JetBlue TrueBlue - JetBlue customer "service"

I actually like JetBlue but, you tell me, do you think anyone actually read my note to their customer service department?

My note......
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On Friday, February 24th I traveled on JetBlue flight xxx from JFK to xxx. Despite a generally pleasant experience on my prior JetBlue flight, this one was a disaster.

First a preface ... I'm 6'5" and weight 230 lbs, keep that in mind while you’re reading.

I checked in, at the main JFK counter, almost 4 hours before the flight's scheduled departure and specifically requested an emergency exit row seat; I was assigned seat 11a. The boarding pass did NOT indicate that this was an emergency exit row, but the agent assured me that it was. After reaching the gate area I double checked at the customer service counter and was again assured that 11 was an exit row. Later, a co-worker met me at the gate with a boarding pass that was clearly marked as "Emergency Exit Row," but he was seated in row 12. Once more I checked with customer service counter, mentioned to them that this was an Embraer 190 (not an Airbus) and that my boarding pass was NOT marked "emergency exit." I was assured that 11 and 12 were both emergency rows and that my boarding pass was not marked "emergency exit" because I checked in at the counter; they further assured me that the seats in row 11 would recline after take-off when the pilot "unlocked" them. Finally (for the FOURTH time) I asked at the gate before I boarded and was again assured that I was seated in an emergency exit row. Of course, now for the punch line, once I boarded I found out that 11 is NOT an emergency exit row, the seats do NOT recline, it has LESS legroom than any other seat on the flight, and (since the flight was full) I would simply have to suck it up or catch a flight in the morning.

In summary:
+ Instead of the requested extra leg room, I got less.
+ My seat did not recline, both seats in front of mine (of course) DID
+ My flight was over 2 hours late, so I got home at 3:00am after a full day of meetings that began at 5:00am the PRIOR day
+ The DirectTV and XM radio did not work
+ Instead of catching up on my sleep I sat straight upright for 4 hours watching everyone else sleep.

Clearly delayed flights and malfunctioning entertainment systems are the sort of things that, on occasion, happen. The fact that four out of four (100%) of your customer service personnel INACCURATELY identified my seat as an emergency exit row, despite my repeated questions and concerns, is unbelievable and clearly indicates significant problems with both equipment knowledge and basic (as in … listen to the customer) service training.

and their response .......
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Dear xxxxxx,

Thank you for flying with JetBlue Airways on flight #xxxx from New York's JFK on February 24, 2006. We apologize that the DIRECTV® programming was inoperable during your flight.

As a gesture of apology and goodwill, we have issued each customer on your flight a $15 JetBlue electronic voucher. When you are ready to use your voucher, please call 1-800-JETBLUE with your confirmation number xxxxxx for this flight. The voucher is for you and is non-transferable. JetBlue vouchers are valid for one year, can be applied towards airfare on JetBlue Airways reservations only and are not redeemable online or towards JetBlue Getaways vacation packages.

We thank you for your understanding, and look forward to a future opportunity to welcome you aboard JetBlue Airways.

Sincerely,

JetBlue Airways

Your flying a LCC..Low Cost Carrier..Dont Expect much..and you wont get hurt.

I am so sick of robotic, canned customer service responses. And, BTW, these come just as often from legacy carriers.

Another bad experience on a BOS-JFK flight. I'm shocked. Just shocked. Their entire operation is falling apart.

As for your customer service "response," I can't believe they didn't even mention the fact that FOUR service agents made a mistake, and you were forced to suffer in a cramped seat. Being delayed on a BOS-JFK flight is par for the course. Don't expect anything for that one.

Your flying a LCC..Low Cost Carrier..Dont Expect much..and you wont get hurt.

But jetBlue advertises more amenities and service than other airlines. Their advertisements build up customer expectations unlike WN which solely focuses on cheap.

Do they use the 190s on 4 hour flights? The OP said he sat upright for 4 hours - that doesn't sound like JFK-BOS.

Another bad experience on a BOS-JFK flight. I'm shocked. Just shocked. Their entire operation is falling apart.

As for your customer service "response," I can't believe they didn't even mention the fact that FOUR service agents made a mistake, and you were forced to suffer in a cramped seat. Being delayed on a BOS-JFK flight is par for the course. Don't expect anything for that one.

