How not to hold a customer hostage? A lesson from the aviation industry born out of personal experience
Having started my career in Citi in the early '90s, the mantra of "Do right by the customer, ALWAYS", was drilled into my conscience and ethic from day 1 of my career. This was further reinforced during my time at the erstwhile GE Capital too! I have never considered that to be an explicit trait that should be imbibed, but rather something that should come intrinsically to anyone who is in the service industry. After 30 years, I still hold that principle very dear to my heart and every single strategy and operational task that we perform at Indecomm is centered on that one single principle. We do right by the customer right always.
Therefore you would think that for an industry facing and dealing with customers on a daily basis - the likes of storefront retail, consumer goods and transportation would imbibe the same spirit. Amazon of course exemplifies that trait and it is no secret they are one of THE most valuable companies in the world. However, an industry which deals with customers every day, plays an integral part of their lives with every travel - joining families, kids traveling for education, families taking time out for a vacation, business travels spurring the economy etc, continues to be in the jurassic age when it comes to sensitivity to customers and their customer handling practices.
I never "name and shame" companies on a professional forum like LinkedIn, but I am going to do exactly that - one to bring some sense of accountability to these companies and also as a lesson for all of us in the service industry on how NOT to handle customers.
My ordeal started with the day I decided to travel to India over the Christmas Holidays after four years to see my extended family back there. We booked tickets from Nashville to New York (JFK)-->Abudhabi and Chennai (ticket issued by Etihad connecting us via JetBlue, so they are the primary owners of this ticket!). Since Nashville only has one international flight which is a British Airways flight to London, we are left with no option but to connect out of other ports of departure in the US. Therefore, I had to connect via JFK instead of the Nashville-->Heathrow-->Chennai route which would have been the fastest.
Our flight from Nashville to JFK took off after a delay of 2.5 hours leaving us with 20 minutes to get to the security at JFK to make the connection to Abudhabi. As we entered the security, an agent from Etihad ran towards us and told us we would not be allowed to clear the security since our names were offloaded from the flight manifest due to delayed flight and the bags were not loaded. She told us that we have to contact JetBlue since JetBlue delayed the first flight and they would reissue the ticket.
After waiting for two hours in the line at JetBlue, we were told that we could fly to London Heathrow the following night (17th of December) on JetBlue Mint and then on to Chennai via BA after a day and half's break in London (getting us into India on the 20th instead of the 18th). With no other option available, we agreed to it and were told to collect the bags and to proceed to a hotel. We were given a booking reference number, printed itinerary and were all set! Well, there was some certainty at least, if not today, at least the next day!
Our next nightmare started when we went to collect our bags and the "bouncing the customer" started from there - JetBlue said the bags are with Etihad and that we should again go to another terminal where Etihad is located and enquire with them. Unfortunately, late in the night, the Etihad counters were closed and there was nobody to even talk to! So I called Etihad's customer care and they told me to contact JetBlue again. So after two rounds, we gave up and decided to just to go to the hotel and deal with the baggage situation the following morning.
Just as we were dealing with the baggage situation, I received a call from JetBlue's customer service telling me that they have to rescind the ticket they had issued to me (JFK-LHR-MAA via Mint and BA) since Etihad refused to honor that transfer. I told them that that is between them and Etihad and since it was the only choice they gave me, I took it. It was not something I asked for, but a promise JetBlue had made. So I should not be made to suffer in the tussle between JetBlue and Etihad! The lady flat out refused to honor that and said, "It's a mistake we made, but we can't do right by it. We have to cancel it and rebook you on another flight. However, nothing is available for two days!". So the only option JetBlue NOW gave me was on a British Airways flight on the 18th, flying from JFK to London Heathrow and then connecting to Chennai. Keep the days counting - The original travel was on the 16th into JFK and I was supposed to fly out that night. I was now set to fly out on the 18th (two full days later) and this was just the beginning!
When we reached the hotel at 1:15 AM, we were told that there was no booking in our name. After one look at our faces, the gentleman at the front desk told me to "To hell with it, I will deal with JetBlue. You just go to a room and rest". So the best experience of customer service (actually, of humanity and compassion), came from the unlikeliest of the sources - from a front desk receptionist at Five Towns Inn in Lawrence, NY who had zero stake in my experience!
