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Home » JetBlue » The Fine Line Between Common Sense and Revenue Management
JetBlue

The Fine Line Between Common Sense and Revenue Management

Matthew Klint Posted onDecember 20, 2016December 21, 2016 11 Comments

First, a bold disclaimer: I accept responsibility for what I did and was entitled to nothing.

Even seasoned travel pros make mistakes and I sure made a big one on my recent 48-hour adventure. If you recall, I was on an Aeroplan ticket from Los Angeles to Istanbul via London, Cairo, and Beirut then a Ukraine International Airlines tickets from Istanbul to New York via Kiev. That only left the final segment from New York to LA.

Rather than transferring to Newark to fly on United, I booked a $117 one-way ticket on JetBlue. No MINT this time, but after being disconnected for so many hours on my trip (not one flight had wi-fi) I just intended to work.

Somehow I got my dates wrong, though, and booked the JetBlue flight one day later… Yes, I arrived at JetBlue’s Terminal 7 only to find my flight was not this evening but next evening.

What a fool.

Time to put on the charm, I thought. I waited in line at the customer service desk and when it was my turn, explained the problem and asked how much it would be move my ticket up to this evening.

“That will be $379, even if I wave the change fee for you.”

Darn. I asked if it was possible to standby if there were seats available.

“I wish. The flights are light this evening. I wish I could put you on one leaving in an hour that is half full. But I can’t.”

JetBlue certainly is smart not to incentivize passengers to deliberately book a cheaper fare on the wrong day and standby for free on a more expensive flight. But I do wish agents were empowered to be a bit more flexible.

By this point we were talking about a change to a flight departing within 24 hours of my booked flight and I would have gladly paid the $50 change fee to get a seat on a flight that was half full. That represented ancillary revenue for JetBlue with very little opportunity cost since I would never consider paying the $379.

JetBlue does allow free standby on the flight prior to the one you are booked on, assuming it departs same-day. JetBlue also offers same-day confirmed changes for $50 to any earlier (or later) flight on your booked day of travel. That is a very fair policy.

I opted to go past security and spend some time working in the Aspire lounge before attempting one more change. The 11:50p flight was also lightly booked, but a CS service agent again informed me that a change was impossible short of paying the full difference in price. No complaint from me. Just sad that the flight went out with 30 open seats.

When I make mistakes like this I react very stubbornly – perhaps to my own detriment. Rather than get a hotel room, I sat all night near a charging station in a darkened gate area, working. At around 4am I confirmed myself on the 5:45am flight to Los Angeles for $50 and was home by 9am that day.

jetblue-terminal-jfk


JetBlue did nothing wrong and I was thankful that my mistake only cost me a half day and $50. My long “layover” at JFK turned out to be extremely productive.

But here’s another story: this morning I flew from Burbank to San Francisco on United. As I entered the airport I heard the following page–

“Will Mr. and Mrs. Jones please approach gate B3. We’d love to put you on an earlier flight to San Francisco if you wish.”

That’s proactive, though granted a small outstation is much different than a large hub.

I asked the gate agent about it when boarding and he said:

“Oh yeah, the sooner we can get them out, the better. You never know what is going to happen with weather or mechanics later on.”

And that is why my title is, “The Fine Line Between Common Sense and Revenue Management”. JetBlue owed me nothing, but why not get rid of me? What if they needed my seat the next day? What if the weather turned bad? (indeed, it did).

How many people are really going to show up at the airport a day early just to try to game the system to catch an alternate flight?

It’s a fine line indeed and while I can and do respect JetBlue’s rules, charging $379 to change to a flight departing within the hour that was only half full just does not seem the most logical business decision when at least some ancillary revenue was on the table.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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11 Comments

  1. michael Reply
    December 20, 2016 at 4:46 pm

    I wonder if you were Mosaic if they would have accommodated you…

  2. Shaun Reply
    December 20, 2016 at 5:17 pm

    I think the current culture in the airlines industry is to ignore common sense and squeeze every last cent out of every last customer. The “one-time exception” which many of us have been granted over the years is just not that common anymore. I think in cases like yours, airlines would rather get 1 out of 100 to pay the $379 fee/fare than put you on a flight that WILL go out with empty seats, thus freeing up seats on the next days flights. I think enough people are paying these fees the airlines are giving less and less leeway.