Jetblue being delayed may have been par early on with the BOS-JFK, segments, but, after viewing the flight tracker, it looks like it is changing for the better. So far, every flight today has been on time. They are rotating more 320's onto the route, which is giving them a greater reliability. I have also heard that most to all 190's are only flying 4 flights a day so it won't corrupt an entire system if it has bad delays.

I don't understand why people think they are entitled to a refund if your flight is delayed. 2 hours, while not good, is survivable. And, Sulsk, you are whining about not getting a refund for a 45 min delay. We may have become spoiled by Jetblue's over-generous handouts of vouchers. Flat out, you will never get a refund on any airline for being delayed 45 mins or 2 hours, so please don't complain about it.

Do they use the 190s on 4 hour flights? The OP said he sat upright for 4 hours - that doesn't sound like JFK-BOS.

JFK-AUS

Welcome to FT (well, looks like you registered a year ago, but welcome to the non-lurker world).

Sorry about your experience. I would suggest calling and finding out who you need to write to to get a real response. If they won't tell you, try writing again and mentioning ONLY the part about the seats, and see if that gets a different canned response or an actual human response.

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I don't understand why people think they are entitled to a refund if your flight is delayed. ...

I agree, but if this was aimed at my original post then you read it about as carefully as JetBlue's customer service dept.

JetBlue's response to my response to their first response :)

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Dear Mr. Green,

Thank you for your letter, and for allowing us the opportunity to address your concerns and disappointment with the level of service received by our crewmembers at the JFK Airport and onboard your flight from JFK to Austin, on February 24, 2006, flight# xxxx. We regret the circumstances that
prompted your letter, and want you to know that we share your concern.

We apologize for the delay in responding to your important message. We are currently experiencing a longer than average response time due to an increased volume of email.

We are truly embarrassed to learn of your JetBlue experience, and extend our sincerest apologies for the confusion and misinformation you were given by several of our crewmembers. We expect our Crewmembers to provide a higher level of customer service, and regret that anxiety caused by our
lack of familiarity with our new EMBRAER 190 Aircraft. We appreciate you bringing this matter to our immediate attention. Your experience is certainly not concurrent with the service that JetBlue normally provides.

Your concerns have been reviewed and promptly forwarded on to the JFK General Management and Inflight Leadership Team. We take our customer feedback very seriously and training issues are implemented based on information from our customer feedback.

The EMBRAER 190 is a relatively new aircraft to the JetBlue operation, and features 100 roomy leather seats in an all coach, two-by-two configuration. Each E190 has 25 rows and contains reclining seats with the exception of row 11. Row 12 is the emergency exit row.

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I agree, but if this was aimed at my original post then you read it about as carefully as JetBlue's customer service dept.

No, this was not directed towards you. Your situation, however, is very surprising. I can't believe FOUR differnet people misinformed you about your seat. That is downright absurb.

I have been lurking around this forum and reading responses regarding this "customer service" issue. It's just flat out rediculous. Although FT is a fantastic website for giving flyers great info, I think it has also taught people to expect compensation at all times. HEY YOU DIDN'T SMILE AT ME, FA! I WANT COMPENSATION. :rolleyes:

For the OP, I don't think this is so much a jetblue issue, but more of a "moronic employees" issue. There are STUPID people out there who will give you the wrong information (perhaps not on purpose) and screw up your entire plan. I have had this happened to me on almost all major airlines: idiotic agents screwing up my itineraries. Ideally, this should never have happened in the first place, but sometimes sh*t happens. Is it really worth it to get angry and spend 2 hours writing a letter or arguing with an employee over a $50 or $75 or even $100 voucher? Not to me, I can make that money in the same amount of time.


For the other poster, there are times when it's appropriate to ask for compensation but when you know that you are not getting what you are after and it has become VERY obvious that you are BEGGING for it, then it's just really sad. I think at that point you should turn it around and demand for an apology for being mistreated instead and make it known that you are not after the money/compensation. In my opinion, my dignity is worth more than a $200 voucher.

I find it so much easier to just let things go. Instead of beating myself over something so little like a whopping $50 voucher, I'd just drop it, and believe in karma and that when something bad happens to you now, something good will follow. You'd be much happier.

