Feb 20, 2007 6:06 am US/Eastern
JetBlue Promises 'Normal' Operations Tuesday
Will Detail Its 'Bill Of Rights' For Its Customers
BY ALISON KOSIK, CBS 2 NEWS
QUEENS (CBS) ―
On Tuesday, JetBlue is trying to make up for its meltdown during the past week. It's promising, among other things, to fix its flight problems to win back its customers.
After days of turmoil at JetBlue's terminal, things finally are getting back to normal with flights at JFK. This is good news for Jeffrey Roberts, who was stuck at the airport 16 hours on Friday.
"I'm better off than most people, but at the end of the day I just want money. I want an apology, and I think that would satisfy me," Roberts said.
Satisfaction is what JetBlue executives are after. JetBlue boss David Neeleman has apologized since Wednesday for more than 1,000 cancelled flights and leaving people on planes on tarmacs for hours because of an ice storm on Valentine's Day.
"If I would have known that, we would've shut down the whole operation. A lot of people would have missed vacations, and we would've been able to start up better the next day," Neeleman said.
So now the airline is promising a first: A bill of rights for its passengers.
"We're going to provide guarantees, and if things aren't happening, we're going to compensate our customers accordingly," Neeleman said.
The low-fare airline said it would detail the customer bill of rights program, along with tools and resources for crewmembers and improved procedures on Tuesday, nearly a week after a weather-induced travel meltdown hobbled the carrier.
Part of the program would include immediately paying penalties -- a minimum of $25 up to a future round-trip ticket -- to passengers kept waiting by the airline's mistakes, The New York Times reported in Tuesday's edition.
The compensation would apply to delays and other problems within JetBlue's control, the newspaper said. The amount the airline would pay passengers would depend on the length of delays. Payments are retroactive to last Thursday.
"This is still a work in progress," said Neeleman, who developed the program over the weekend.
On Tuesday morning, Neeleman said that the program would be expensive, costing the airline somewhere between $20 million and $30 million. But he said it was more important for him to look at the long-term benefit of regaining customers' confidence in the company.
"We are going to offer something that no other airline will offer customers," he said. "We're going to be held accountable."
But that promise may not be enough for some passengers, who won't get over their travel nightmares anytime soon.
"You think I'm gonna fly JetBlue again? Never!" said one traveler.
After canceling nearly a quarter of its flights Monday, JetBlue is promising to have all its flights back to normal Tuesday.
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