and I lost 250k miles and Alaska wouldn't do anything to correct the error. They kept saying that the system said I had zero miles even though I was able to show on virgin's site that they showed I had 250k at the time it was extracted for the move. It really soured me on them.

pacaro2• 9 years ago

Here's an anecdote. My wife, flying first class, specified when purchasing the ticket that she is vegan; the meal they provided: a banana.

tomjakubowski2• 9 years ago

Alaska has always been my preferred airline for travel to Seattle and hops up and down the west coast. They aren't as "quirky" as Virgin, but, compared to the other legacy carriers, they get most of the little things right and (IME) have excellent customer service, vegan banana meal anecdote notwithstanding.

dasil003• 9 years ago

To paraphrase Merlin Mann: that's fine for Richard Branson.

omot• 9 years ago

Richard Branson is such an inspiration for me. A billionaire with dyslexia who would've thought!

micahbright5• 9 years ago

So 250 times the debt? Sounds like a deal :/

ams61102• 9 years ago

Bank loan to outfit airplanes with seatback video -- easy "no" for the bank, it's dependent on the airline's ability to repay, with little recourse if the can't.

Boeing financing sale or lease of 12 new aircraft? Easy yes -- the aircraft is an asset generating revenue for them, and can be repossessed if Virgin doesn't make the payments.

Same reason that a person who can't get a $5,000 unsecured personal loan at a bank can often finance a $50,000 new car.

micahbright5• 9 years ago

Same reason that a person who can't get a $5,000 unsecured personal loan at a bank can often finance a $50,000 new car.

So borrowing money and living outside of your means is now a success story?

pbhjpbhj3• 9 years ago

Surely then as a canny banker you offer to give them the money for the entertainments system secured against whatever assets they have, like the aircraft (if there are no liens or whatever on them). Indeed isn't that classic banking, if you know they're likely to default on the loan you offer it anyway but with security against anything they've got that you want transferring all the risk as a means for asset acquisition?

a person who can't get a $5,000 unsecured personal loan at a bank //

Of course but they can have any loan they like secured against their house or [expensive] car up to half it's outstanding sale value ... though I think they are now being regulated on this sort of thing, which was the root of the whole sub-prime deal-e-o I think.

bruceb2• 9 years ago

Somewhat related. On the Pitch podcast a guy pitching VR headsets on planes said those seat back entertainment systems are heavy and cost the airlines $1b a year in fuel costs. https://gimletmedia.com/episode/skylights-s02-ep04/

Company: http://www.skylights.aero/

mahyarm• 9 years ago

I would think nowadays they should be lightweight android tablets and a small 10 lbs media/wifi server box

untog2• 9 years ago

VR on a plane sounds interesting. But those headsets are pretty bulky right now, I wouldn't want to be juggling one along with food and everything else.

I'm surprised these AV systems haven't been replaced by cheap Android tablets - they'd be a hell of a lot cheaper and you could replace them very easily.

tomjakubowski2• 9 years ago

Many of those in-flight entertainment systems are Android tablets mounted onto the seatback. Sometimes if you're lucky you can bail out to the Android home screen on them.

madengr2• 9 years ago

So would a seat back video investment been worth it, considering now they are obsoleted by smartphones?

The operating time of a plane is way longer than infotainment equipment.

That's why I won't buy cars with nav systems, etc. I'll still be driving that car in 10 year, while the infotainment will be obsolete and unsupported. All I car for in a car is a way to amplify what's coming out of my phone.

bruceb2• 9 years ago

Phones are not bigger than seatback systems. Do people have the time or remember to load movies ? Make sure their device is charged?

Seatback systems may not be great but they might be good enough to last a while longer.

derwiki• 9 years ago

On United flights, you can use your smartphone/tablet to connect to wifi and stream their movies for free. I guess charging is still an issue.

madengr2• 9 years ago

In general, yes.

citruspi2• 9 years ago

Do people have the time or remember to load movies ?

I'm not sure how prevalent it is, but I know some carriers like United[1] and Delta[2] (via Gogo) stream media to your personal device over the aircraft's WiFi.

Make sure their device is charged?

Many flights now have USB ports and/or power outlets under the seats.

[1] https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/inflight/ent...

[2] https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/on...

thrownblown2• 9 years ago

It was really the timing and scale of the innovation that mattered. Seat-back video in economy? In 1991? [0] Hugely innovative.

$10 Million in 90's money is like $18 Mil now [1](according to this site i don't fully beleive). $2.5 Bil = $4.5 Bil. That's a lot of money to keep the kids happy.

