trying to make sense of it all
When the weather forecast for the next 3 days looks like this:
We’ll go from 70 yesterday to potentially our biggest snowstorm of the whole winter tomorrow, with 4-8 inches possible. As a weather guy, it’s amazing…warmth, thunderstorms, then snow, the perfect 24 hours. Enjoy winters last stand.
I really want this to work…I really do. I love cheap fares, I love your plush leather seats, I love your fairly quick check in process, and I really LOVE your DirectTV in every seat, but you’re making this really hard. First you completely cancelled my trip to Columbus a few weeks ago after your meltdown. Now this..
About 10am this morning you sent me an email letting me know that due to some sort of scheduling conflict the plane scheduled to take me to Columbus tonight was no longer available, BUT you had arranged for another plane, which would not have plush leather seats or TV’s, but it would get me there. As a nice gesture you gave me a Jetblue credit of $25. Nice move.
So when I arrive to the airport for my 9:40 flight you treated me again…20 minute delay. Ok, so not the end of the world. Now it’s 10:20pm, and we’ve learned that the flight has been delayed due to “crew scheduling conflicts,” until AT LEAST 10:45 but we’ll have to wait for more updates. Annoying, and very troubling because it is a movie I’ve seen before. I have a feeling I may hear the words “cancelled” soon.
Now I realize that airlines screw up a lot. Hey, it’s a complicated business, but you’ve now slammed me on back to back trips. Who knows, you may successfully ruin 2 trips in a row. And it’s becoming clear that despite your great fares, your plush leather seats, your fantastic live TV service, and your potentially $100’s of dollars in credits, that I may very well have to say goodbye to you. Hopefully someday you can get your act together, and we can fly together again, but until then I need an airline that can consistently get me to my destination on the DAY they said they would.
(the filled JFK terminal yesterday)
So I thought instead of just complaining about all the things that went wrong the last few days for Jetblue, I thought I could maybe offer some solutions from my perspective. Now I can’t even imagine the complexity of their situation, and I know they are doing the best they can, but there are some things that I think they could’ve done to make the situation better.
1.) A flight status that means something: As I mentioned yesterday they could have made me and others a lot more tolerant of their problems if they had simply been honest with the flight status system. My flight consistently was marked as “on time” yesterday morning, so I went to JFK only to walk into what seemed more like Thunderdome than JFK airport. It wasn’t until the boarding time of my flight that it was finally announced we were on a 3 hour delay. Then 2 hours later, it was cancelled. Jetblue, your customers tend to be fairly tech savvy (although I’ll admit a large % of people still avoid the automated check in machines like the plague…That has to be frustrating). Take advantage of this…deliver information to them electronically. Keep your flight status on your website updated, maybe even offer text message or phone call alerts. Save my time and minimize my inconvenience, and I’ll appreciate you even in your worst moments (like yesterday).
2.) Communicate with customers, Proactively…. I’m a trueblue member, and I would imagine that most of your flyers are. This means you have my email address, my phone number, and even my address. Use this. Send me an email and/or a text message when my flight is delayed or cancelled. I called your phone number yesterday all day only to hear an automated voice telling me you can’t take my call at this time. This annoys me greatly. I get upset and frustrated that I may end up paying for a flight that didn’t get me anywhere but a crappy lunch at “mex and the city,” at JFK. You know my number, send me an email that tells me what I can do about my canceled flight and give me the option to be CALLED when someone is available. If I want to be called, all I have to do is click a link and select either my phone number with my trueblue account OR enter a new number to be reached…then you call me. From a technology standpoint this is very easy to implement, and quite frankly it gets you incredible customer satisfaction for your buck. It looks like you really care enough to reach out to your customers because you are calling them, when in reality it’s all automated to the point that your customer service reps can’t tell the difference. When it’s your problem you should work to communicate with customers, not the other way around.
3.) Don’t make people wait in the plane….I know there’s some reason for this, maybe you can’t get in line for takeoff without leaving the gate, but this is never a good idea. I know that other airlines are just as guilty of this, but it doesn’t make it right. Take a stand, no USE this. Say you’ll never let customers wait on a plane for more than 3 hours before takeoff regardless of conditions. Jetblue delays are definitely more tolerable than other airlines simply because of the TV in each seat, but that only goes so far. It only takes one long, painful wait to erase all the good you’ve done for that passenger in the past.
