English 420Y - Business Writing Online

After all of the readings this week I do think that Jet Blue handled the crisis in an effective way. I did not however state that they handled it in the smartest way but I would not question their ethics. I would attribute their main problem to a major oversight by the people in charge. Keeping the planes on the tarmac for nearly ten hours shows poor planning and diction making. Jet Blue was focusing to much on satisfying the customer with no delays that they took a big gamble and lost big.

The readings for this week were very interesting and were very closely related. The reason I say this, is because if the executives at Jet Blue would have read the article on business ethics and the Luntz article, they may have been able to avoid the chaos over Valentines Day.

I believe Jet Blue handled the crisis in a reasonably effective way. One thing they could have done better, which was mentioned in the “Communication Lessons from the JetBlue Meltdown,” was making their web site a fast communication tool to the public. I also believe it would have been a good idea to turn the wait time into a sort of event by bringing in food and activities for children. I definitely think JetBlue handled their crisis in an ethical way. They didn’t lie to the people about the fact that it was their fault a situation like that arose.

It was interesting to read related articles about JetBlue crisis following the process of handling the situation, not just simply focusing on the news of thousands of customers stranded in airports because of the severe weather condition. I think I cannot say they handled the crisis in such an effective way but it seems more reliable that they tired to handle the problem in ethical way. They admitted their problem and apologized through national television and on their website rather hiding or denying their responsibilities.

JetBlue is not the first company to have unhappy customers that received poor service by any means. However, they are one of the greatest examples of customer mistreatment. Through the readings, it is made clear that people respond to clear, concise, non-complicated information. While the long lines of customers were wondering what was happening, JetBlue should have begun handling the situation right away. I dealt with a similar situation just yesterday. Storms struck the nation and flights were cancelled all over the country. United Airlines handled it.

The JetBlue crisis was chaos that could have been avoided given proper preparation. JetBlue gave a valiant effort to try to keep the composure of the customers, but if they were more careful from the beginning, the fiasco could have been avoided. During February of this year, the airline experienced turbulent weather that resulted in the cancellation of numerous flights. Instead of taking the best precautionary methods to avoid the problem, JetBlue decided to keep the flight schedules on as planned.

The readings I did for the week were very helpful in establishing a good understanding about the Jet Blue crisis. I feel that a plan should have been in place considering they are a airline. Airlines especially should have a plan in place for weather, considering weather is something that can change any given minute. I know that sometimes weather can be unpredictable, but the airline should have brought the passengers back to the terminal, and not have kept them on the runway.

I really enjoyed the Luntz article. He brings up some very interesting and true points. When he talks about keeping it simple, for example. He states that only 27% of the American population has graduated college. That is very low, especially with all of the help that we can get from our government and the thousands of available scholarships. Nonetheless, he refers to keeping things simple and not using words that require someone to grab a dictionary to undertand them. You would think this should be common knowledge, but as we all know that is far from the truth.

Back in February JetBlue had a real problem on their hands, plans were stuck, frozen on the runways in New York and thousands of customers were stranded in airports with nowhere to go for days!

I was very surprised that Jet Blue did not have a crisis plan in place. Being an airline company you have to be equipped with plans for times like these. The way the situation was handled without having a set plan was very good. I think ethics is what played a major factor in this crisis. The fact the CEO admitted that they had made a mistake and were doing everything they could to rectify the situation and to compensate the customers is probably what saved the company from completely going under water.