This is a letter I sent to Jetblue today:"To Whom It May Concern,
I boarded the flight Thursday evening without any issues. The check-in personnel were great and very friendly as were the folks at the gate. I sat at the very rear (last row) of the plane in the aisle seat. Everything was what one expects from a plane boarding. But after the in-flight safety instructions, the flight attendants gathered in the back of the plane and I could hear everything they were saying. Two males, Elijah and Cameron, were the most vocal.
The comment that first caught my attention was, "I bet nobody knows where their life-preserver is!" I thought this was an odd comment and so I paid closer attention. The conversation lasted a few minutes about how noisy the passengers were during the safety announcements, what was the point of their (flight attendants) being there if no one was listening, and how they wanted to stop the announcements and tell everyone to shut up for a few minutes. They basically lamented their duties and importance as employees and blamed the passengers for their problems.
If this is where it stopped I would have probably let it go, but it didn't.
Elijah left the rear of the plane and as he was heading toward the front a passenger (possibly another Jetblue employee, I noticed there were a lot of passengers with gloves on cleaning up the plane when everyone was getting off the flight) indicated that the man in front of her was still using his iPad after the "turn off all electronic equipment" announcement had been given. Elijah stopped and said, "Sir, you need to turn that off or we will remove you from the plane." I thought this comment jumped the gun a bit. Of course the passenger didn't immediately turn it off, because who wants to pay hundreds of dollars on a flight and then be spoken to by a flight attendant like you are a child.
Meanwhile, in the back of the plane, Cameron was still complaining about passengers. I turned around and said, "You know, there's no sound-proofing between here and there. We can hear everything you're saying." He replied, "Yeah, we know. thank you," and continued talking. For some reason... I don't think he understood what I was getting at.
When Elijah returned from the front of the plane, he and Cameron again began lamenting their plight as flight attendants and considering whether or not to have the plane "return to the gate and have the man escorted off by security and delay the flight for 2 hours." I tried to get their attention by saying back to them, "Yeah, please don't do that." So that they knew I could still hear them. They ignored my comment and shut the doors to the back area for the rest of their conversation.
At this point, we were next to take off and I was wishing I had just driven to California....
Luckily, for the rest of the flight I didn't have to hear the flight attendants talk bad about the passengers behind their backs. But no matter how far I tried to lean away from the aisle, when either Cameron or Elijah walked by they would bump into my arm or shoulder. I would have thought this was inevitable, but since I was back by the restroom I got lots of traffic passing by me and only one passenger bumped into me... and he immediately apologized!
So, the experience related above is one of the reasons I would have rather driven the 10 hours from Salt Lake to Southern California (Which is about $80 cheaper for me) than deal with rude flight attendants. Over the last 10 years I've noticed a steady decline in customer service on flights. Flight attendants have become less pleasant and more like cranky aunts and uncles or over-inflated hall monitors. They snap at you with instructions prefaced by a "sir" or "ma'am," which only makes it sound more detached and contemptuous.
I understand that their job is stressful and under-appreciated. I waited tables all through college and know that the customer service industry is generally thankless and requires thick skin. BUT! I know how awesome airline employee benefits are. (I still can't believe how family flight discounts have remained given the state of the economy and the airline industry in general.) So, they know what they're getting out of the deal and no one is forcing them into this line of work.
I never write letters of complaint. I avoid this because I have little faith that they are seen by the right people, taken seriously, or account for any real changes. I admit that it's cynical, but I've never been proven otherwise. I full expect to receive an auto-response, form email that says, "Here at Jetblue we take your feedback seriously... Customer Bill of Rights... blah, blah, blah."
But, I'm gonna try anyway. For kicks.
My flight to California was a miserable experience where I felt trapped and at the mercy of cranky people who resented my being there. I'm really not looking forward to my return flight Sunday morning.... and I will avoid flying on Jetblue in the future. I might also post my experience, since I've already gone to the trouble of writing it down, on Facebook and my blog. My NPS (net promoter score) is presently a "0".
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
W. Craig Tovey
'The guy at the back of the plane...by the toilet.' "