4.) Say what you can do, and do it…There’s nothing worse than sitting down in a chaotic airport with absolutely no idea what’s going on, and no reliable place to get information from. In situations like these, someone needs to choose a direction, tell everyone what it is, and stick with it. It’s way too annoying and costly to go with the “wait and see,” approach in an emergency. They were aware my flight wasn’t going to be on time 3 hours prior to telling me, and probably knew they wouldn’t even be able to get it off at all yesterday. So instead of hoping for it, just shut it down. Tell me it’s cancelled way ahead of time. Look at your other unanswered questions and answer them. There’s no time for right or wrong, only action and direction can help at that time. It’s much better to have a direction and make everyone aware of it, than to hope it all works out. Even if it’s not what most people wanted, at least you free them from the pain of being in limbo.
I still am a big Jetblue fan and really admire and believe in their founder and CEO David Neeleman (loved his book), and I realize the weather will always cause flight delays and cancellations, but there are so many things you can do to make life better for the stranded passengers. Frustrations and delays are inevitable and uncontrollable, but how you deal with them can make or break you. The cost of fixing and satisfying currently inconvenienced customers is only a fraction of the cost of trying to win them back.
(4 of Jetblue’s 6 baggage carousels were like this at JFK today…a baggage wasteland)
I had a fun full day at JFK airport today courtesy of Jetblue and the winter storm from yesterday. In the past I’ve been a Jetblue champion, often bragging about it to people as the best airline to fly. It has great fares (I can get to Columbus for $80 round trip), is usually on time, and of course it has live tv in every seat. But today I saw a different side of the Jetblue experience, complete chaos.
JFK was complete anarchy. There were people everywhere. People sleeping on the floor. People in every corner, seat, table, even the restrooms were filled to capacity.
There was little hope, if you were in the lucky minority, of even making your way to your gate for departure without being bumped around or stepping on sleeping, waiting passengers. I’ve really never seen anything like it. It seems that Jetblue after being backed up in yesterdays storm completely collapsed.
My biggest complaint in this whole scenario was their flight status system. I understand they are backed up, and even though I don’t like it, I would’ve been OK knowing my flight was cancelled this morning. The problem is, I didn’t know. According to their website my flight was not only still flying, but it was on time. Now I didn’t really believe it, but I didn’t want to risk missing my flight, so I went to the airport. Even after checking in, my flight was still listed as on time. It wasn’t until we were scheduled to board did they mention our flight had been delayed by 3 hours. Now call me crazy, but isn’t the point of the flight status (and presumably the technology investment behind it) to let people know AHEAD of time or PRIOR to arriving at the airport whether or not their flight was on time? If my flight was delayed 3 hours, didn’t they know umm 3 hours prior to departure that my flight was going to be delayed?
Ultimately after 3 hours of waiting for my flight was cancelled. Instead of letting me know, and keeping me fairly happy at home they let me spend $50 on a cab and come in to an already overcrowded airport with NO place to sit (even on the floor). By at least communicating the truth to me, they could’ve made the situation easier by telling me to stay away from JFK. They didn’t.
After my flight was cancelled, I had to go down to the baggage claim area, now known as the Jungle and wait another hour for my bag. It was not clear where or when my bags would show up because there were no announcements and even the nice Jetblue staff on hand were able to answer my questions. All I knew I was not leaving without my bag, because I knew I would never see it again.
I still love Jetblue as an airline, but they really need to get their act together, make this right for EVERYONE involved (everyone thinks they are the ones getting screwed), and make sure it never happens again. It’s clear to me that this situation was never planned for, and they are scrambling to fix things the best they can. Their employees were incredibly nice, and obviously overwhelmed. I was told that the only thing I could do was to call into their customer service center at 1800Jetblue. I called that number, and “due to high call volume, they can’t handle my call at this time.” Another screw up.
I also think the flight status system needs to mean something from now on. For now, I will not trust Jetblue’s flight status until they prove to me it’s accurate.
This is going to really be painful and costly for them to overcome. As one former customer interviewed by CNBC at JFK on Thursday said, “I’ve had many good experiences with this airline, but this one is bad enough that I’ll never fly them again.”
