Poor JetBlue – the friendly little budget-carrier-that-could has spent the past week publicly flailing. The poop hit the jet engine (with predictably nasty results) when a Valentine’s Day winter storm caused scheduling and communications breakdowns that left several planes full of passengers stranded on the tarmac at JFK for up to ten hours. For an airline with low overhead, the backup of so many planes and flight crews, and the resulting backlash that downed their reservations system, so thoroughly scrambled operations that flight cancellations kept rolling through the weekend as they struggled to catch up. Just yesterday, JetBlue canceled 139 of 600 flights scheduled to ferry fliers home after a busy long weekend, just to restore some order. JetBlue CEO David Neeleman has gone on record declaring himself “humiliated and mortified” at his company’s inability to cope with the situation. But all hope is not lost for the airline once famed for its customer service; Neeleman has responded to the crisis by declaring an industry first: a passengers’ “ Bill of Rights” for JetBlue fliers that would ensure major financial rewards for anyone “seriously inconvenienced” by this type of snafu in the future. (See a video message about this from Neeleman here.) Prior to this, airlines have hidden behind an “act of god” out-clause to protect themselves from weather-induced operations problems. According to CNN, California Representative Michael Thompson is seizing this opportunity to introduce a bill in congress that would hold all commercial carriers to the same standard.

– “JetBlue’s C.E.O. Is ‘Mortified’ After Fliers Are Stranded” (NYT)
– “JetBlue cancels more flights into Monday as it struggles with storm aftermath” (USA Today)
– “More JetBlue flights canceled Monday” (MSNBC)
– JetBlue Customer Bill of Rights (JetBlue.com)
– “JetBlue debacle spurs passenger rights bill in congress” (CNN)
– “JetBlue Introduces Passenger’s “Bill of Rights”” (inFlightHQ)