Archive for July 9th, 2009
July 9th, 2009
Dave Carroll has made Internet waves with his tale of United Airlines baggage handlers breaking his guitar. It helps that the song is quite good musically (as is the video) … I’m a big fan of that style of music and will have to check it out.
But besides gaining me as a fan, Dave has gained lots of other benefits from the situation. According to The Canadian Press, the video has almost half a million hits and he keeps getting requests around North America to perform. Plus, Taylor Guitars offered to fix the broken guitar and give him a deep discount on his next purchase.
Here’s the best part - “United Airlines called to say they liked the video and wanted to use it as a textbook case on how to handle customer complaints in the future.”
Yet another example of how, in the Internet age, one customer’s complaint can do a lot of damage to a company’s reputation.
EDIT: Here’s an even better roundup of the situation, from USATODAY’s wonderful Today in the Sky blog.
“While we mutually agree this should have been fixed much sooner, Dave’s excellent video provides us with something we can use for training purposes to ensure that all customers receive better service for us,” United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski says to the (Chicago) Sun-Times.
July 9th, 2009
Every week, my wife and a couple of friends play trivia at a local restaurant. Last night, two of the questions were about the airline industry and my team - led my indecision between a couple choices - got them wrong. I am duly embarrassed.
Do you know the answers?
1. What city had the world’s busiest airport in terms of passengers in 2000?
2. What is the world’s oldest airline still in operation?
(no one who was at quiz last night weigh in! I’m looking at you, Ben!)
July 9th, 2009
JetAmerica’s Web site no longer boldly states, “9 seats for $9 Every Flight. No Exceptions & Not A Gimmick.” Instead, it now says “Ultra-Low Fares. Every Flight. Every Day.”
Perhaps this article from the St. Petersburg Times explains it.
Tucked at the bottom in tiny black letters are the extra charges for each flight segment: a $5 “convenience fee” for Web booking, $10 each way for a reserved seat and up to $10.60 in government taxes and fees. Booking a ticket by phone costs a flat $10.
“I am told that the (government) is requiring JetAmerica to better define what that $9 can add up to with all the fees and taxes,” wrote spokesman Bryan Glazer in an e-mail.
What’s more is that I can’t find any $9 fares anymore on their booking site. The lowest I get is $19 one way on one route, $29 on another and $39 on some others. Those don’t include taxes and mandatory fees - that raises the lowest price to $35 - so that doesn’t explain it. Did the $9 base fare go the way of the dodo, or did it sell out every single one of the cheap seats through mid-September?
Speaking of, you can only book through mid-September - a two-month window. I wonder why they’re not selling seats farther out, is such a short window common practice?
July 9th, 2009
This story gets juicier.
Remember how JetAmerica blamed the FAA for its having to delay its launch a month?
Well, according to the Toledo Blade, the FAA says it didn’t change the rules - but was alerted to JetAmerica’s plans once the first press release went out.
At issue is whether JetAmerica is a “scheduled” or “unscheduled” charter. If they’re considered unscheduled - service at irregular times - they can slip into Newark without slots. If they’re scheduled, they need slots.
“We don’t classify JetAmerica. We classify their service plan,” FAA spokesman Laura Brown said. “If they’re going to be operating flights that occur at the same time on a regular basis, it’s considered regularly scheduled or regularly conducted service.”
While JetAmerica is claiming that the FAA changed the rules in light of strong early sales (insinuating that the FAA wants to either keep down startups or protect bigger airlines at Newark, it seems possible that there wasn’t clear communication up front on what JetAmerica’s plan was. Either they didn’t spell it out to the FAA or the FAA didn’t hear what they spelled out until sales started. The fact that JetAmerica said it communicated to the FAA “through an intermediary” could explain where some of the confusion came from.
Either way, JetAmerica is optimistic it can buy slots at Newark in time for an August launch, and at a cheaper price than they feared. But will the hit to goodwill the delay caused cost even more?
