When Service Becomes a Disservice
18 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
I’m a first time Jet Blue flyer, and I have to say it was great. Each seat had more legroom than any other recent ailrine I’ve flown, no charge to check luggage, and free premium movies. All good.
So after a great vacation, I was happily looking forward to the flight home. The boarding process was fast and orderly, but after sitting for about five minutes the pilot made an announcement that there were folks ‘stuck in customs’ and we were going to wait for them. No bother for us, we were flying home to Boston so didn’t have to make a connecting flight.
After ten minutes, four people boarded and we all felt badly for them. Two adults, hustling two children, obviously harried after running from customs to the airplane.
Ready for takeoff!
Not. The pilot spoke from the cockpit, “We have another five people stuck in customs, and since we’re one of the last flights we’re going to wait for them.”
A low rustle could be heard through the airplane rows. Why are we waiting for people AGAIN? I was at the airport three hours before takeoff, as instructed, what time did THEY arrive? People started to speak across aisles, weighing the pros and cons of waiting and one man expressed his concerns to the flight attendant.
It boiled down to this:
- It was incredibly nice of the Jet Blue staff to wait for everyone (and, they were already late for takeoff waiting for the first group so waiting for another group wouldn’t be a hit against them)
- As nice as it was to wait, there were about fifty people on the airplane who had arrived on time, and worked their way through the process in time to board. Of course, those most upset were those with connecting flights.
We did, of course, eventually take off about 30 minutes after scheduled takeoff. It did make me wonder, though, did the gratitude of the five people we waited for outweigh the anxiety and occasional anger of the fifty who were kept waiting?
I’ll tell you what the flight attendant said, “It’s the holidays, why WOULDN’T we do everything we could to make our customers happy.”
Couldn’t argue with that.
I’ll fly Jet Blue anytime I have the option.
