Boeing 757-200 takes off at Manchester Airport (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Airlines have generally been poor performers in the customer experience. Pretty much every airline can not get it right. I was going on a trip to Portugal and found Jet2.com and thought, “OK, budget airline . . . how much worse could it be?” The answer is somewhere between a lot and criminal.
The website showed the really low fares, but there are fees for just about everything from breakfast, luggage and my personal favorite . . . checking in on-line. You see if you fail to check in on-line you have to pay about $27 for the privilege. I had forgotten this and although I thought $27 was a bit steep, I paid it.
However, while I was waiting to pay a couple in front of me had tried to check-in on-line and the check-in failed. I listened to the story as they spoke to a manager about the on-line issue. The manager asked if they had written the error message and error code down (who would think to do that?). Because the couple had failed to write down these two important pieces of information, they were out over $55 – at least if they wanted to travel that day. I thought to myself, “who would think it is intuitive to write the error message down, besides shouldn’t the website working be the responsibility of Jet2.com?”
I made a mental note to be sure to work out something with the front desk at the hotel to print my return ticket. When the day before leaving arrived, I went to work to “check-in” for the flight the next day. The website asked for a series of passport information. You have to select your country of issue (for the passport) and what country you lived in – both are the USA. The first drop down menu had USA, but the second one did not have “USA” as a country to select. Entrapping technology for customers is a huge problem in service, everyone wants to send customers to cheaper channels – they rarely become cheaper when you look end-to-end. Variety in service demand sees to that.
When I arrived at the Portugal airport the next day, I knew that I would be blamed somehow for the website snafu, I just wasn’t sure how – so, I played it out. The check-in desk told me I would have to go to a different desk to pay or plead my case. Two other families were already there because the had hit the wrong airport during check-in and the other was confused about the selection – both wound up having to pay.
My turn, I explained to the agent about the drop down menu missing “USA” and the response was even more egregious than I had expected, “We have had USA residents check-in on line before and they had no problem.”
Seriously! This is a response that has nothing to do with MY problem – are you kidding? I implored her to look on the website and see for herself, but she would have none of it. I paid my (close to) $30 this time and decided to use the power of the internet to exact retribution.
The issue to me is that this airline can not or should not survive. Allowing such poor service and getting away with it needs a public verdict or at least disclosure. With all the failure demand coming into the desk at Jet2.com, it will eventually collapse under its own cost structure – it requires people to deal with these problems even if they get paid. Add in the number of people that will swear never to fly them again and they will not last.
Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public). His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work. Read his articles at Quality Digest and his column for CustomermanagementIQ.com. Learn more about the 95 Method for service organizations. Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbitt or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.
Pure comedy. Well done. Yes, the airline will surely collapse, especially if you are the only customer. The staff don’t deserve their jobs. F—-s, the lot of them. Make them all unemployed. Then, surely, you will feel better and be guaranteed a great flying experience. God bless you son, amen.
I have avoided this airline like the plague for the lat few years. I prefer to pay a few quid more than suffer their appalling service. The crunch came for me when one of my bags was badly damaged. They made me jump through hoops to provide all sorts of information and when I did, they changed the rules and I ended up having to replace my bag myself. I swore then that I would never travel with these charlatans again.
However, someone mus be travelling with th because they’re still trading!
I have avoided this airline like the plague for the last few years. I prefer to pay a few quid more than suffer their appalling service. The crunch came for me when one of my bags was badly damaged. They made me jump through hoops to provide all sorts of information and when I did, they changed the rules and I ended up having to replace my bag myself. I swore then that I would never travel with these charlatans again.
However, someone must be travelling with them because they’re still trading!
So I take it you haven’t used Ryanair then. Have used them twice and their attitude to customers like Jet2 ijust stinks. In fact I’d go as far as to say they gave me my worst ever customer experience the last time I used them. They deserve to die as a business……..never again!!
Interesting read…….
I stumbled across this on Twitter, and having read your comments felt compelled to reply!
I work for Jet2, as do thousands of others, whom rely on their wages to pay mortgages and feed our families – I take great exception to your comments regarding the demise of my company.