UPDATE 6pm EST: Jetblue’s 800 number is still down and I’m unable to get a hold of anyone.
More Jetblue links:
Almost exactly a year ago today, I wrote this post:
I expressed my jealous and excitement for the monster snowstorm hitting NYC at that time (while I was in Columbus).
Well I’m trying to stay calm while watching the development of a potential monster snowstorm this upcoming week for the east coast, and my first real east coast storm. It’s too early to tell for sure, but all the signs consistently are pointing to a big nor’easter for early next week. Very excited!
This is my main source of weather updates, this guy loves himself a good storm.
So I’ve been in this crazy city for about 4 months now and there are a few things I’ve noticed that I find interesting (you may not).
(via flickr user ChrisFLinton)
Language differences:
here you’re not IN line, you’re ON line.
You don’t take something to go, but instead it’s “to take away.”
non dressy shoes are always “sneakers.”
Weirdos..
As expected, this city is crawling with very interesting people who really are in their own worlds.
Washington Sq Park Guy: This very short guy (around 5 ft tall) stands at the eastern edge of Washington Sq. Park around 8:30am. He’s dressed sort of like a high school principle with brown pants and a short sleeve shirt (no matter how cold it is), with what looks like a pocket protector in his shirt’s right front pocket. He stands there, constantly checks his watch, and mutters stuff to people as they pass by. It’s almost as if he’s watching his kids come into school, and he’s telling them to hurry to class. Can’t figure this guy out.
White Ninja: This guy hovers around the East Village, near my sisters place and I really can’t figure him out. He’s always dressed in ALL white including his keds shoes. The amazing thing is his whites are always extremely white, as if they were recently bleached. He takes great care of his whites, so he’s definitely got that going for him. He’s also, always in a hurry walking by at a speed walker’s pace as if he’s late.
Scrungie Guy: This guy seems to hover around the area around my building. He wears a rainbow smock (like what you’d see a nurse wear in a children’s hospital), some sort of weird tight leotards, and glasses. To top off the outfit he has his long grey hair in a purple (or green) scrungie. Weird.
Restrooms
These are precious, and I’ve learned that my brain takes note of potential access to restrooms no matter where I am. It’s much more important to remember where public restrooms are in this city than say Ohio, because they’re not as easy to find when you need them. I know from many walks up by the park where I can go, down 5th ave where I can go, and I can always fall back on a Starbucks or McDonalds. Starbucks restrooms are really like going to a different world. You never know what kind of people you’ll wait in line with, or what’s been thrown all over the restroom. I never been to a Starbucks that actually had two restrooms, and had them both in order. I won’t fault them though because there really is no way to keep up with the mass of humanity that flows through there. If you want a shot at interesting random conversation, go wait in line at Starbucks for the restroom. If you want to see interesting people, go to a Starbucks in the evening.
Dogs need to be clothed when it’s cold. You’re in the minority here if your dog doesn’t have a nice sweater or hooded sweatshirt when it’s cold out there.
Girls…Now there are some incredibly beautiful girls walking around this city, but either I’m the most unhip person in the world (possible) or I don’t understand at all what fashion is. I see more outfits that are obviously well thought out, that look completely ridiculous to me. Even more amazing to me is that looking good trumps everything. On days like today (it was probably 20 degrees this morning) I see girls with skirts on (bare legs!), some sort of 3/4 length tights (exposing their ankles) with incredibly high heels that expose the tops of their feet and look as comfortable to walk on as nails, rarely hats (it’s freezing!), and sometimes they wear these little jackets that couldn’t possibly keep anyone warm.
Food..Amazing.
Delivery…amazing. Calling to deliver? Awful. Are there any happy or pleasant order takers out there?
Laundry…amazing…I don’t mind paying a little more, you really can’t beat the drop and fold services. You leave them with a nasty bag of old laundry, and it comes back later the same day fresh clean, and very neatly folded!
Prices…obviously crazy high. The weird thing is you start to get used to it after a little while. 5 dollar beers? Wow. What is this, happy hour?
