sbm12

No, I am not an employee. Yes, I do know a lot of JetBlue employees, both as friends and as a function of my job as a reporter in the industry. I have spoken at internal events they've held and served on industry panels they've formed. And, believe it or not, I've disagreed with their actions and policies - both publicly and privately - when I think they're wrong.

I spent an hour on a conference call yesterday listening to the COO explain their version of what happened over the past week so I could come up with a coherent and complete analysis of the situation rather than a knee-jerk reaction that the airline must suck because there were some canceled flights. Spending that extra bit of time and taking an objective view often helps IME.

Am I happy or impressed that JetBlue cancelled 1,800 flights over the past week? Nope. Do I envy the passengers affected by the cancellations? Not one bit. Do I think that standing down most of the operations on Monday night was the right thing for JetBlue to do? Absolutely. And that's based on what I believe is right for passengers, not their bottom line (though the two often coincide).

My father-in-law was supposed to fly on United this week. He got caught up in cancellations the same as many JetBlue passengers and got nothing in return. Even though UA has a published policy which allows for OAL rebookings there were none available to him which were reasonable. So while OAL rebooking is nice in theory it only actually works when the OALs have capacity to help. That wasn't nearly as much the case this time around as in previous incidents. Doesn't mean I agree with the policy or even really like it, but I also don't think it would have solved nearly as much this time around.

And, despite the kvetching here, the fact is that JetBlue remains the only carrier with a blanket policy which says everyone affected gets something for their troubles. That's a simple fact. I happen to think that it is good customer service. If anyone disagrees I'd love to know why.

I get accused of being an airline employee far too often and, IME, for silly reasons. Just because I'm wiling to look at the bigger picture of 1,800 canceled flights rather than the passengers on one affected flight doesn't mean that I don't care about those passengers or their plight. But I'm also not going to let emotion get in the way and go crazy about how awful a situation is without putting it into context.

sbm12

FWIW, I'm not the only one saying that JetBlue is the only carrier offering the compensation to affected passengers; other media outlets are reporting it, too.

jkburns1

Ok you both give fair and reasonable answers and I was simply curious. I had no emotion involved or impact by this weeks JetBlue actions. As I said I fly them occasionally and I thought they handled it horribly and that the shut down was a shameful way to deal with the situation. We are all entitled to our opinions and I can share plenty of positive and negatives about any airline and flight experiences I've had on JetBlue have been mostly positive. However watching this fiasco and past handling of Irrops I don't know id take my chances with B6 and a winter flight ever again.

I simply threw it out there as a curiousity as I was taken back as to why you'd both be Consistently so complimentary it seemed over top to me.

That's what FT is all about though is differing opinions and as for brigirl it matters to me because I'm curious and when one is on payroll of a company that your so complimentary of it brings objectivity of opinions into question.

I'd rather the civilized debate with differing opinions on B6 then head over to UA forum and watch the train wreck of FT'ers seizing every opp to bash each other

Sorry to derail the thread - we can return to the comp topic at hand now.

Brigri

I think Wall Street is forgiving them as well, stock just hit $9.00 and is within .20 of it's 52 week high.

honging

First off - good job to B6 in starting to make things right. We'll actually see how many people get compensated, but it seems they are doing the Right Thing (there was a CNN report a few days ago that confirmed people stuck in Barbados were getting comped $1,500 for their hotels).

Secondly - the issue is less the actual initial delays, but how they handled it. Weather delays traveling out of the Northeast are inevitable, and kudos to B6 for not repeating the '07 mistake.

However - if you were actually stuck - the experience was downright miserable. I buy B6 tickets over American (they are the only two with direct routes to JFK for me) because the service has been more better (although I missed out on status because of that last year).

I won't recap the traveling horror story that I had, but why I think B6's situation is different than others is because they are held to a different standard - better customer service. But the experience was one of the worst I've ever had (and I've had tiffs with legacies and LCCs).

You could NOT reach the phone lines (they hung up on you), the website (intermittently down - and yesterday when they resumed ops, their website flight tracker went down), and requests by emails were saying 5 - 7 days response time. There was simply no way to figure out what you needed to do. Their Twitter team was the only one being maintained in a reasonable fashion - but even they would tell you to call phone lines, which would drop you. It's getting caught in an endless loop of no communication which was the source of frustration.

The problem is that you have travelers stranded, with NO communication coming out of B6 at all. You're sitting in the airport and seeing other passengers on other airlines getting home, and it's frustrating. That is the core issue here.

Clearly this was a "perfect storm" situation for JB - new rest rules, DL plane shutting down JFK, Hercules, polar vortex, their high utilization, holiday travel - and to their credit - they tried their best to deal with it. But better contingency planning for customer support would have been better.

Endnote: I still couldn't find a flight back to Socal from JFK on B6 and ended up buying a ticket on another airline out of pocket at 3x the price with no communication from B6.

So when you have this experience, yes - maybe you're not due compensation - but when you sell the airline for being better customer service - yeah you'll need to.

HepperSchepp

So i just got this e-mail.

