Drunk off the power that comes with working for an airline that's not losing that much money, JetBlue employees are on a maniacal tear both in the air and on land.
While a New Jersey woman is going to court to allege that a JetBlue flight attendant sexually harassed her on a trip from Ft Lauderdale to Newark, grabbing himself and telling her he knew she "wanted" him, two JetBlue pilots have been arrested in Miami after stiffing a cabbie for nine dollars and then beating him bloody and breaking his ankle in a Subway restaurant parking lot.
So, yeah, the TVs are nice, but be safe up there.
JetBlue is offering "mystery" flight and hotel packages on eBay for your bidding attention. Pick your departure city, and you'll be asked to bid on a variety of destinations, including four unnamed routes. Except the mystery didn't last long: Travel blog Jaunted already outed the destinations, and the farthest away you're getting is Cancun and Aruba, which you should've suspected based on JetBlue's route map. And given the current bids — $2,850 for Cancun and $3,350 for Aruba, as of this posting — the only value you're getting is the "surprise," since the retail value of the deals is far less than what any new bid will get ya. That Cancun getaway? There's a $1,282 option if you book it yourself. And Aruba? A $2,100 alternative awaits you. [Jaunted]
From the airline that brought you "Happy Jetting," "Thanks for not flying on JetBlue," and "Flying is for pigeons," comes a new catchy tagline: "The blanket and pillow you asked for costs $7." [NYDN]
That junket invitation Thrillist and JetBlue extended to most media and bloggers across the spectrum, for a flight to Vegas for one-day of partying before flying back? The New York Post, famous for its entanglements with free swag offers, sent two reporters on the flight, but at least one claims it was just a social outing — a media party taken to the next level. Don't let that stop a back-from-vacation Jeff Bercovici from calling 'em out on it. [Portfolio] Update: Turns out of of Bercovici's own, at Conde Nast cousin Vanity Fair, was also on the flight.
Where's a Mike Sitrick or a Mike Paul when you need one? JetBlue is in the market for a crisis management PR maestro to help resuscitate its image. The former media darling and god send to air travelers is now famous for imprisoning passengers on the runway and allegedly forcing a flier to spend a good chunk of his flight seated in the plane's lavatory. And then there's JetBlue's decision to get rid of the free headsets, and you've got all the makings for a PR nightmare. (Not to mention the airline's schlocky new ad campaign.)
So now JetBlue chief David Neeleman Dave Barger is shopping around for someone to re-color his brand's black eye. Except there's on itsy bitsy little problem, and it's one that the average commuter might be familiar with.
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Is this what JetBlue means when it says "Thanks for not flying on JetBlue"?: "A New York City man is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California. Gokhan Mutlu, of Manhattan's Inwood section, says in court papers the pilot told him to "go 'hang out' in the bathroom" about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because the flight attendant complained that the "jump seat" she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said." [AP]
Are you a JetBlue crew member who just joined the airline's brand new internal social network? We'd like to hear from you!
What are crew members posting on each others walls? Do they care that passengers will lose out on free headsets beginning in June? That rising fuel prices are forcing the airline to cut flights? Is the biscotti or the Terra Blue chips the workforce favorite? Oh — and do you frickin' hate having to say "Happy Jetting"?
In the coming weeks, JetBlue will unveil a whole new ad campaign that will try to take your mind off the fact that they are no longer a discount carrier, their seatback television screens are often broken, and, as happened on our redeye flight this weekend, "non-stop" flights between Burbank and JFK may actually include a stop over in Salt Lake City.
So goes the ad campaign: No longer will you be flying on JetBlue; you'll be jetting. They're classy-ing it up, up in here. New slogans include "Thanks for not flying on JetBlue," "Happy jetting," and "Flying is for pigeons."
And as one JetBlue staffer writes, gate agents and flight attendants will be forced to utter these phrases to the flying public. CONTINUED »
There are many things about JetBlue we love: The little Bliss Spa pack we get on red-eye flights from LA to NY (that mint lip balm is the best-est!); the unlimited drinks and snacks (animal crackers! cashews!); the little bottles of Best Cellars red wine that disappear like juice boxes. Aside from the growing number of delays they force us to endure (we're barely in the race of horror stories, with a mere 5-hour wait clocking in as our worst), it's a pretty decent airline. Even with their policy to allow flight attendants to smile and wave and screaming 2-year-olds instead of alert a sky marshal, we still march on our merry way, racking up our TrueBlue point balance.
So you can imagine our interest when we heard JetBlue and the New York Times are teaming up for an in-flight magazine. But this isn't a standard airline offering, like Delta's Sky magazine. JetBlue and the Times are putting together a video magazine. Times on Air "will feature content from the newspaper’s TimesTalks events, which feature interviews of newsmakers and cultural leaders by the Times’ journalists, as well as content from the Times’ Web site, NYTimes.com." Which means that while 14E deals with her wailing toddler, you can engross yourself in a chat with Larry David, Forest Whitaker, or Brian Williams.
And, if this partnership is anything like American Airlines' deal with Fortune, you can rest assured those three all paid for the pleasure. But JetBlue is above that, right?
JetBlue is jumping into the New York-Boston shuttle game, kicking off 10 daily flights between the cities on its 100-seater. But they're not just shuttling you to and fro — they're practically begging you to watch DirecTV.
JetBlue will offer introductory fares of $25 each way on what will be up to 10 flights between the cities, with fares later settling at between $40 and $120 each way, undercutting the established shuttle.
In case this needs mentioning, these $25 flights are still not an excuse to leave New York for Boston. Until JetBlue starts paying you, stay put.
Editorial Director
