Then, in the middle of the flight, an Asian man with a collared shirt got on the microphone. He quickly apologized for the interruption and introduced himself as Russ Chew, president of jetBlue. He sincerely thanked everyone for flying with jetBlue…I could tell he meant it. Then he asked if we wanted to have a little fun. He and the flight attendants drew a letter out of a cup ("A") then drew a number ("16") out of another cup. With that, a woman in seat 16A won two round trip tickets on jetBlue. How cool!
When I was getting off the plane I tucked into a front row with Russ and introduced myself. He gave me a big smile and shook my hand with his blue rubber gloves on…he was ready to help the rest of the crew clean the plane and get it ready for the next group of passengers. We talked for a few minutes about the troubles in the airline industry. I thanked him for delivering on what they had promised; he felt confident they’d be able to continue to deliver. And, I thanked him for providing a little fun on the flight.
Many on Wall Street believe airlines will continue to suffer as oil prices remain at record levels and consumers reduce their flying plans dramatically. But with the AMEX Airline Index dropping over 60% in a year, is the bottom in sight? I don’t know about you, but I’m just not in the mood to do some bottom fishing.
I’m also not excited about flying these days. The long lines and the cost isn’t the main reason. I think it’s that I’ve lost trust and go into each flight with the idea that something is going to go wrong if it doesn’t get canceled ahead of time. jetBlue gave me a little hope this week.