Thirty five months in seventeen syllable increments

Thirty five months in seventeen syllable increments
An Expedia retrospective in approximate chronological order

Part one: Classic Custom Vacations

4662 – Luxury cancellation waiver

For a modest cost
Gary the super-agent
Clears trouble from way

4717 - Hotel preregistration in DaVinci

lines are for suckers
you, preregistered traveler --
go straight to your room

5021 – All-inclusive short term fix for DaVinci

everything paid for
except the really cool stuff
still, free drinks all week

5054 - Better SEM with redirects

our beautiful site
needs more people to visit
enter many many keywords

5276 - Automated competitive analysis for hotel rooms

you’re our favorite
hotels say with fingers crossed
soon we’ll check on that

5358 - Hotel rate investigation

at our fine hotel
cancel fees are one third your stay
except on full moons


5360 - Flexible vacation search

Oahu, sixth room
tired, the last five a blur
jaws drop, we say “wow”

Flexible vacation search is one of my favorite specs. It’s got ambition, a cool idea, humor, quotes, and everything

5403 (Bug 1968) – Same day advising bugfix

no shows or no rooms
the choice of our latest fix
is no choice at all

5436 - AVS checking for CC transactions

shave fractions of cents
the Great Wall is seen from space
built up from small stones

The spec was also prepared for the “but wait—“ reaction with a lengthy digression on whether the Great Wall could indeed be seen from space

5483 – (Citadel) Improve credit card security in the database

demo for net ops:
select star from c cardlog
but first, please sit down

5499- Mach-1 Ticketing and Fufillment

where do tickets sleep
blank and unsold, in drawers
dreaming of travel

5519 - The new luxury waiver

we happily announce
our waiver covers all air
with kids waived for free


5593 - Same day cancellation faxes

happy customers
were our first priority
now, time for money

5881 - Remove barriers to CCV network integration

working on Mainten
my connection slows, stops, dies
I curse Hydra-5

6006 - Move security credentials into database

my iceberg projects
calve off deep blue shards of work
that shatter themselves

6474 - Automated loads for Westin Rio Mar

net rate breaks are sweet
each booking worth more money
Classic makes profits

6519 - Ground system gap analysis

every call is slowed
and the pain of product load
can we please fix this?

6520 - Citadel 1.1

we sigh in relief
but the back door’s still open
also, the windows


Part Two, GPS (“Core”)

6377 - Change Credit Card Encryption to Use a Standard Algorithm
among pizza boxes
black hat frowns, scratches goatee
moves on to Orbitz

6645 - Cryptography Service
secrets passed in
returned as alien words
order is maintained

Part Three, APAC

6930 - Japan Point of Sale trip requirements
a flight, a cruise, a tour
a package, surfing, a car
together, apart


6929 - JPOS Authorization and Permissions
Please enjoy your stay
We’re happy to have you back
Can I see ID?

7174 - Ariadne: Search API
Travelocity
Orbitz, kayak, and priceline --
Eat our dust, suckers