The next morning, we up and went to JFK and bounced around for four hours dealing with Etihad to collect the bags. In the meantime, I called Etihad's customer care and talked to a gentleman called Dragan (a nice Serb) who was beyond appalled at how my booking was mishandled. He however said that since JetBlue took over the booking, only they can do any kind of reissue and that he would send an email to their Control group that deals with CodeShare partners (euphemism for "not my problem"). I never heard back ever from Etihad on what they ever did with their codeshare partner's team or if they talked to JetBlue. They were very nice on the phone, but that's where it ended!
JetBlue didn't even bother giving me a hotel room for two nights (though they gave me a ticket for two nights later!). The next morning, I checked out and booked a hotel on my own and stayed in NYC. 12/18 was my revised travel day to fly BA via LHR to MAA on a ticket reissued by JetBlue. I received a text from BA that the flight was delayed. Since I only had a connection time of 4 hours at Heathrow and this delay now cut that down into less than two, I was concerned and called BA to ask if I might have other flight options.
The agent I spoke with chuckled and said that he saw the booking, seat assignments, meal requests and everything, but there was no ticket associated with it. I told him that it was issued by JetBlue and he advised me to contact them right away and get them to fix it as BA would NOT allow me to board the plane. So off we ran to the airport with five bags (gifts for families, attend a wedding etc, so you can imagine!) to check with JetBlue. I explained the situation patiently to JetBlue and they simply refused to listen to me.
For someone who has travelled to over 40 countries and on most large international and domestic airlines, I have a reasonable idea of the difference between an itinerary and an actual ticket. I tried to tell them that I see the itinerary, but when I try to print a ticket on BA's site, it gives me a message that a ticket is not associated. I was brushed off as a travel novice and to not trust the website. "Just go the counter at BA and they will let you board". I begged them "Please give me the benefit of doubt. I know what I am talking about and check it on BA's site yourself!". The answer was "You are not listening to us. Go to British Airways". That was that.
As expected, when we went to British Airways to drop our bags, they told us that JetBlue had not issued the ticket. BA and JetBlue were going back and forth on the phone and could not resolve the issue. This was going on for over four hours and I sent my wife to another terminal where JetBlue was located to meet with them in person while I waited around at the BA terminal with my daughter.
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The flight was scheduled to depart in less than two hours and without any sense of urgency towards the flight schedule, the JetBlue Agents told my wife menacingly "So you want us to drop everything else and work on this right now? Go and stand in the back of the line behind 40 people". Off she went and was finally attended to by the shift supervisor. Once she realized the depth of our problem, she then started working on options. Unfortunately, her shift ended and she handed it off to another person. This is something we see in airport operations. Everybody just passes on their buck to another person and their shift miraculously ends while the customer is left hanging in mid-air. We dealt with at least 8 people in the process.
After 7 hours (we were in the airport from 530 PM), at 1 AM on the 19th, we were told that the ONLY option available was on the 21st and to either take it or leave it. When my wife protested and tried to reason with JetBlue's agent that our original date of travel was 16th and we are now force to spend five nights in NYC and travel on the 21st with no certainty, she was again met with scorn and dismissal. After my wife begged and pled with the agent, she went to work for a few minutes and handed it off to another agent (no. 9 now) who finally told us that they were able to find a flight for us on Air India departing JFK on the 20th, reaching India on the 22nd.
To recap - Original date of departure - December 16th, revised date as of now - December 20th. On one hand, the misfortune of missing a family wedding we were supposed to attend on the 21st, but on the other hand the helpless feeling that you are held absolute hostage by an airline (JetBlue) who knows you do not have any choice and can talk to you and treat you in any offensive manner. The kind of things that were said to us were beyond belief as both my wife and I have never experienced such an appalling handling of a customer with zero empathy towards the travails they put a customer through because of mistakes they make. Not once did I hear or perceive from a single person in this entire chain of events that they would "Do right by the customer" which means "We will do whatever it takes to fix a mistake we made and we will not have to make you pay for our mistakes". Not once!
As far as Etihad goes - "JetBlue took over that reservation, so we can't do anything!". If you would do right by the customer, won't you issue a fresh ticket on your own and deal with JetBlue later? Another lesson on how not to pick partners for your business ventures as Etihad's brand is damaged irretrievably in the process as they were like a "deer in a headlight"!
I am now sitting overwhelmed at a hotel that I am paying for on my own in mid-town Manhattan, hoping that I somehow make it to India even if it is a day after the family wedding (5 full days after the scheduled date of arrival) so I can show what we call as "show my face". Needless to say:
These are important lessons on how NOT to handle a customer for anyone in the service industry. I hope my colleagues and peers in the service industry take a lesson or two from my personal experience. I am marking the key executives at both Etihad and JetBlue so they can look behind all the shiny veneer and branding and get a sense of what is happening on the field on beneath their pyramids and layers!
