Staying True To Your Brand

There are two airlines that I enjoy flying--Southwest and JetBlue. I know many of my colleagues (my parents as well) do not like the cattle call approach that Southwest uses. No assigned seats, no problem for me. I enjoy it. I know if I get there early enough I can sit my large self in an emergency row. JetBlue it seems as though everyone loves. Spacious seats, friendly staff, and Direct TV all come to mind when I think of Jet Blue. For the past week one more thing has came to mind-- no flights.

I don't want to focus on the negative of this recent hiccup (to me that is all this is). I want to focus on the positive. Here are my thoughts:

1) David Neeleman, JetBlue CEO, seemed genuine in his apology on the Today Show. Rarely do you see a CEO this candid while handling some tough questions.
2) JetBlue took out a full page ad in the NY Times to apologize and wrote a "Passenger Bill of Rights". Though the advertisement has been done before, the Bill of Rights is estimated to cost the company $20-30 million. To top it off, they will retroactively pay the passengers effected by delays.
3) They did not fire any top level executives (much to the surprise of Matt Lauer, you got to watch the video). This shows to me stability and trust rather than panic and lack of accountability.
4) All of these moves upheld their brand has being "passenger friendly."

In this era, I find moves like this refreshing. Now just give me the cattle call and I will have the best of both worlds.