If JetBlue were a man, I would marry it. Their customer service is the modern-day equivalent of a chivalrous gentleman tossing his overcoat across a puddle in a cobblestone-lined street. And not only can you fly this wondrous airline, but you can get access to the airline through the new airline exchange traded fund (ETF).
Usually when I say, “Don’t get me started,” I mean it in a really bad way. But with JetBlue, no, really…do not get me started, because I will gush and gush and you’ll wonder what they’re paying me. We’re no strangers to gushing about JetBlue around here, though: Tom Lydon did it last June, too.
I was already a huge fan of JetBlue before my most recent trip. I have to admit, I do have a love-hate relationship with those personal TVs, because no matter how much I resolve to read the book I brought with me on the plane, I invariably wind up watching shows like “Paula Deen’s Tips for Faster Artery Clogging” and “Emotionally Unstable Brides Trying on Wedding Dresses, Abusing Their Attendants and Crying a Lot.”
Like most people these days, I’ve become even more price-conscious than I already am. So, when I was preparing for a trip to New York in January, I checked in with the prices on JetBlue daily. A friend advised me to wait, and I always do what my friends and others tell me, so I waited. And waited. And then the price went up $40. Thank God none of my friends has ever told me to jump off a cliff.
Freaked out, I bought the ticket. Two days later? Sale! The price fell back to its original point.
Cursing myself, my friend and the price of oil and the raw nerves this economy has revealed, I wrote to JetBlue on the suggestion of my boyfriend, who noted that JetBlue is the only airline with anything resembling customer service.
I explained the situation, and asked, “You don’t offer price adjustments, by chance, do you?” It was a ludicrous question to ask – airlines are hurting. People aren’t traveling, many carriers were burned by hedging fuel prices after oil collapsed and they’re nickel-and-diming us on everything from luggage to food. Figuring my email would be passed around the office for laughs, I promptly forgot about it.
A week later, I had my reply:
Thank you for your email regarding your recent JetBlue booking and the lower fare for your flight on
January 29. If you purchase a flight and then a sale fare is announced, we will be happy to rebook
your flight at the lower fare and give you a JetBlue credit for the difference in airfare. The lower
fare needs to be available on your same flight and date of travel.
We have located your reservation and found that your flight is eligible for the sale fare of $139;
therefore, we have honored the lower fare and issued you a TrueBlue credit in the amount of $40.
No. Way.
True, they didn’t give me cold, hard cash. But with customer service like that, why on earth would I fly any other airline? I can’t wait to use my credit, because I need to catch the next episode of “How Will Giada DiLaurentiis Pronounce ‘Spaghetti’ This Time?”
JetBlue (JBLU) is 5% of the new Claymore/NYSE Arca Airline ETF (FAA). The fund launched on Jan. 26.