Archive for the 'JetBlue' Category
June 14 2007
JetBlue is undertaking a rigorous strategic review of the airline, that could lead to the carrier selling additional aircraft and slowing down deliveries of airplanes they’ve ordered. The impending launch of Virgin America is also lurking on the horizon, and JetBlue is wise to actually get their ship in order before this happens (which is the opposite of how airlines typically deal with new entrants). Despite rumors, executives say there are no plans to add first class to the planes. Don’t be surprised, though, when you start getting charged for some things that are currently free…
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May 29 2007
Good news if you use Expedia to book your tickets: JetBlue’s flights are now available on Expedia and Hotwire. Last year (or so) JetBlue added their flights to Travelocity after 6 years (or so) of trying to sell on their own. Southwest Airlines also recently announced a broadened approach to selling its tickets, adding the Galileo GDS to its distribution partners after more than 30 years of just using Sabre. I know, most of you don’t care about this stuff. But the broader implication is that airlines have realized that at the right price (ie, if GDSs lower their fees enough), it’s worth using a third party to sell your tickets. We still may see GDSs charging travel agencies a fee (whereas now, for the most part, travel agents receive a payment for using a GDS), which means passing that fee on to you, the customer. Not yet — but soon. Maybe.
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May 15 2007
Quick JetBlue promotion for you: Book a roundtrip ticket on them and fly before June 15, and you’ll get a $50 voucher good for flights between September 5 and October 31. Not too shabby…
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May 10 2007
Back on February 19th, after JetBlue’s operational disaster, I wrote, "If Neeleman weren’t the founder, I would expect a board to oust him over this. But they won’t…"
I was wrong. The board fired JetBlue’s CEO and founder David Neeleman today, replacing him with former COO Dave Barger. Who knows why it took 3 months (and why they did it once JetBlue had improved its operations), but it goes to show, you can launch a successful airline and still get fired.
Neeleman will remain as non-executive chairman of the board.
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March 16 2007
JetBlue is cancelling more than 200 flights because of a storm in the northeast, but that doesn’t mean its passengers know if their flight is cancelled. I rarely bring up personal gripes here, but I will: My grandfather, who is 90, is travelling (alone) from Florida (of course) to New Jersey on JetBlue this morning. After an hour on the phone with them to find out whether his flight was cancelled (no one ever answered), my father went online to check the status of his flight. The flight status tool on the website isn’t working. Sometimes an airline can’t catch a break. So while it’s good that JetBlue has been far more proactive in cancelling flights, the rest of the customer service operation will take a while to get to where it needs to be.
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February 20 2007
JetBlue announced the full details of its delay reimbursement program (DRP, though I just made that up), offering passengers payments that vary from $25 flight vouchers to free round trips based on the length of the delay you face and whether you’re already on a plane or not. Most of the payments only kick in if the delay is not caused by weather or air traffic control holds.
This is reminiscent of a similar scheme from long-gone Biztravel.com (a division of also long-gone Rosenbluth International) where if a flight you booked on their site was delayed, they would pay you ($100 for a 30 minute delay, up to full reimbursement for a 2-hour delay).
In any case, this should mark the last of my posts on the JetBlue matter. Carry on…
UPDATE: The full details of the JetBlue passenger bill of rights say that they will make "take the necessary action" to deplane customers if a plane is on the ground for five (five!) hours. Even then, there’s an out: "JetBlue Captains have discretion if the aircraft is positioned and almost ready for take-off." The financial payouts are nice or whatever, but 5 hours? That’s news? We won’t hold you hostage for more than five hours, unless the captain decides he wants to? That’s the big news? (Well, no, the payments are the big news. It’s a nice gesture. But 5 hours?)
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February 19 2007
JetBlue’s nightmare week is continuing, as the airline has announced it will cancel 25% of its Monday flights, 5 days after an East Coast storm wiped out its operations. JetBlue has cancelled about 1,000 flights in 5 days, and has seen 7 years of goodwill flushed down the 2 lavatories located in coach. Police were called in to calm frustrated travelers in Boston and New York. Incredible that the situation got so out of hand in multiple cities, but the comments a couple of OTR readers have posted about their own horror stories suggests that it was amazing customers kept it together at all.
Also incredibly, CEO David Neeleman told the NY Times that airline management was unprepared for the way the events unfolded. He blamed airline operations for not being able to stay in touch with pilots & flight attendants, blamed customer service reps who work out of their homes, blamed the airline’s reservations system, and blamed the airline’s emergency control center. Though while he said he was "humiliated and mortified," he didn’t take the blame himself. And from what it sounds like, the airline was simply ill-prepared and, worse, took several days to realize the extent that it was unprepared. If Neeleman weren’t the founder, I would expect a board to oust him over this. But they won’t.
I was about to write that on the plus side, we can assume this will never happen again. But it’s happened over and over again (from the Northwest 20+ hour ordeal several years ago, to the American mess in Texas last year, to JetBlue). It will happen again. Profits come first, you come second. It’s great when that benefits passengers, but it stings a bit when it doesn’t. As soon as we stop fooling ourselves that airlines care about anything other than profitability (and, to be fair, safety), we’ll gladly accept the next 3-hour wait on the tarmac.
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February 16 2007
Just a quick follow-up to the JetBlue JFK snowstorm disaster:
Turns out JetBlue waited 5 hours to call airport authorities for help offloading passengers. Oops.
And my father brought up a good point: Will 1 snowstorm undo 7 years of goodwill and great stories about the airline? Did Wednesday mark the day that JetBlue became just another airline that everyone hates?
And CEO David Neeleman’s response: "We should’ve done better" is completely inadequate, considering these people were held hostage for 9, 10 or 11 hours.
On the plus side, apparently American Airlines was still charging $3 for cookies on its 5 hour delayed flight to Miami.
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February 15 2007
Some JetBlue passengers were stranded for as along as 11 hours on the tarmac at JFK as they waited out a winter storm. Yes, 11 hours. In their defense, well, uh, there is no in-their-defense (you can read the official statement here.) The airline said that they’ll give a refund and an additional free flight to any passengers stranded more than 3 hours (there were about 10 flights delayed that long).
In unrelated JetBlue news, the airline announced summer service to Nantucket, which is interesting primarily because during non-summer months they will have a code share with Cape Air, to offer customers connecting service to Cape Cod and nearby islands. Airine watchers (?) have oft-discussed JetBlue’s codeshare plans, and I can assure you nobody thought Cape Air would be the first.
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February 07 2007
You may read stories today about an "alliance" between JetBlue and Ireland’s Aer Lingus. Read the details. This is not a typical alliance — there’s no code sharing, for example. Rather, each airline will put a link to the other on their website. That appears to be it. For whatever reason, people are very excited about the idea of an airline setting up an alliance with JetBlue. That’s fine. But this isn’t that.
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