jetBlue's apology e-mail

[Mellyrose]

An Apology from JetBlue Airways.


Dear JetBlue Customers,

We are sorry and embarrassed. But most of all, we are deeply sorry.

Last week was the worst operational week in JetBlue's seven year history. Following the severe winter ice storm in the Northeast, we subjected our customers to unacceptable delays, flight cancellations, lost baggage, and other major inconveniences. The storm disrupted the movement of aircraft, and, more importantly, disrupted the movement of JetBlue's pilot and inflight crewmembers who were depending on those planes to get them to the airports where they were scheduled to serve you. With the busy President's Day weekend upon us, rebooking opportunities were scarce and hold times at 1-800-JETBLUE were unacceptably long or not even available, further hindering our recovery efforts.

Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for the anxiety, frustration and inconvenience that we caused. This is especially saddening because JetBlue was founded on the promise of bringing humanity back to air travel and making the experience of flying happier and easier for everyone who chooses to fly with us. We know we failed to deliver on this promise last week.

We are committed to you, our valued customers, and are taking immediate corrective steps to regain your confidence in us. We have begun putting a comprehensive plan in place to provide better and more timely information to you, more tools and resources for our crewmembers and improved procedures for handling operational difficulties in the future. We are confident, as a result of these actions, that JetBlue will emerge as a more reliable and even more customer responsive airline than ever before.

Most importantly, we have published the JetBlue Airways Customer Bill of Rights—our official commitment to you of how we will handle operational interruptions going forward—including details of compensation. I have a video message to share with you about this industry leading action.

You deserved better—a lot better—from us last week. Nothing is more important than regaining your trust and all of us here hope you will give us the opportunity to welcome you onboard again soon and provide you the positive JetBlue Experience you have come to expect from us.



Sincerely,


David Neeleman
Founder and CEO
JetBlue Airways

[kc2aqg]

I also received this e-mail. They're really trying hard to convey to all of their customers that they acknowledge they screwed up and want to fix it. Whether their operational issues are fixed however, time will tell. They won my business to Syracuse this Sunday...

[Iberia A340-600]

I just received this email as well and feel that it was a nice touch even though I was not effected in anyway by the delays and I never thought for one minute I would never fly them again.

:)

[Derf]

I never flew them, but this tactic won me over... I would love to give them a try and I am looking forward to getting taken for a ride by them.

Well done Mr. CEO....that first line truly grabbed me
"We are sorry and embarrassed. But most of all, we are deeply sorry."

Thats Class, the high kind!

[hiss srq]

I got the email as well. They ran an add with the same letter in it in a few papers as well today. We used them in the rest rooms at our airport. hahaaha just kidding

[Nonstop2AUH]

These guys have always been strong in PR and marketing, let's hope they bring their operations up to the same level!

[T-Bird76]

These guys have always been strong in PR and marketing, let's hope they bring their operations up to the same level!

Excellent point, doesn't matter how much fluff you try to spin if you can't come through its worthless. I find it funny how B6 comes out with this "Bill of Rights" now. They've had the worst ontime performance of any airline in 2006. It took them to basically fall apart to make changes.

[Midnight Mike]

Excellent point, doesn't matter how much fluff you try to spin if you can't come through its worthless. I find it funny how B6 comes out with this "Bill of Rights" now. They've had the worst ontime performance of any airline in 2006. It took them to basically fall apart to make changes.

Tommy

Jetblue has always been strong in the Customer Service department.
http://www.airlinequality.com/Airlines/B6.htm
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/PR ... =wsjcrmain

And it is how you treat your customers that the passengers will remember.

Run late, apology & give them a $25 voucher & they will fly you again in the future.

Oh yeah Tommy, Jetblue was 3rd worst, though I think this information must be off a little as I know that Hawaiian finished 2006 as the number 1 on time airline.

Highest On-Time Arrival Rates
1. Aloha Airlines – 93.2 percent
2. Hawaiian Airlines – 90.9 percent
3. Frontier Airlines – 87.1 percent

Lowest On-Time Arrival Rates
1. Atlantic Southeast Airlines – 65.7 percent
2. Comair – 66.8 percent
3. JetBlue Airways – 70.1 percent

Most Frequently Delayed Flights
1. Comair flight 5518 from New York JFK to Boston – late 96.67 percent of the time
1. Comair flight 5073 from New York JFK to Atlanta – late 96.67 percent of the time
3. Comair flight 5195 from New York JFK to Washington Dulles – late 96.15 percent of the time
4. Comair flight 5093 from New York JFK to Washington Reagan National – late 96.00 percent of the time
4. Comair flight 4954 from Washington Reagan National to New York JFK – late 96.00 percent of the time

Highest Rates of Canceled Flights
1. American Eagle Airlines – 3.5 percent
2. Comair – 3.0 percent
3. SkyWest Airlines – 2.7 percent

Lowest Rates of Canceled Flights
1. Continental Airlines – 0.3 percent
2. JetBlue Airways – 0.3 percent
3. Frontier Airlines – 0.5 percent

[PhilDernerJr]

I am intersted to read Trip Reports about JetBlue flights over the coming months.

