JetBlue Fails Their Own Digital Savvy Test

This morning I read about how JetBlue used Twitter to try and test the agencies pitching for their business.   I think it caught my attention as I had a Jet Blue flight booked for later in the day …  Well fast forward a few hours to that time and suddenly I’ve got a reason to reach out to JetBlue about my family’s experience today.  It wasn’t great.

On the way down to Florida, we were booked in 4 seats in row 1 and our last seat in row 18.  Not exactly stellar and something only a computer would do.  We had to actually forfeit the row 18 seat and checked our car seat once on the plane in order to make sure the whole family stayed together.  Traveling with three small kids can be stressful and not being together only amplifies the potential challenge of keeping everyone calm.  JetBlue has said (via the flight attendant) that they’d be looking to reimburse us for the lost seat … I guess we have to wait it out on that one.  I didn’t tweet it, but I’m posting it now.

Today was our return trip and while our seats were booked together, we were in the back of the plane.  Not ideal, but certainly acceptable -being together was the most important detail.  While waiting around for the boarding call, I tried to see if we might move forward a bit (we were booked 2 rows from the back).  I waited patiently and politely and stood quite when a passenger was called up from the back of the line to be helped first.  Her issue was apparently far too complicated and used up any available time for me.  Instead we got a gruff, there are no seats to move around (after the passenger ahead in line moved).  OK …

About 5 minutes later the pre-boarding call was announced and we immediately made our way over to the gate door.  The JetBlue attendant looked at our boarding passes and gave us an earful about not coming over sooner for the pre-board even though she had literally just announced it.  Instead of letting us on the plane, we were asked to stand to the side while other rows for main boarding started.  There were at least 3 other families who also found the same experience and all were surprised to find that there wasn’t a pre-boarding and that we were being scolded for not respecting the call (that had just happened).

I’ve traveled far too much to know getting angry with the person behind the desk never leads to anything good for you, but man the families were livid.  We all have small kids and definitely need more time to get on the plane, deal with car seats unpack etc.  Not today …   My family was cool.  We got on board eventually and I was able to get the car seat belted for my son, but one of the other families ran into an issue and started to get quite nervous about securing their child safely.  Joe (real name) from JetBlue came over to help but got testy with the nervous parent who was certainly pushing to get things resolved.  We heard Joe scold the dad by saying “I don’t come to your office and tell you how to do your job, so don’t tell me how to do mine.”  I can’t help but think that extra time we all wanted during pre-board would have been exactly what we needed right then.

Back to the original tweet test … I tweeted this as it was happening today – twice.  JetBlue?  No comment today … tomorrow won’t matter.  Let’s not forget this social media stuff is a two-way street, JetBlue.  Looking at you, @martysg.  Comcast and Zappos don’t need #sneaky hashtags, they pay attention and respond within a reasonable amount of time – sometimes surprisingly fast.

Waterfield Design’s

I purchased a new Canon G10 over the weekend and have really been enjoying it. More on that later …

Like most camera’s you don’t get a case. I knew this going in, but since I opted for the immediate gratification (retail purchase) I was not able to get a case in time for my first few outings. After a bit of research I came across this:

Canon G10 Slim case, originally uploaded by SpeednutDave.

While I’ve been familiar with Waterfield Designs for a long time, I’d never ordered anything but seeing that picture immediately changed that!

What I discovered immediately though is that Waterfield is one cool company. I got a personalized order confirmation from Gary who asked how I came across the site. It struck me as such a simple thing I wonder why more companies don’t take the 2 minutes to do something similar. I replied to Gary, shared the picture above and Gary again replied with his thanks. Dig it!

Today my case arrived and on my packing invoice was another personal hand written thank you though this time from Alli. Waterfield – you’ve got class! And now that I have my first product I can also add you make very high quality goods! I’m sure I’ll be back for more gear.

I snapped a quick pic tonight of my case … while I don’t have a lightbox setup like Dave, I was able to snap a good macro shot to give a view of the stitching on my Zoom case.

IMG_0157

The Best Customer Service Letter Ever

Just go read it.

Richard Branson apparently called the guy personally and invited him to particpate in meal planning as well.  I would be pissed to find such garbage on a long haul flight like this too – especially for a high end airline like Virgin.  Seems they’ve taken the right steps to keep the customer and won some fantastic press as a bonus.  Well played.