It is, of course, supposed to be a "random" offset of either 0, 1 or 2 miles, but it is easy to fall into a routine after a while. A good friend of mine has a novel technique for insuring the requisite element of randomness. While riding on his jumpseat to London a couple of years ago, I was intrigued when, as we approached coast out, he picked up the handset and called the no. 1 flight attendant. He gets her on the phone and asks her to pick a number between 1 and 3. She picks a number, having absolutely no idea what he's doing, then he hangs up, turns around to me and says, "Can't get any more random that that..." He then says, "You have to ask them to pick something from 1 to 3. If you ask for something from 0 to 2, they always pick 0. So just take one off whatever they choose, and you're all set."