Me thinks her SA told her this on April 1st.
This was my very first thought! Actually, it was that
@birkel was pulling a good April fools joke on us all--not because it's a
bad idea per se, but because it's so surprising.
I'm convinced there's some AI/algorithm at work for the Paris appointments, though. And I could see three immediate benefits to having its own computerized system for bag allocation: 1) it completely removes an SAs ability to sell bags out the back door for a kickback (which is an existing possibility for low/no spend customers who get a bag). 2) It shields the company from class-protected discrimination when a computer makes the decision with no input re: race, gender, etc. 3) It helps any defense that there's no coercion when the SA can say, "because I can't nominate anyone to get a bag, I can't promise them that buying x will, with 100% certainty, result in bag offer y."
There's also a benefit I see that a lot of others here won't agree with: it removes the likability aspect from determining who gets a bag. I know this means that raging, entitled rich a-holes can get a bag whereas it was harder before, and that lovely ones with little/no prespend now won't get the chance. But as I see it, a computerized system removes an SA's ability to prey on a customer's emotional vulnerabilities to get them to spend more in hopes of getting the SA to like them enough to be nominated for a B or K. I've seen enough examples of this in some of the other threads that I think it's a worthy tradeoff. It also removes petty internal politics that can unknowingly hurt a customer. For ex: the SM doesn't like your SA? You as a customer aren't hurt by the SM not wanting to consider your SA's nominations as seriously because they don't like him/her for whatever reason.
If Hermes is willing to consider AI for something, I sure wouldn't mind if it could be put towards counterfeiting. I'm really surprised that authenticity is still subject to mostly human judgment, rather than a computer's by virtue of some embedded/scannable/traceable thing put in the bag itself at the time of production.