Regrettably you had a bad experience, one hopefully we as a young company can learn from. We are no different to any other locost in that we strip everything back to bare bones to deliver the best price to you the customer. We do not deliver a bad service, and in fact have won many industry awards for delivering excellent services to the public. Yes hidden charges are part of the modern travel model, but please bare in mind the cost to fly you to Portugal. Fuel alone will account for approx $10,000, then there are air traffic control fees, landing fees, navigational fees, ground support fees, the list goes on…….I’m sure you will be amazed at how little profit (if at all on some occasions) there is on these flights, and after all we are a business that needs to make at least a small profit to survive and transport a majority of VERY happy customers!
So, once again, appologies for your experience, I’m sure a phone call/email/letter would have brought you to a satisfactory conclusion and refund, but coming on the Internet and slagging off the company and calling for its closure is pretty harsh!! NO?
I hope you can see my side of the point!!??
If you dont like the hassle of on line check in and printing your own boarding card before flying…….easy solution….choose AIRPORT CHECKIN at the time you are making the reservation and all you need to bring to the airport is your passport ….Not difficult !!!!!!
j Fahey-
I can appreciate your point. However, if I felt this was an isolated incident I’d give some slack. The ease in which a customer’s complaints were discounted by the Jet2 rep in two different locations indicates this problem is systemic to Jet2. I am not seeking a refund, but this should serve as a warning that service this poor does not go unpunished. Change the attitude towards customers and I (or anyone else) will feel the need to communicate such egregious acts – because their won’t be one to report.
Tripp
Rubia-
As stated didn’t have a problem with the fee, just don’t blame the customer when your website doesn’t work. This is your problem, not the customer.
NOT DIFFICULT!!!
If you were having such trouble printing your boarding card…did you not think of getting in touch with customer services at any point….I am sure they would have helped you.
Rubia-
Why is the burden on me to contact your customer services by a problem caused by your website? This should just be adjusted for the customer and the website fixed. Do you have problems trusting customers?
Tripp,
Jet2 transport Millions of passengers every year, the VAST majority are VERY happy with their experience, and as I’ve said we have won many prestigious awards for customer service!!
Are you guys that nieve to think that an operation of Jet2’s size doesn’t have floors or the occasional hic-up????
I happen to be very proud of my companies GDF (great deal friendlier strap line) ethos, and each and everyone (well most of us) of us go way above and beyond to ensure you, the customer gets a great experience and come back again and again!!
I’m a Pilot for Jet2, so can’t comment too much regarding your front of house experiences, all I can say is (as I did before) Jet2 is a young and vibrant company that is learning quickly – yes sometimes by mistakes, but what I can’t abide are ill informed individuals whom know nothing about business’s and their survival in these difficult times calling for its demise because of a VERY isolated incident!!
Tripp, care to elaborate on all these examples you have of Jet2’s incompetence??!!
I take it you have flown with the REAL low cost operators such as Ryanair???
Once again, there are always two sides!!
J Fahey-
So, let me get this right . . . you want me to cut Jet2 some slack because you make mistakes. However, I forget to print a boarding pass and I get no slack. Got it! You guys are focused inside-out and not outside-in.
You call it isolated, show me your data. I challenge you to stand at the Jet2 payment desk in a terminal for 4 hours and see what you find. Care to challenge me with data and fact and not excuses?!!!
There are two sides, yours and everyone elses.
I’ll let you know if I ride Ryanair.
Tripp-
As I keep on saying your experience was regrettable and from what I can gather pretty unique in that we probably don’t have many US citizens traveling through Europe with us, hence our cock up. You probably dealt with someone who has had no experience with this problem before, and not wanting to make excuses had little by way of support as a result!!
No I don’t expect you to ‘cut us some slack’ as feedback is vital so we get it right next time round. I’m amazed you were at the check in desk for 4 hours, you must have amazing patience as I’m sure most would have resigned themselves to the fact it wasn’t working and dealt with a complaint at a later date…did you not miss your flight stood there for 4 hours???
