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JetBlue's Customer Bill of Rights is an attempt to bring "humanity back to air travel," after bad weather led to a breakdown in operations
In a perfect world, air travelers wouldn't face delays or canceled flights. Passengers would reach their destinations feeling refreshed, with their luggage waiting for them at the carousal just as they’re strolling in to claim it. The in-flight experience would be marvelous as well, with pristine cabins, lavatories touched with a lavender scent, and enough food and drinks on-board to keep everyone happy from the time the plane pulls back from the gate until passengers disembark at their destination. Oh, in a perfect world. But anyone who has set foot within a mile of an airport will tell you that commercial air travel doesn't always run so smoothly. Delays are inevitable, particularly when Mother Nature sends a snowstorm through a hub airport in a major city during the holidays. Lost luggage is inevitable, too. With passengers connecting from twenty different cities to catch a flight from Chicago to Houston that’s scheduled to push back at 3:45 p.m. on the nose, it’s actually a miracle when everyone’s luggage—from all twenty feeder cities—shows up at the final destination. In many cases, as passengers know, it doesn’t. When it comes to air travel, delays and lost luggage are part of the game. Occasionally, though, in trying to stick with timetables and transport passengers to their destination on the date for which they’ve purchased a ticket, the flight experience goes horribly wrong. A piece of luggage that fails to show up at a traveler’s destination starts to feel like a marginal issue when compared to the prospect of spending eight hours on-board a plane, without enough food and with lavatories overflowing, because the airline thought its planes could take-off by slipping through a break in the weather, when they really had no chance. Thanks to an incident just like that last February, when an icy snowstorm led to an operational meltdown for JetBlue in New York, stranding passengers on airplanes for multiple hours, enraged travelers spoke up. They pushed for a customer bill of rights and, to make good for the distress caused by the February fiasco and to rescue their formerly-glowing reputation, JetBlue became “America’s first and only airline to offer its own Customer Bill of Rights, with meaningful compensation for customers inconvenienced by service disruptions within JetBlue’s control” [1]. Following is a sample of some of the reparations JetBlue customers can expect should they confront departure delays, on-board ground delays, and overbookings: Departure DelaysCustomers whose flight is delayed for 1-1:59 hours because of a “controllable irregularity” are entitled to a $25 voucher, which can be used for a future JetBlue flight. A delay of 2-3:59 hours pushes the voucher value up to $50. A flight delayed for 4-5:59 hours will result in a voucher equivalent to the amount the passenger paid for the one-way flight in question. On-Board Ground DelaysIf passengers have been held up inside a plane on the ground for five hours, JetBlue will take action so that customers can deplane. In the meantime, food and drink, access to restrooms, and, if necessary, medical treatment will be provided. OverbookingsCustomers who get “bumped”—or who are involuntarily denied boarding—will receive $1,000. References: [1] May 10, 2007 Press Release
The copyright of the article Customer Bill of Rights in New York Travel is owned by Christine Hucko. Permission to republish Customer Bill of Rights in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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