Blue clues in
JetBlue's CEO, David Neeleman, has been surfing the mea culpa chairs of news programs for days, trying to salvage his airline's reputation in the wake of a disastrous service freeze-out that began last week, stranded thousands of passengers, and is only finally thawing out now. I caught his stop on the Today show this morning, where he sat down with Matt Lauer and unveiled JetBlue's so-called Passenger Bill of Rights.
The document is addressed to irate fliers everywhere and details JetBlue's promise not to screw up royally again by stranding passengers on frozen tarmacs for 10 hours. But should they mess up by a few hours here and there in getting you to your destination, JetBlue promises it will compensate you for not living up to its implied promise of getting you where you have paid to go. Neeleman also emphasized that the new promise is being made retroactive to those customers that were stranded over the last week.
A lot of people will interpret this new policy, which analysts say will pretty much wipe out the company's fourth quarter earnings, as a PR volley to keep the company viable. And I'm sure that is part of it. However, JetBlue has always regarded itself, and been regarded by a lot of pleased customers, to be a customer-friendly, customer-oriented airline. Point in fact, JD Power & Associates ranked JetBlue as the number one airline in its 2005 Airline Satisfaction Index Survey (followed by Southwest, Delta, Alaska, AirTran and Continental before we hit the median mark; the rest of the U.S. airlines were below it.) It was also number one in 2006.
So maybe JetBlue IS living up to its reputation with this promise, despite the choppiness of the last week. Do other airlines (or other big businesses for that matter) really even make promises to customers anymore? Will other carriers follow suit? Will this move merely save JetBlue's reputation, or polish it to an even higher shine?
