The JetBlue Post Mortem, Part 3: What Comes Next?
So JetBlue ran a textbook PR/damage-control campaign after its Valentine's Day disaster. That was the easy part, and now the company faces its real challenge - fixing the problems that caused the fiasco. Last week, JetBlue unveiled its "customer bill of rights" to appease irate travelers, and the company hopes fliers will see this as a re-dedication of the airline's customer service.
JetBlue's self-imposed customer bill of rights is a smart move, but it does not do enough for its fliers. Edrants notes that JetBlue's bill of rights is filled with loopholes, makes no mention of finding hotel rooms for fliers with canceled flights, and gives out vouchers for flight delays worth the hourly wages of an assistant manager at Taco Bell:
"JetBlue is trying to repackage customer service that is inferior to its competition and pass it off as philanthropic."
JetBlue's customer bill of rights also raises the question of whether the rest of the airline industry will follow suit. Lawmakers are trying to make customer bill of rights mandatory for all airlines, and of course, the airline industry is against additional l federal regulation.
So can federal regulation improve customer service for the airlines industry? The Cranky Flier says it will only make traveling more difficult.
The main drawback of a federally-mandated customer bill of rights is that many of the proposals being kicked around would hold all airlines to the same cookie cutter regulations. Other airlines should draw up their own customer bill of rights, like JetBlue, so that they can tailor it for their own company. But will other airlines take this route? From The Airline Hub:"But what if government-mandated rules were put into place requiring cash compensation? What if people by law couldn't be held on an aircraft over a certain amount of time? Well, airlines would just pre-cancel a lot more flights. And with flights as full as they are, it's going to be impossible to reaccommodate those people quickly once the weather has passed. That means all those people who really need to travel would be out of luck for several days."
"Some airlines may follow but it is not likely. Most airlines are worried they are going to have to follow JetBlue's lead on this one and say it could cost them way too much."
Passenger bill of rights or no, JetBlue seems to have learned the most important lesson of all from its icy Valentine's day blunder: No more taking chances in snowy weather. Last weekend, when another round of storms blew through the East Coast, the airline pre-canceled 68 flights, largely eliminating the problem of gate-stranded passengers altogether.