What’s keeping me from writing a letter?
1) Self blame.
I should’ve checked my flight status before I left home. The cancellation MAY not have gone down earlier than 9AM (which is when I checked the departure board) but maybe it did. Before leaving Valhalla, I checked my email – there were no cancellation messages from the airline (yes, checked my spam folder too). They have, in the past, sent alert emails. In fact, that’s even noted on one of their help pages:
If your flight is cancelled, JetBlue will contact you by email and an automated phone call.No call, no email. OK, I guess I can’t beat myself up about this one after all.
2) Was I being needlessly rigid in not acquiescing to being booked onto a next day flight?
Flying the next day would've meant not completely losing Friday's workday. I also could’ve hit the gym, chilled with my Princess Coco and done some painting. Friday morning still would’ve been lost to Logan AND I would’ve had to slog home on the T BUT being home would've been WAY more productive and comfy than wandering the airport's halls.
You might be thinking, why not just stay an extra day on the weekend’s hind end to make up for the lost day. Hey, GREAT idea. ‘Cept I gotta work on Tuesday – an on-site photography gig that can NOT be postponed.
Also too, Helen (who I don’t see nearly enough) is here this weekend. She drove the two hours to and from the airport to pick me up. Her schedule isn’t infinitely flexible and, without her very generous four hour tote-age commitment (through Pittsburgh traffic!), I’d have no way of getting to DaddyLand and back to the airport.
Fine, I really had no choice.
3) While I had to fly on Friday, couldn’t I have gone home until the evening flight? I don’t live in Eastie (Logan’s home) or even way-closer-than-Valhalla Cambridge, so that's a big negatory good buddy. There wasn’t enough time (based on scheduled, not actual, departure times).
It's not Jet Blue’s fault that I don’t live in easy commuting distance but, ya know, a LOT of their customers don’t. They should have contingency plans for crazy whacked out circumstance like this. Booking me into the airport hotel (and paying the tab!) for the day would’ve been a great way to keep the customer (MOI!) satisfied, Satisfied…
OK, talked myself into writing the letter. Still need advice – should I ask for some sort of compensation? A bribe so I’ll keep flying with them? Or should this just be a Hey, mishandled situation here! Avoid doing this again!
What I anticipate are sincere-ish apologies. If I ask for some kind of redress for my lost and horrible day, will they just tell me to piss off? After all, though they put me through hell, they did get me to Pittsburgh on Friday – just 12 hours later than planned and hoped. The flight cancellation and insane delays were due to Jet Blue’s scheduling cock-ups though. This was NOT an unavoidable weather, what-can-ya-do, act of god thing.
I just don't know if there's anything to be gained by kvetching at them.
Shoot for the moon in the letter. A lot of companies will give the consumer something for their trouble - especially if they're not threatening suit or insulting the CEO's mother.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I will do my level best to leave all relatives out of my "gosh, this was unnecessary and awful" letter :-)
DeleteAs my wife says, "You don't ask, you don't get." They're not going to hold it against you if you request compensation, the worst they can do is say no. And that's not likely because airlines are operating on pretty thin margins these days and they want to retain all the happy customers they can. As for a voucher. It can't hurt.
ReplyDeleteThank you. The farther Friday's horror show sinks into the past, the more I feel like I can write this letter without my usual expletive laden fluorescence. I CAN do this (she says cheerleading herself into smart behavior).
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