Sunday, February 25, 2007

Feb 23 David Neeleman's FlightLog

Hi everyone,

I can’t thank you enough for the letters, emails and phone calls to our company expressing your support and graciously accepting my apology. We are making good progress on the necessary changes we have to make to ensure you never go through again what happened last week.

I’m also hearing from a lot of customers who we may have confused with our Bill of Rights. Below are some Q&A that our team put together to answer your most frequently asked questions. I will also post an easier-to-read compensation chart by Friday (Mar. 2) so check back here.

Thank you again for giving us another chance to earn your business and loyalty.

-David

Most Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the effective date of the Bill of Rights?

A: The JetBlue Customer Bill of Rights is retroactive to Feb. 14, 2007. The customers stranded on aircraft on Feb. 14, and customers in the 11 JetBlue destinations where we suspended service for the weekend will be compensated under additional provisions.

Q: What should I do if I was affected by the weather or your inability to recover from the weather?

A: JetBlue is automatically reviewing all customers records booked for travel between Feb. 14-19, 2007 and we will issue you the compensation appropriate to the disruption we caused you.

Q: Why did you choose five hours as the maximum time you will allow planes to sit on the group, either waiting for departure or waiting to arrive at a gate?

A: When a plane arrives at an airport and there is no gate available, we feel that there is really no excuse for this and we take full responsibility. Therefore you see that our compensation for arrival delays begins after 30 minutes from the time the airplane is positioned to pull into a gate. With departures, however, delays once onboard are typically due to air traffic control, weather, or ground delays, which are known as long taxi-out times. At some of our nation’s largest airports, such as New York’s JFK, taxi-out times on a “normal" day can easily approach 60-90 minutes with dozens of aircraft lined-up for take-off due to air traffic control. Our customers overwhelmingly tell us they just want to get to their destination and are willing to endure a few hours of waiting whether it be traffic or weather. Most have vacations, hotels, family or friends awaiting them upon arrival in their destination. This is the reason why our compensation begins after three hours for ground-delay departures. We instruct our pilots to return to the gate after five hours, unless take-off is imminent, and communication with the customers onboard has been clear.

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