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JetBlue Wants to be Travelers' Valentine Once More

Offers Profuse Apologies, Passenger Bill of Rights

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 21, 2007

JetBlue • JetBlue To Offer Refunds If You Lose Your Job • JetBlue To Sell Pillow and Blanket "Kits" • JetBlue Fires Its CEO • JetBlue Sits Out NY Storm While Others Fly • JetBlue CEO Wins Top Grades for Crisis Management • JetBlue Wants to be Travelers' Valentine Once More • JetBlue Unveils "Passengers Bill Of Rights" • JetBlue Cancels More Flights • JetBlue Offers Refunds, Free Tickets To Stranded Passengers • JetBlue Rips Out Seats • JetBlue Used Passengers as Guinea Pigs in Pilot Fatigue Experiment • JetBlue May Offer Airborne WiFi • JetBlue Finds Clear Air But Labor Trouble Looms • JetBlue Expands Service to Pittsburgh, Jacksonville • JetBlue Adds Boston-Washington Service • Jet Blue Launches New York-Boston Service • Judge Dismisses JetBlue Lawsuit • JetBlue Adds Newark Flights • JetBlue Tops Consumer Satisfaction Survey -- • More Travel News

Within the space of a week, JetBlue is trying to spring from the source of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre to its former role as the airline industry's leader of the pack.

The seven-year-old carrier, once known as a master innovator and paragon of customer service, seems so determined to recapture that reputation that it has issued a passengers-rights doctrine heavily loaded in favor of consumers.

The document, issued earlier this week, should not only soften threatened Congressional hearings but should also reverberate in the offices of other airlines, who don't want to be categorized as not caring about their customers.

Planes packed with passengers have sat on airport tarmacs for interminable stretches of time -- often without food, working toilets, or adequate communications from carriers.

The problem peaked on Valentine's Day, when nine JetBlue flights sat within sight of gates at the airline's John F. Kennedy International hub. The outbound flights were trying to wait out an ice storm without losing their places in line, while the inbound flights were waiting for gates occupied by other aircraft. Although JetBlue is the largest airline at JFK, it did not have the gate space to accommodate so many planes at once.

It took six days -- and multiple cancellations -- for the discounter to resume its regular schedule.

By then, pundits were calling it JetBlack-and-Blue and CEO David Neeleman was trying to explain himself to David Letterman on national television.

Lots of Company

Although JetBlue's February 14 fiasco was the most notorious of the trapped-and-stranded incidents because it involved so many planes, it wasn't the only one.

Less than two months earlier, an American Airlines plane sat on an Austin tarmac for nearly nine hours after it was diverted from Dallas by thunderstorms.

United Express passengers diverted from Denver to Cheyenne, Wyo. by a winter storm Dec. 20 were left stranded when their planes left without them.

The same thing happened again on Feb. 8, when Denver-bound United Express and American Connection flights (both operated by Trans States Airlines of St. Louis) were diverted to Scottsbluff, Neb. Both left without passengers six hours later. In both the Dec. 20 and Feb. 8 diversions, passengers eventually reached Denver by bus -- but without kind words for their carriers.

Although an ancient Chinese proverb suggests that those who forget the lessons of history are designed to repeat them, the airlines seem to have a short memory.

Less than eight years ago, Northwest passengers sat on the Detroit tarmac for nine years while a winter storm raged. The airline eventually paid a seven-figure, court-imposed settlement but admitted no wrongdoing.

That was hardly the case with JetBlue. The same airline that started with a Declaration of Independence seven years ago has now added a Passengers' Bill of Rights it intends to enforce, according to its CEO.

Among the provisions are a $25 voucher to arriving passengers whose planes are delayed on the tarmac for 30-60 minutes; a $100 voucher for delays of 3-4 hours; and a voucher equivalent to the roundtrip ticket cost if a runway delay lasts longer than four hours.

Arrivals kept from gates for two hours will receive vouchers for their one-way fare, while incoming passengers kept from deplaning more than four hours will receive vouchers valid for the value of their roundtrip tickets. Outbound passengers would also receive vouchers of varying amounts for tarmac delays.

All customers caught in the Feb. 14 ice storm would be eligible for those and other benefits, since JetBlue decided to make its new rules retroactive.

"This was a big wake-up call for JetBlue," said Neeleman, whose Bill of Rights also includes full refunds for passengers on flights cancelled within 12 hours of departure for reasons within the carrier's control. "(I promise that) our airline is going to be stronger aned even better prepared to serve our customers."

Neeleman not only apologized to passengers but also to employees, whom he called "the best in the industry."

"I promise to get (them) the right resources, tools, and support for them ... so that they in turn can deliver the JetBlue Experience (passengers) have come to expect from us," he said.

Customer Council

Toward that end, Neeleman noted that JetBlue would create a Customer Advisory Council that will be the first of its type in the airline industry. It will have input into customer improvement and future airline operations.

Better communications -- both with passengers and crew -- will be a priority, he said.

JetBlue cancelled 250 of 505 scheduled flights on Feb. 14 but might have avoided the tarmac problems by cancelling more rather than relying on uncertain weather forecasts. One plane wound up sitting on the tarmac for nearly 11 hours.

Returning to its regular schedule required the discount airline to scrap another 750 flights through the President's Day holiday on Feb. 19. Estimated losses, including the free travel doled out as compensation, could top $30 million.

Before the ice storm that gave it so much bad publicity, JetBlue was the envy of the airline industry: a startup so successful that it was named "Best Domestic Airline" five years in a row by members of the North American Travel Journalists Association [NATJA].

The JFK-based carrier, which serves more than 50 destinations, features planes with leather seats, ample legroom, 36 channels of free DirecTV for every passenger, and XM Satellite Radio on many flights. There is no charge for soft drinks, snacks, or exit-row seating and no requirements for Saturday night stayovers to ensure the lowest fares.

In addition, both inflight and airport personnel working for JetBlue tend to be polite and professional -- at least in normal circumstances.

Those circumstances may have changed forever on Feb. 14, for both JetBlue and other carriers. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) both promise legislation mandating a three-hour limited for passengers to be kept on grounded planes, guaranteeing food and sanitary conditions aboard planes, and requiring airlines to provide regular updates regarding delays.

JetBlue hopes its self-imposed rules will make such legislation unnecessary. They might -- but only if other airlines fall into line as quickly as they do when one proposes a fare increase, and only if FAA rules are modified to allow aircraft to return to the gate without losing their place in line.

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