    From speaking to several agents across several airlines, the non-manager level front line employees are being questioned more and more about these “exceptions” they make. As much as the agent probably wanted to put you on the flight, I’m guessing she’s probably somewhat afraid doing so might get her in trouble.

    I feel like it’s gotten harder to get the airlines to fix problems THEY create (ie schedule change, irrops, etc…) let alone help fix problems/mistakes that are the passenger’s fault. The only time they are eager to help is after you’ve given them your CC numbers.

  3. henry LAX Reply
    December 20, 2016 at 5:22 pm

    yup, that’s your issue with opting to fly jetblue instead of UA, which has a very generous same-day confirmed policy (and you can actually depart 1 day earlier with no change fee no fare difference as long as the new flight is within 24 hours departure of your original plan).

    numerous occasions i’m booked for sat morning but used SDC to switch to departing friday night instead …. without ever asking any agent to bend the rules for me.

  4. objective bystander Reply
    December 20, 2016 at 6:26 pm

    “No complaint from me. ”

    Saying that 10 times in the article in slightly different ways doesn’t make it any more convincing.

    The force of self-serving denial is strong.

  5. rjb Reply
    December 20, 2016 at 6:38 pm

    Jet Blue’s same day change policy is very good for Mosaic customers. They will, however, NOT change travel days – Mosaic or not. I agree with your premise that this is a customer service issue, not a revenue issue since they got no more revenue from you. It’s pretty clear that you were not trying to game the system by booking a ticket for the “wrong” day. Mrs. B has gotten to Delta to change a flight when I booked the return for the wrong day one month apart, (Flew to Denver on May 14, return on June 15) United paged me for a earlier flight in SFO to LAX earlier this year – we were booked in F and they needed the seats so it made sense to get us out of there early. The bottom line is that all you can do is 1) ask politely for forbearance for your mistake or 2) Pay up. I believe the lost revenue from helping you out is made up in spades by frequent travelers such as myself. Help me out on my mistake and I will buy more tickets from you in the future. I wish more airlines got it.

  6. Rich C Reply
    December 21, 2016 at 1:41 am

    Rules are made to solve the mass issues. Take away the inconsistency of human decision making. No one makes “rules” better than the airline industry. Common sense is not that common and revenue management is not managed well. Short term vision of sucking $379 out of you today is more important than the thousands they can possibly get from you tomorrow if they did something to earn your loyalty. What is important to today’s bottom line. That is what the CEO and senior management is measured and compensated on. Really not surprising the decision they made?

  7. Gilbert Reply
    December 21, 2016 at 8:24 am

    #1) agree with all the above and I constantly wish agents had more discretionary powers, even if they only had a few magic wand gestures per month/week/whatever they could make.

    #2) next time you’re stuck at JFK send out the bat signal. Happy to pick you up for some food!

  8. Joey Reply
    December 21, 2016 at 8:36 am

    It’s all about perspective. If you really really truly needed to take that flight one day early, I’d say 99% of the people in your situation would have paid the $379 fare difference. From the eyes of the airline, that’s common sense to have that rule in place.

  9. Jason Seibert Reply
    December 21, 2016 at 1:35 pm

    Here is what’s not being said. At some point in the day the UA flight in question was over sold. They saw the couple checked in early so it’s a win win for the company. If the couple stayed on the original flight they would have went into an over sold situation where the company would have had to ask passengers to take a voucher and catch a later flight of one existed. Airlines are allowed to over sell flights and it is my understanding JetBlue is one of the only who do not. Hope this helps. Jason

  10. JOe Reply
    December 21, 2016 at 6:45 pm

    So you buy a transcon ticket for dirt cheap then expect them to change it for a more expensive product (earlier day)? If they allowed this can you just imagine how many other people would be doing this while claiming ignorance. You claim yourself to fly over 200,000 yearly and you really expect us to believe that you didn’t know EXACTLY what you were doing?

    • Matthew Reply
      December 21, 2016 at 10:56 pm

      Joe, I wish I was that smart but this was indeed a very stupid mistake. I bought well in advance and flights were the same price every day.

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