Now, the crux of my problem with your comments aren’t to do with your frustrations regarding your experience, more the tone and nature of your desire for our company to cease trading owing to your bad experience. Can you not see how unbalanced that argument is? If I wished and got every service provider I had issues with banished to hell we’d be in a fine mess, can you imagine, there would be no airlines to transport you on, no hotels to put you up, no hire cars etc……..
All I ask, as I can’t offer you data – is you see this as a balanced argument, you see that we made a mistake, and I’ve appologised on behalf of my company and you retract your quite dispicable wishes for us to cease trading!!
I’ll say again we transport millions of passengers every year of which the majority are VERY pleased with their jet2 experience and infact come back year on year as repeat customers. We may have lost your custom, which is regrettable but I guess you wouldn’t be traveling with us often anyhow!!
We have a saying here in the UK, it’s ‘stiff upper lip and get on with it!’
J Fahey-
Not unique as I outlined those problems that others in line and the choreographed response indicates it is systemic.
I did not say I was in line for 4 hours, I challenged you to “see for your self” the problems as I am sure they happen every day.
As far as the unbalanced argument . . . consumers need to make choices about carriers and these should be based on knowledge of the system they are encountering. As long as they are armed with knowledge, consumers will make their own choices. Your success or failure will not be based on this post but whether the consumer wants to tolerate it.
Obviously, the saying in the UK you quote is not something you adhere to because you don’t want to seem to let this post go.
systemic[ si-stem-ik ]
adjective
1. of or pertaining to a system.
2. pertaining to or affecting a particular body system.
3. (of a pesticide) absorbed and circulated by a plant or other organism so as to be lethal to pests that feed on it.
Don’t think so Tripp!!
Your outside-in view has obviously been skewed by your negative experience which has clearly deluded you to believe Jet2 should cease!!
Hmmmm….punishment fits the crime???? Ridiculous!!!
Your narrow minded point of view is neither useful (to ANYONE) or correct – Jet2 is and will continue to grow year on year with record breaking profits and industry accolades lavished upon us in the process…
I’ll leave this post now and let your readers decide for themselves to wether or not Jet2 is the ghastly outfit you portray….I know different as I see on a daily basis thousands of travelers using us to get all over Europe – in most cases without glitch.
I now take your point re: 4 hrs at a desk, but it is a crazy statement, I have worked here for 6 years, have travelled several times with my company, as have MANY of my friends, family and colegues, all of which have only ever had good things to say about us!!
I can’t believe your one man crusade to rid the world of companies you have had a negative experience is the work of a genius or a very sad pathetic individual who has nothing better to do with his time than moan about life’s little tests!!
Happy landings…….
*should read ^
I can’t decide whether your one man crusade to rid the world of companies you have had a negative experience is the work of a genius or a very sad pathetic individual who has nothing better to do with his time than moan about life’s little tests!!
j fahey-
Thanks for the input your comments are indicative of your airline.
I won’t be signing up for the Jet2 bonding and rapport class, seems the service desk takes your attitude. I’m the problem, not the airline.
Good luck at the Serengeti!
Baffoon!!
J Fahey-
You are a class act . . . just like your company!
I won’t be signing up for the Jet2 bonding and rapport class, seems the service desk takes your attitude. I’m the problem, not the airline.
They should just retrain or fire the incompetent staff that you dealt with.
The truth is – semantics aside – there will always be flaws in the procedures of a large company. I could name half a dozen that I would never choose to use again after poor service… until the next great offer or unique service.
I’ve had numerous friends tell me about bad experiences on Ryanair. I flew with them and found it okay (for the money). Thus, life, and business, goes on.
This Jet2.com pilot obviously hasn’t been f—-d over by this company which is undergoing investigation for So Many issues that can’t be legally listed here.
But let’s just say that jet2.com has the industrie’s highest turn around of pilots for a reason. This pilot’s (he’s obvoiusly fresh meat) misplaced loyalty will eventually be rewarded by dismissal. Even the chief pilot was forced into retirement! (mind you, he was a cock of the highest order).
The bulk of the profits of the company go to one man despite it being a PLC. Criminal to treat a PLC as a money making hobby. 500m turnover for a measly 20 something million profit! And only £3,000 charitable donations in 2010! A company with no social responsibility that treats employees, shareholders and customers like mugs, using irregular SOPs, cutting corners at every opportunity (head counts a classic example – boy stowaway), not paying staff (including pilots – illegal) on contractual loop holes. This company does the legal minimums to stay profitable including flying with only just enough fuel (yes they’ve run short on occasion). You should read the engineering reports too!
