jetBlue's "Reward" Program

"TrueBlue is our way of showing gratitude for your flying with jetBlue. With TrueBlue you'll not only be building a relationship with JetBlue, but you'll also enjoy faster and easier booking, advance notice of special promotions and fare sales, and the ability to choose the information you want from JetBlue. And, of course, you'll be able to earn free flights."

I'm not only a part of TrueBlue, but I also pay for the AmericanExpress jetBlue card. I signed up for that because it prevented my reward points from expiring. What I didn't realize at the time is that as soon as I hit 100 TrueBlue points, they issued me a TrueBlue pass that expires a year from that date. While annoyed, I didn't think it was that big of a deal until recently when I have been unsuccessful in booking award travel because seats aren't available on flights that fit my schedule.

And now my "reward" flight is expiring.

While on the phone with TrueBlue Customer "Service", the lady (who was a supervisor) explained that their award booking is much better than other airlines and that it's just difficult to book around holidays. My skepticism was confirmed when I checked with her on the availability of traveling for every weekend in the month of April between Boston and San Jose, San Francisco, AND Oakland airports. No luck.

I finally gave in and booked a weekend in March with the likelihood of having to pay $45 to try to rebook it for a later date (though I sincerely doubt I'll find a weekend that works). I should mention that, in addition to this award flight, I have another one that expires in May. Also, despite being 70% of the way to a third award flight and having already paid the annual fee which expires in 10 months, I'm retiring my jetBlue credit card. I feel a bit pathetic for being suckered into it for so long.

Lastly, I went on the web site to provide my feedback and when clicking on "Share concerns", the page I got returned was a runtime error (in both IE and Firefox):

Server Error in '/help/contactus' Application.

This experience has indeed made me feel very truly blue.

Customer "Service"

I'm not sure if it's because I'm immersed in business school, but recently I've been shocked (and ridiculously frustrated) at the lack of customer service all over the place. Two examples:

1. In the past few days I discovered that United Airlines has a computer booking system that is flawed and creates a frustrating user experience, along with a totally lackluster Customer "Service" group. This started when a reward flight was booked for me under my dad's Premier Executive account for Thanksgiving, and the seats chosen for me were 9D and 16C. Immediately upon booking the flight, the seats assigned to me were 14D and 27E.

After spending about 2 hours being told to call different departments, calling between three different phone numbers (Premier Reservations, Mileage Plus Customer Service, and Customer Relations) and speaking with 4 different representatives, I finally spoke with a supervisor who told me the reason was because the seat is in an exit row and only 1K and Premier Executives can book those seats prior to getting to the airport. Complaint 1--the miles were booked using my dad's 50,000 miles, so let the person who's flying book that seat OR don't let the user choose that seat at all OR notify them that they aren't allowed to choose the seat and ask them to choose another one before going through with booking the flight. Complaint 2--no one I spoke with seemed to have the slightest care about my problem and the first lady even tried to transfer me at every opportunity she had. Apparently United doesn't feel compelled to actually provide "service" or to try to keep a healthy relation with its customers (maybe they would if I was a 1K or Premier Executive members, not a lowly Premier member--I'll find out when I try calling under my dad's account) And in case it's not clear, it's more the principal of the matter rather than the crappy middle back seat on a redeye flight that they assigned to me.

2. I bought a ThinkPad three years ago, which included a three-year warranty, which is expiring. I've received two e-mails (from the same guy) pretty much trying to scare me into buying an extended warranty. His "word of caution" on how it can cost up to $80 an hour to fix problems was very amiable indeed.

Older posts

B-school related postings from my other blog:

"Only" Week 3 (September 19, 2007)
Beginning my b-school adventure (August 28, 2007)
I think I'll go to Boston (August 12, 2007)