A month ago, an UA agent seriously screwed up my travel plans. Instead of getting angry and starting to write to customer relations (which i thought of), I just told myself, it's not worth it. Only a week later, a nice guy on FT practically gave me 2 free upgrades to first class for an upcoming trip. It somehow all balances out in the end. Even if you get your $200 voucher now, you will lose that $200 somehow later down the road.

Just curious - why hide your exact route?

It is not unusual for the DirectTV service to be out on JetBlue. You usually get a $5.00 voucher for compensation.

As to the aircraft seating, why didn't you make sure that YOU were aware of what was the correct exit row? This information was available to you; if seat assignment is so important to you, you should have had this information prior to leaving for the airport.

My flight was over 2 hours late, so I got home at 3:00am after a full day of meetings that began at 5:00am the PRIOR day

Big deal. Late flights are the norm for JetBlue. Just because you overschedule yourself, you think this is an airline's fault?

Well put BlissWorld! ^ :)

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As to the aircraft seating, why didn't you make sure that YOU were aware of what was the correct exit row? This information was available to you; if seat assignment is so important to you, you should have had this information prior to leaving for the airport.

Did you even bother to read my post?!?! I DID know which row was the emergency exit row, but FOUR customer service reps told me I was wrong. Given that it was only my second flight on this plane it seems reasonable to defer to them give the uncertainty in this case.

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Big deal. Late flights are the norm for JetBlue. Just because you overschedule yourself, you think this is an airline's fault?

Again, how could you possibly infer that this was my main point? It was only added to emphasize WHY some passengers are very particular about their seating prefs.

I'm amazed how many people seem to take my criticism of JetBlue personally. I would assume that the airline itself would actively encourage this kind of feedback in an effort to impove their services. It seem that a fairly large contingent of fanboys would prefer to ignore them and hope they go away.

We may have become spoiled by Jetblue's over-generous handouts of vouchers.

For any spoiled passengers, there is a spoiler.

I believe that it is one of the kinks (quoted Neelman) about getting a new aircraft.

For A320, both row 11 and 12 are exit, while E190 only has 12.

If anything, I would say that JetBlue has not properly informed its employees at the aiport to cause that 4 out of 4 employees misinformed you. That is just the price that JetBlue has to pay for adding a brand new aircraft type in the fleet: the employees were really trained on one type for the past 6 years.

I believe that it is one of the kinks (quoted Neelman) about getting a new aircraft.

For A320, both row 11 and 12 are exit, while E190 only has 11.

If anything, I would say that JetBlue has not properly informed its employees at the aiport to cause that 4 out of 4 employees misinformed you. That is just the price that JetBlue has to pay for adding a brand new aircraft type in the fleet: the employees were really trained on one type for the past 6 years.


Apparently you've also been misinformed. JetBlue themselves said, in the email quote above by the OP:

"... The EMBRAER 190 is a relatively new aircraft to the JetBlue operation, and features 100 roomy leather seats in an all coach, two-by-two configuration. Each E190 has 25 rows and contains reclining seats with the exception of row 11. Row 12 is the emergency exit row."

sorry, I meant to say row 12 instead of 11. I was not misinformed, just a brainfart.

My original arugement still stands: " it is because of the new equipment and lack of proper getusedto or information to jetblue employees"

Apparently you've also been misinformed. JetBlue themselves said, in the email quote above by the OP:

"... The EMBRAER 190 is a relatively new aircraft to the JetBlue operation, and features 100 roomy leather seats in an all coach, two-by-two configuration. Each E190 has 25 rows and contains reclining seats with the exception of row 11. Row 12 is the emergency exit row."

I'm amazed how many people seem to take my criticism of JetBlue personally.

You are mistaken; in no way do I take any criticism of any airline personally. In fact, I'm not a fan of JetBlue, having had only bad experiences flying BOS-JFK, with long flight delays every time, including an aborted take-off.

I have also flown JetBlue BOS-MCO, with a major flight delay on the return trip.

I understand that you had a bad trip on JetBlue, but it hardly qualifies for so much fuss. I'm sure most posters here could top your sad tale any day.