JetCool
reveries has a nice little blurb on JetBlue, my favorite airline, today:
Bumpless JetBlue. Four hundred and twelve thousand, four hundred and forty-seven (412,447) -- that's the number of ticketed passengers bumped by 13 major airlines, voluntarily or otherwise, in the first half of this year, reports Chris Woodyard in USA Today. It's "enough to fill nearly a thousand new Boeing 747s." Ten (10) -- that's the number of passengers bumped by JetBlue during the same period, and all of them were volunteers.Simplicity -- that's how JetBlue manages this feat. Quite simply, unlike other airlines, JetBlue does not overbook its flights. Part one of that simplicity is that JetBlue "encourages passengers to book directly with the airline instead of through travel agents." That way, the airline knows exactly what's been sold, for real. Part two is that, like almost every other kind of ticket, JetBlue's are not refundable. If you need to change your flight, you must call in advance and pay a $25 fee. This policy, which most folks seem to find reasonable, has proved effective in reducing the number of no-shows.
Stress -- that's the real story here. "People want to go to the airport knowing they have a seat," says JetBlue ceo David Neeleman. "We also don't want our people to get beat up when customers find out the plane is overbooked ... We have lots of stress in this industry, and trying to figure out who to bump only adds to the stress of these jobs." JetBlue did briefly consider "scrapping its no-overbooking policy as recently as six months ago." However, Neeleman, himself a father of nine, was dissuaded by a public relations person who pointed out it could wreak havoc on traveling families. And so, Mr. Neeleman's JetBlue, http://www.jetblue.com, is content to let each fully-booked flight take off with one or two empty seats. "Why get greedy?" he says.
Unlike the other airlines, that cynically view their passengers as marks available for fleecing, JetBlue takes the short-term money-losing, but long-term trust-winning position.