[USAF Pilot 07]

These guys have always been strong in PR and marketing, let's hope they bring their operations up to the same level!

Excellent point, doesn't matter how much fluff you try to spin if you can't come through its worthless. I find it funny how B6 comes out with this "Bill of Rights" now. They've had the worst ontime performance of any airline in 2006. It took them to basically fall apart to make changes.

Although I agree with you to an extent, in that you have to have a somewhat solid product, what people are going to remember, and what is going to keep them coming back, is how they were treated.

I think it's the same with Wall Street. People, especially those who know little to nothing about investing, are much more likely to continue to use someone who isn't performing as well as maybe they would like them to, based on how that person treats them and how important they make them feel...

[moose135]

Although I agree with you to an extent, in that you have to have a somewhat solid product, what people are going to remember, and what is going to keep them coming back, is how they were treated.

You are probably right, Clark. Too many people are going to remember this type of thing - from the Cincinnati Enquirer yesterday:

[PhilDernerJr]

Side note: That plane in the comic looks like Delta DC-8 in widget colors.

[USAF Pilot 07]

People want cheap, reliable, safe travel. I think if JetBlue stays out of the negative spotlight for a while, and continues to make positive PR steps, people will eventually tuck all this negative press away, and fly JetBlue because of the low fares, TV etc...

Not to mention that JetBlue has a very loyal fan base, especially in the NYC region. Most of these passengers weren't on the flights affected, and if all they've had on JetBlue were positive experiences, they will be a lot more likely to downplay this incident and continue flying JetBlue.

The fact that JetBlue is trying to make nice with everyone, and is sincerely apologizing in a timely fashion is also a great step and great way to save face. Most people are willing to overlook a mistake, or lapse in action/judgement, especially if the perpetrator seems sincerely remorseful. What's the saying? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me... Although the context of the saying is a little different, it's got the same underlying principle, in that ok, JetBlue messed up, shame on them, I'll give them another shot, especially since they have a very good product and seem like they are going to make things right.

And finally, I honestly think it all comes down to fares. Low fares are the primary concern for most air travelers. JetBlue is a safe airline, that was highly praised by many before this incident, and that will continue to offer low fares. Throw in the fact that they do have DirecTV, leather seats and generally friendly crews and I'd bet that people will be willing to overlook this thing to save a few bucks...

Where I think this bad publicity will hurt B6 is in smaller "spoke" markets, where most people haven't flown Jetblue (let alone heard of them) and will be a lot less likely to try them out because of this.

[Nonstop2AUH]

All very good points made here. I am less concerned with damage to their image (they are masters of PR and modern branding/marketing techniques) than I am about how much they are going to have to spend as a result of this to bring their infrastructure up to speed, and to what extent will that give them a cost structure similar to that of a legacy carrier. Of course, that is more a problem for management and investors than for customers, as long as they eat it in their margins and don't pass those costs along in the fares. Ryanair (the Irish one) and others have proven that consumers will happily accept a certain level of mistreatment if they paid a low price and got what they paid for, and Jetblue at its worst probably has a better service reputation than Ryanair.

[T-Bird76]

All very good points made here. I am less concerned with damage to their image (they are masters of PR and modern branding/marketing techniques) than I am about how much they are going to have to spend as a result of this to bring their infrastructure up to speed, and to what extent will that give them a cost structure similar to that of a legacy carrier. Of course, that is more a problem for management and investors than for customers, as long as they eat it in their margins and don't pass those costs along in the fares. Ryanair (the Irish one) and others have proven that consumers will happily accept a certain level of mistreatment if they paid a low price and got what they paid for, and Jetblue at its worst probably has a better service reputation than Ryanair.

Very good point, the costs here are going to be huge. The cost alone to compensate the passengers from the Valentines day nightmare are estimated to be about 25 million. The interesting thing here we can see a totally new jetBlue out of this in a few months.

On a side note my Friend who works IT for B6 said every employee in the entire company was working nonstop from Thursday to Sunday from about 7am to midnight and beyond.