"As a loyal TrueBlue customer, we’re giving you 20,000 TrueBlue points and a JetBlue credit for the roundtrip fare paid (excluding taxes and fees) or a $200 credit (whichever is greater), in addition to any eligible Customer Bill of Rights compensation. Any non-TrueBlue customers traveling with you will receive a JetBlue credit for the roundtrip fare paid (excluding taxes and fees) or a $200 credit (whichever is greater). Please allow up to 10 business days for the points to be deposited into your TrueBlue account and the credit to be sent via email. If you do not see the points or the credit after that time, please contact us at 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583) for further assistance. If you are eligible for the Bill of Rights compensation, you will be notified by email in seven business days. "

Which i guess is for the 4+ Cancellations.
We had 3 tickets and our entire trip got mucked up with $400 in costs to get back.. So not sure if this will be just me or *3.

We will see I guess.

bmg42000

I would assume it would be for all 3 travelers. If you are in the same family and pooled the points you will get 60000 points which should get you 900$ worth of travel (besides the credits ).

Letitride3c

A few thoughts glancing at the runway: some of your B6's TB members waiting to board your flight or armchair surfing @ meal time, it really brighten your views - reading some of the stories told on JetBlue's official Facebook pages, posted by people wih pictures, real faces & how their lives in the past week had been impacted, in some cases - missing luggages or ones that never left the origination airport - and what it cost to a "handful" of flyers who've missed seeing their sick & dying ones, skipped happy occassions like weddings & honeymoons, or spend their vacation time sitting at time instead .... http://www.ny1.com/content/shows/ny1...as-left-at-jfk

There is no question that management is deep in damage control mode, again, The resolutions are fine to some, reasonable to others, consistent with DOT & government regs and in many instances, certain individual employees acted above & beyond to go out of their way to help. Not all travelers use Twitter to get results or post on Facebook for help, even if they have the social media account - and website is for the tech-savy travelers with emails & smartphones - many old & young folks alike count on the basic telephone or mobile "dumb" phone as their lifeline when traveling. When both your website & telephones gone down and crashed during the surge, and your IT team isn't on 24/7 standby - it is simply an excuse and calls for an explaination. For some, the official and public apology might even be too little, too late and the compensations - while nice & not mandated by law - are keys to the overall public relations strategy to win back and regain the traveler's trust.

Resources were over-extended, too few pilots & crews to cover all the routes - it is a management problem, weather is just a contributing factor and every airlines in the world deal with it. Under-estimated and poorly planned, then executed ... literally.

Time will tell on whether this is working - the opinions & views expressed here on this thread and in similar ones are obviously split and divided. On the FaceBook pages, the perception is more negative than positive - still some very upset, angry and disappointed travelers not getting help & answers that they're promised. Talk to your customers directly - not just with a press release or thru the mass media, those are just additional measures to reinforce the message.

I just wished someone luck leaving tomorrow on B6, one day earlier, to make their cruise - there is a light coating of snow mixed in with wet shower here at LGA, JFK is foggy with a freezing rain falling now. It's a long, long winter ahead for most of us - for the time being, we see no compelling reasons to fly JetBlue by choice, the last time we flied via BOS connection, we're delayed for 3+ hours sitting & waiting in the terminal.

HepperSchepp

I just had 40k Points post, 20k+10k+10k But nothing for Travelbank yet...

rjburns

Since JetBlue wasn't able to get me to New York, I thought they should refund my ticket. Well, I wrote to them on email. No response - no refund. OK, I'll call them. Still on hold 30 minutes alter. Is there any excuse why JetBlue can't answer the phone a week after their meltdown? What a pathetic airline.

(I did see that they gave me 5000 JetBlue points..so I thought I would use the points to rebook and skip the phone...but they want 26,000 points to rebook the flight they credited me 5000 points for)

Pathetic.

carolinaRN

I received compensation (5000pts) for one of my two flights that were cancelled during the storm. My first flight was supposed to be on 1/5 from BUR-JFK. Delayed many times before being cancelled at 11pm at night. Two hours on hold and was rebooked for monday, 1/6 BUR_JFK. The flight was never cancelled....even the departure screen at the airport said we were scheduled for an on time departure. Got in line only to be told that our flight was actually a "dummy" flight created in the hopes that a plane from Newark would land the morning of 1/6. (counter agents wording). Obviously it never landed and for whatever reason, they never told anyone it was cancelled. We were also told there wouldn't be any flights out of burbank until the following week and that flights from LAX would be available starting sunday. Was rebooked and then later in the week was able to reschedule for a thursday flight from LAX. I was compensated for the 1/5 flight, but not the one on 1/6. I wrote them an email with all of the necessary details only to get a return email saying that they had reason to believe I was compensated for my 1/5 flight. Clearly, no one bothered to read the actual details of the email. I tried to call, but after an hour on hold, I was kicked off. I emailed again and I am still waiting (several days later). I have tried calling again and the 30+ min wait is unbearable (If I have to listen to that chick advertising their awesome snacks or amazing customer service one more time I will scream) I still haven't been credited for the miles from my actual flight! I don't know what is going on at Jetblue, but they seriously need to get their act together and start showing us those "amazing" customer service skills that they supposedly have.

Out of my Element

On a different issue, we got through on the phone in 13 minutes on Monday (or Tuesday?) evening, around 6PM EST, so I'm surprised to hear of a 30+ minute wait