The past two weeks have been a publicity disaster for Jet Blue and a travel nightmare for passengers after hundreds of flights were still being cancelled days after a snowstorm passed.
To its credit, the company quickly admitted its errors and embarrassment, and pledged to do better in the future. Rather than a hollow promise to improve, the company put its money where its mouth is, and unveiled a “Customer Bill of Rights.” It will pay people rather generously for their inconvenience when flights are delayed or cancelled — up to the price they paid for their ticket. Compensation increases as the time of the delay increases.
However, the airline will generally only provide these benefits when the cancellation or departure delay is a result of a “controllable irregularity.” Nowhere in the policy is that term defined. So, our trusty mouse went to work, and ferretted out the definition from the company:
*MOUSE PRINT:
“A controllable irregularity is something that is within the control of JetBlue, such as staffing issues, technology issues, maintenance issues, etc. It essentially includes most everything except weather, air traffic control constraints, or airport conditions beyond the control of JetBlue.”
So, potentially the thousands of passengers stranded in airport lobbies around the country over Presidents Day weekend would not have been compensated a penny had the new policy been in effect at that time. No doubt arguments would have broken out over whether the problem was the weather or mismanagement.
Only passengers held captive on airplanes on the runway would clearly be covered because the “controllable irregularity” language does not apply to the “ground delays” section of the policy.
As the feud between Rosie and the Donald cools, the