Joanna Geraghty - President & COO JetBlue
Ed Baklor - Head of Customer Care and Programs
Antonoaldo Neves - CEO, Etihad Aviation group
Mohammed Al Bulooki - COO, Etihad Aviation group
Terry Daly - ED, Guest Experience
Still learning.... But happy to share what I know with those interested.
1 年Just curious Narayan Bharadwaj to know the final outcome....
Product Manager @ Apple
1 年hope you could finally make it to Chennai..and also someone at those companies tries to right the wrong..can totally understand the frustration you had to go through !
Partner ,Industry Leader Banking and Financial Mkts, IBM Academy Member for Banking , Global Business services, CIO, CTO,
1 年Extremely sad to hear this. Hope you reached Chennai safely before Christmas. Newyork had a bad snow storm also?
Author - ‘My Many Trysts with God’
1 年Pathetic to say the least at ?the nadir to which many so called ‘great brand’ airlines’ service can stoop to.I have never heard of Jet Blue, but for the type of harassment you and your family were put to due to their inhuman apathy, all those (un)concerned staff and their top executives including the CEO should be held accountable and severely penalised so that their faces go ‘blue’ on hearing the penalties. ?As for Etihaad: I was told it was one of the top five airlines ( on hind sight , may be it is when operating in and around UAE, but certainly not while operating out of North America). So I booked my flight from Toronto to NewDelhi with ETIHAAD ?via Abudhabhi.My experience in respect of my flight from Toronto to Abudhabhi on 15th December evening was pitiable:1) At the boarding gate, the staff asked us to stand in 5queues in the already congested airport as per our zones. Mine was Zone 4 and poor folks in my zone had to stand for nearly 25minutes till the first three zones boarded!Zone 5 folks stood for another ten minutes. In case of most airlines they call out zone by zone for boarding so that passengers from later zones need not have to stand ( incidentally I am 78years old).When I protested to two staff members who were herding the lines, the gent ( other was lady) just said with a ridicule ‘ have a safe flight’! No explanation, no apology except the ridicule!( what he meant was be content that we will fly you safe to your destination! On that day there has been a snow storm and in the night it was still snowing and raining). The seats were so cramped with very little leg room or elbow room for a 13 hour overnight flight crossing time zones in the reverse direction.We were almost sardines packed in a cargo van!Exhausted I rang the call bell for a glass of water! My Co passenger in 34B( I was on 34C aisle seat)found his TV screen not working. He was also ringing the call bell repeatedly but of no avail. Etihaad crew on flights out of North America have no sense of customer service and as a rule do not seem to attend to call bells! At last in desperation I stood up and blocked the way of a stewardess and asked for a glass of water. She did bring the water and as she was handing the glass over to me talking to her colleague in the other aisle, half the glass of water she spilled on my dress ( on a cold night, making the passenger more uncomfortable!); when I protested her response was ‘don’t worry, I will give you tissues’! She did give a sheath of tissues no doubt! As for my neighbour in 34B, throughout flight he was asking them to restore the TV and every time the response from the crew was ‘ within five minutes’.( After sometime he accepted his helpless position and went without the facility for which he had paid for). The aircraft was taxied to the run way and stayed put there for nearly an hour ( the flight was delayed by 1hour ten minutes); no announcement from cockpit as to why we had not taken off( probably it was because of visibility but yet pilots of all airlines keep informing the passengers the reason in such situations). As opposed to this abhorrent behaviour, the ground staff at Abudhabhi handled very professionally to ensure we quickly got security check done and boarded the connecting flight. The experience with the crew on flight from Abhudhabi to New Delhi was pleasant, the aircraft had comfortable seats with enough leg room!(I think I was on 27C), good food. ? One tends to surmise from your and my experience, all airlines care a damn for passengers on flights whose final destinations are in Asia /South Asia.Since Asians travel the most and are the major source of revenue to airlines based in North American continent, we must find a way of collectively protesting.
Founder & CEO at Quapt Technologies | Co-Founder & Chief Business/Product Officer at Alai-Labs | Driving Innovation in Software & Hardware through AI
1 年Can't imagine the pain & agony you have gone through...since you are a very composed person has taken all this without reacting to the events...companies take customers for granted..and hope your response will teach them a lesson. Wish you pleasant stay in India..