I could really go on, but this has already taken enough time. This city though really is a great place to live. It’s filled with so many talented, ambitious, happy, and interesting people. I’ve been fortunate to meet quite a few already, and I can only imagine who I’ll meet over the next year. I can see why some call this the greatest city on earth. I’m very excited to be here.
Think about that, and then think about just how much panache WalMart has compared to google: Zero.I get this impression everyday, and I’ve come up with an answer: I
am online everyday, and looks like always reading the same sites (a
little bit of herd mentality, I guess).I was reading someone talking about how “Google is the 3rd computer era” and he made some snarky comments about IBM.
You know, IBM? That small 100 year old company with 80 billion in revenues last year? Yeah, that one.
And when I read about how Paul Graham got ~$40 million from his
“lisp startup” or the off-hours delicious got ~$30 million with “social
tagging bookmark WEB TWO POINT WOW” and people go NUTS on this, like if
it’s epitome of business, I just remember IBM makes daily deals of $200
million dollars.Is it cool? Does it have free soda, candies and massages?
No. But do they know how to make money? You bet. And it’s damn hard to
make what IBM does too. If you play a video game from the next
generation, you own them that :p
(we had our first snow yesterday, this is Washington Sq. Park with some snow above)
Just found this posting on the accuweather blog that basically says the new weather pattern bringing cold to really the whole US, along with an active southern jet (which typically controls the moisture flow) and above normal sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic off the coast of New England, all point to a monster, if not historic snow storm coming to the eastern seaboard over the next 3-5 weeks…As I’ve said, Feb historically is a fantastic month for snow in NYC, so this pattern change is perfect time. I’m very excited as it all seems to be falling into place. As they say over the Accuweather blog about the possibility of a big storm, “the pattern is right for a big storm in the east….Just where and when is the question.”
I’m excited.
UPDATE:
It appears “the storm,” could be coming around the 30th of January based on long term model projections. Despite the extremely warm early winter warmth, I think it’s safe to say that New York will probably come close to the 40 inches of snow for the season that has been average over the last 3-5 years. With that said, I’m looking very closely at the contracts trading on tradesportsfor New York City snowfall. I feel pretty confident a big storm is coming, which would make these low trading contract skyrocket (especially for 20, 30, and 40 inches even if these target amounts aren’t reached). Those are very interesting to watch. If you want to make some money (if gambling weren’t illegal in the US) that would be a good place to look.
This morning I spotted my first snowflake of the year while walking through Washington Sq. Park. Others spotted it, and recorded it. The National Weather Service recorded the snow officially at 9:55am in Central Park, making this the latest occurrence of the first winter snowfall in the park since records began more than 100 years ago. Without getting too deep in my nerd weather talk, there is a definite pattern shift occurring, and temps should be normal (around 33 for highs, which we’ll be above today) or below normal over the next month or so. I’m also excited by the timing because Feb historically is the snowiest month for New York City, with almost all of the major snowstorms in city history occurring in the month. In fact, there’s some proof a decent Nor’easter could occur in the next 10-15 days.
With the new cold in NYC came the announcement yesterday, that 2006 was the warmest year ever recorded worldwide, and about 1.2 degrees above the normal worldwide mean temp of 55F. That may not sound like much, but is significant and most likely a record soon to be broken again (most likely in next 5-10 years). Six of the 10 warmest winters in US history have occurred in the last 15 years, and I think we’ll continue to break records like this. Winters like this will continue to accelerate the melting of Artic Ice cover, until we are free of Artic Ice cover in summertime of 2040 (hard to believe!), according to a study released last month, which quite frankly would be very, very bad.
I’m not proclaiming the end of the world, nor am I saying we should all go out and buy hybrids, I’m just presenting some more background on this winter’s unbelievable weather, that some say has not been seen since before the last ice ages occurred roughly 110,000 years ago. That’s pretty amazing.
Oh well, now on to check out the odds over at tradesports (yes, you can gamble on weather, crazy) for NYC snowfall..I think the 10inches contract looks good!
I’m starting to think that everything I’ve heard about the painful New York City winters was a lie. This weather is amazing:
Where were all these 66 degree January days when I was freezing my butt off walking to class on the incredibly windy, artic OSU campus in January a few years ago?
Oh well, I’m loving this…off to long walks of exploration.