[0]https://www.virgin.com/travel/how-has-inflight-entertainment...

[1]http://www.in2013dollars.com/1991-dollars-in-2017?amount=100...

CamperBob22• 9 years ago

That's a lot of money to keep the kids happy.

Kids eventually grow up and buy plane tickets of their own.

user59944612• 9 years ago

That sounds right for her diet.

DerpyBaby123• 9 years ago

That is rude and uncalled for.

jcoffland4• 9 years ago

How is that rude? You can't get around the fact that bananas are vegan.

sctb• 9 years ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14726259 and marked it off-topic.

micahbright5• 9 years ago

Upvote because of irrational downvote

kornakiewicz• 9 years ago

I often find the stoic approach ("don't have external expectations") as one, which makes me less stressed and able to make better decisions. On the other hand I try to aim high and achieve more. So it's basically this subtle tension between both, what works best for me. Choosing only one option probably would make me either lazy and stagnating, or stressed and miserable.

Aloha2• 9 years ago

This is a great philosophy.

I've found much success in divorcing my goals from my expectations.

dwaltrip• 9 years ago

This somewhat paradoxical approach that you describe has become enormously important to me over the past few years.

It leaves me excited for the future as I explore the possibilities that life may provide, but very grounded and aware of the immense fragility.

As a spec on a tiny ball of dirt floating in space, I shouldn't be surprised when the wind knocks me over. But I should at least try to get back up, as it seems there are many interesting things and meaningful experiences out there awaiting me.

bigzen• 9 years ago

Do you have any recommendations for books regarding stoicism? I'd like to learn more.

bdibs• 9 years ago

I’m not the original poster, but I recommend Meditations by Marcus Aurelius highly.

I’d also check out A Guide to the Good Life by William Irvine, it’s an overview and a much less tedious read (wrote this century, haha).

vborovikov• 9 years ago

Here is a great summary of A Guide to the Good Life: http://becomingeden.com/summary-of-a-guide-to-the-good-life/

_jal• 9 years ago

I hate seat-back video on planes. I really, really don't need some flickering screen a foot from my face for hours on end. My only interaction with them is whacking the off-button until it finally acquiesces.

From a strictly selfish point of view, the only positive feature I can think of is that they can hypnotize some (but not all) children who would otherwise be annoying.

Noumenon72• 9 years ago

Even other people's seatback videos are distracting. Negative innovation for me.

CamperBob22• 9 years ago

Instructions unclear. How do I get Boeing to build a dozen 747s for me, right after a bank refuses to lend me a measly $10 million?

Sure, they can repossess the aircraft if I default, but that's going to cost them a lot more than $10M by the time the dust settles. On the surface, this is really a story of arbitrage, where Branson successfully leveraged Boeing's recklessness against a bank's cowardice.

micahbright5• 9 years ago

Boeing has more incentive than the bank. Boeing's profit is likely much higher than the interest on the deal. That's probably just the cherry on top. The bank stands to lose the entire principal.

pbhjpbhj3• 9 years ago

How can they afford to make payments on a £2.5B loan but not have £10M? At 5% interest over 10 years that's a £26M monthly payment; how did that work?

avn2109• 9 years ago

Because they used the 2.5 billion to buy planes which they used to make money.

sjg007• 9 years ago

Yes it's a spin by Branson to suggest that the planes were the solution to seat back entertainment. They'd have done the planes anyway because it's grow or die.

The bigger risk today is Wow! and norweigan airlines with cheap flights.

But I've always found virgin to be a good experience for a fair price. On transatlantic flights, BA is more expensive for less and the American carriers are just awful. They get away with it because their hub-spoke routes have little competition.

pbhjpbhj3• 9 years ago

They were already making money with the planes they had, realistically they can't suddenly make £10s of millions more just because they have replaced those with new planes. They can buy/set up new routes but that's going to be more cost.

They only way I see it working is something with investors, but how does that work with a public company, surely not a new share class?

Most likely option I see is that this is mainly spin from Branson??

otterley• 9 years ago

Investors are much more likely to lend you lots of money when the debt is secured. Airplanes are pretty good securities against default; they don't depreciate quickly. If you default on your payments, the airplanes will be repossessed and the creditors will get most of their money back.

Seat-back monitors, on the other hand, are nearly worthless after installation. They're tied to the planes they're in; the technology obsoletes quickly; and they can't easily be resold. So the risk to the creditor in percentage terms is much greater.

So, indeed, in absolute terms, there's more at stake for the creditors (10M vs 2.5B), but if I were a creditor, I know what I'd feel safer betting on.

Don't Lower Your Expectations

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