Once in a while the airlines do something right for you, and as I had sort-of, kind-of good experiences with Jetblue and Zoom UK this summer, I thought I should record the fact. In both cases it was recovering from tricky situations that made the difference.
We were travelling as a family of four to, and in, the US, when I had my first experience of Jetblue. For starters it was incredibly cheap, and the on-board product was outstanding. (Although actually experiencing LiveTV for real does bring home the fact that it's still, well, daytime TV).
Things went wobbly when Fort Lauderdale got socked in by thunderstorms. Numerous flights cancelled. But Jetblue really hustled to change reservations around the new schedule and we actually ended up leaving at our orignal planned time but on a later flight (if you see what I mean).
What I really liked though was what happend as we entered the aircraft at the end of a stressful afternoon for all. My 15 year-old son has tentative aspirations, which I'm naturally nurturing, to fly for a living. I pointed out the A320 glass cockpit through the open door as we passed and we were immediately invited into the cockpit by the captain. He sat my son down in the left seat and we had a 10min walk-through the EFIS by the FO and a little career counselling. Used to be commonplace of course, but rare these days. So thanks guys.
Zoom is a different story. Like Jetblue it's amazingly cheap and has a surprisingly good product which I recommend. But we had a four-hour tech delay outbound which led to an unexpected night in a New Jersey motel, and then a five-hour horror at JFK on the return - also for tech reasons. Not great.
However...on our return to the UK I emailed Zoom expressing general and specific unhappiness. They responded instantly and in detail. And suffice it to say they provided sufficient compensation that I'm happy. Very nicely done Zoom. (And no, I don't ever try playing the Flight Editor card.)
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