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.
After reading several articles about the JetBlue crisis, I found it rather difficult to assess the way the company handled the situation. At times it seemed like the company did a good job, but at others it seemed to me like they could have handled it a lot better. It is understandable that the terrible weather that occurred at JFK airport would cause many delays, as it did. However, I feel that a company in the airline business should have some sort of a bad weather plan, because it is always a factor in the business.
There have been many other instances of companies having mishaps and causing big errors. Each of these potentially could have cost the company. Many companies have been able to learn for other company’s mistakes and change potentially devastating events to turn into the time to shine. It seems like the smart idea to have a plan in mind when dealing with a crisis. It is important to act swiftly and show that they care. I have heard of situations where a company has had to deal with a crisis, and did a very good job, and got praised for the media for it.
After reading the articles on the JetBlue crisis, I was very surprised that a large airline could experience that big of problems. Obviously no one can predict the weather or truly be prepared for every situation, but one might think that an airline could have emergency weather procedures and compensation for customers. Delays always happen but the confusion that followed really hurt JetBlue. They really did not have any good plans in place and their actions did not help the situation.
All of the JetBlue readings were very insightful and made a great point about the situation. At first, I thought JetBlue went about the situation in the right manner, but as I read more and more articles, I thought otherwise. Especially in the article, Managing Communications in a Crisis, it made a valid point on how companies need to plan in advance for situations that may arise in the future. The examples provided in the text really stressed how important it is to plan ahead and what disasters can develop if a company does not plan ahead.
I thought all of the readings for this week were very interesting and brought up good points for consideration. I believe the JetBlue crisis was handled very well and it was good to see the different things that the company did to make sure that this kind of event would not happen again. It was nice to see that someone was actually doing the right thing in handling an event such as the one that they had. It seems that we are hearing more and more everyday about companies trying to cover themselves and not being ethical to their consumers.
From my readings and previous knowledge of the JetBlue crisis in February, I think JetBlue could have handled the crisis in a more effective way. In the article, Managing Communications in a Crisis – Chapter 3: “Stakeholders and Audiences”, one of the main points was planning ahead and being prepared for the worst. The article gave examples of the results of companies that planned ahead and those that didn’t plan ahead. With an airline company, like JetBlue, I would think there would be many types of plans for all worst case scenarios, especially dealing with airplanes and weather.