BusinessRx Community

I try hard not to make this blog about my rants and raves on consumer products or services -- but today's going to be an exception.  Recently, I've had 2 separate experiences with different airlines which I thought might be helpful to my readers.

About 3 weeks ago my Aunt came to visit from Boston.  She's blind and very independent -- so travel is something she probably finds difficult but seems to handle well anyway.  At the end of her visit, I took her to the airport for her flight back to Boston.  We were both surprised to learn that JetBlue had canceled her flight (and many others) due to a brutal snowstorm.  Logistically, they had more seats sold than they had planes available.  I'm sure this caused an inconvenience for everyone on the flight, but I believe my Aunt was likely more inconvenienced than most passengers.  The customer service representative proceeded to inform us the next flight she could get a seat on was over 24 hours away, and that there was no relationship with other airlines to provide her a seat on another airplane.  This situation would have caused my aunt some grief, as she has to make special arrangements for transportation, care of her guide dog while she was away, etc.  The JetBlue representative was friendly, courteous, attentive and spent nearly an hour researching alternatives.  In this time, she was continuously checking the status of a flight that had been booked full going out to Boston on the same day.  When a seat on that flight had opened, she was quick to grab that seat and lock my aunt in on that flight, providing a solution that didn't bring my aunt so much grief and gave us a few extra hours to enjoy lunch together. 

This was the second time I had seen a JetBlue customer service representative go above and beyond the call of duty to deliver excellent service.  In a previous incident, I had been flying from Boston to Tampa last September on a JetBlue flight that had to be grounded in Orlando because the smell of smoke had filled the cabin.  When I was on this flight, the woman sitting in the seat next to me grew hysterical quickly, but the JetBlue flight attendants showed excellent tact and care when dealing with her and all of the passengers on that flight.  Needless to say, we all landed safely in Orlando (instead of Tampa) and were provided shuttle service to Tampa at no cost.  Without further solicitation, JetBlue contacted me to tell me that they were providing each passenger on that flight a free one-way travel voucher as reimbursement for the trouble they had gone through.

I firmly believe that JetBlue's customer service team consists of engaged employees -- employees who feel that their job is worth doing well.  These are likely employees who have been provided with the right tools to deliver quality service to their customers.  Beyond that, what makes this company wonderful isn't just how they handle these situations when they come up, but how they actually modify their process to avoid future problems.  After apologizing to it's customers for the numerous delays weeks ago, JetBlue launched an initiative called the Customer Bill of Rights, a policy that provides a framework for handling delays and cancellations with customers.  This type of continuous integration of improvement into their processes is a great reason why JetBlue is one of the few profitable airlines left, and why they see the relationships they have with their customers in the long-term.  In a world where it's easy to rant about who's screwing you now, it's refreshing to see a growing company pay such careful attention to bringing humanity into their business model.

In stark contrast, I recently had an experience with another airline that was anything but favorable.  Last summer my wife and her friend had booked a trip to Virginia Beach through US Airways.  Her friend's uncle had passed away a day before they were supposed to go, and they had to cancel the trip.  When we canceled the reservation, we were told that because the cancellation was due to a funeral in the family, that the $100 re-scheduling fee would be waived when we wanted to book a new flight.  This weekend, we went to redeem that coupon and book a flight to Boston.  Here's a run-down of how that experience went:

1. I first went to US Airways website to book the flight using the cancellation number that was previously provided to me for our original ticket.  The website provides no facility to book a flight using a credit in this fashion, so I proceeded to call 1-800-428-4322 to book my reservation on the phone.
2. The phone system tells you first hand that it will cost an additional $10 to book a flight using the telephone.  This is insulting as US Airways provides no facility to book a flight in this fashion other than the telephone.
3. I waited on hold for 28 minutes (yes, I time these sorts of things) before a representative answered my call.  Once I was on the line with a representative, they made quick business of letting me know I had to be transferred to another department to book a flight using a voucher that had already been issued.  I waited on hold for another 34 minutes, where a recording answered my call and said "We're sorry, your call could not be answered at this time.  Please try again."  After hearing this message, I was quickly disconnected.  I didn't mind waiting on hold too much because it gave me a chance to work on my Spanish.
4. Frustrated, I called the 1-800 number again, and this time listened to every prompt, looking for an option to get the department that I needed without having to wait for an initial representative to transfer me.  There isn't an option to get this department directly, so I waited 48 minutes, where I was eventually disconnected.  This time -- with no recording.
5. At this point I called it a day, and waited until Monday morning to make another attempt.  I then called and was answered by a representative within 8 minutes.  That representative went to transfer my call, where I waited another 22 minutes.  Finally, I got a representative on the phone from the correct department, who claimed she could not hear me, and that my call was breaking up.  She proceeded to tell me to call back again, and I was disconnected.
6. Thinking this might be because of my telephone, I repeated this exercise 2 more times from different phones (my home phone, my cell phone, my wife's cell phone).  Finally, after about 2 hours, I spoke with a representative to book my flight.  At this point, I had invested a total of nearly 4 hours over 2 days in an effort to get someone on the phone.
7. When I asked to book the flight, the representative indicated that a $100 re-scheduling fee would be assessed for the ticket.  I had explained that we were previously promised this fee would be waived.  She said she would have to put me on hold (18 minutes) and came back and said that there would be no cancellation of the fee.  This was policy and the fee would have to be assessed.  I asked (politely) to speak with her supervisor.
8. After holding an additional 12 minutes, I spoke with the representative's supervisor, who confirmed that the fee would be waived.  I proceeded to share with her (in detail) the horrendous customer service experience that I had just endured.  I then provided the supervisor with 2 options.  Option 1 would be that I would pay the $100 assessment, book this flight, but would never be a customer of US Airways again.  In addition, I would make an effort to tell as many people as I could about the level of service I had received over the last 2 days -- reminding my friends and family that they had a choice of airlines when they fly.  Option 2 would be to deliver on a commitment that was already made by US Airways, where I would leave this situation satisfied and consider my service experience atypical. 

I couldn't help but stand aghast when the US Airways customer service representative actually told me that she "didn't need my business".  Yes, that's a direct quote from our conversation.  I responded to this with my own notable quote, "JetBlue would never treat me this way."  I'm sure there's somebody at US Airways who would also be appalled if they had the same experience I just had -- but that person is in an office somewhere, far, far away from the actual customers. 

Kudos to JetBlue and their excellent level of service.  Their competition just helped them make another customer for life.