Anyway- a fancy paint job and use of the word “friendly” in their marketing wouldn’t get me on one of their aircraft if I didn’t have to.
Who am I? I could be any one of a number of ex jet2 pilots now earning a proper wage on a real airline. Or perhaps a union rep – you know what I’m on about. Or even a current pilot who is so pissed off working in the prison block at Leeds I’d risk my job writing this. Go figure.
Thank you for offering me this opportunity to vent my dissatisfaction with the sh-test organisation in aviation. I’ll be in the Job Center next week.
When you do contact customer servces you will be charged a premium rate to get things amended, when it’s really their fault. Far far worse than this sort of rough treatment is the fact that Jet2 run some very ancient aircraft. At least Ryanair and Easyjet, both distress choices if we are honest, run new aircraft. See here
http://www.avherald.com/h?search_term=jet2&opt=0&dosearch=1&search.x=0&search.y=0
Hello there,
Firstly I would like to say I do not work for this airline but I do travel frequently using them.
I get sick and tired of hearing the same complaints over, and over again! If get suck if hearing excuses about people forgetting to print off boarding cards!! And having to pay a fine! If you read the terms of travel, you should have no problem. I frequently use Ryanair and have no problem! If you follow the rules it’s easy if you don’t then that is not the airlines problem.
The same analogy applies if you loose your keys to your car when you are out!! You phone a lock smith to get in your car and cut you a new set! They charge loads! It’s not his fault YOU have lost your keys!!
This airline has won awards! I like standing up for airlines simply because if people like you complained all the time there would be no airline. I bet you complain if it is 5 mins late!!
It’s simple to me, yes you have a voice, and an opinion, but I will bet you a pound to a piece of sh*t, sir that you would not rather pay £400 for your ticket with BA and get a free soft drink and sandwich? Feel free to respond to your comment!
Ps I hear excuses like my printer wouldn’t work, or the website wouldn’t work all the time and I’m sorry but it’s utter tosh in this day and age! It’s strange that you sir plus 2 other people, are the only people the website wouldn’t work for. Also if you had read the terms of travel, you could have phoned them and they would have done it for you over the phone!!
So in short, because YOU failed to read the terms and conditions, AND YOU did not do what YOU were supposed to do, this is the airlines fault??
I don’t think so!
Andy
The truth is a stubborn thing. The website did have problems. The response is that the customer is to blame. Even a “customer” like you would be hard pressed to defend a company for their problems. You sound like the type of person that would pay $10 for $50 jeans that don’t fit.
All complaints about any European airline, Jet2.com included should be sent to the European Consumer Centre either by e-mail :
[email protected]
or by telephone :
0049.7851.991.48.0 ou 0 820 200 999 (0.09cts/min)
Hope this is of help.
Firstly, I am not a pilot. I do not work for Jet2, yet I’d love to!
I have been with Jet2 on multiple occasions, and their staff have been more than helpful of that of some other UK airlines, even charter airlines, the names of which I will not disclose.
“This company does the legal minimums to stay profitable, including flying with only just enough fuel…” …Are you thinking about Ryanair? Take a look at BBC’s Panorama documentary – Why Hate Ryanair? This documentary showcases many a flight in which the pilot has issued a fuel mayday.
Jet2 are, in my opinion the UK’s leading airline, thus evident and Awarded by the Globe Travel Awards:
Best Short-Haul Airline (IN THE WORLD):
Jet2.com
I hope that against some of the biased opinons on this blog, Jet2 continue to flourish, growing year-on-year, as they are, and should not need to cease operations because ‘someone’ feels they are a terrible airline. From what I read, it was your fault that you didn’t print your boarding card. They are a low cost airline. Jet2 is not and will never (nor they should be) bean airline like BA, which for an extra £600 will give you a free soft drink, and may even print off your boarding card if you forget…
Once again, Jet2 are a short haul, low cost airline, and won’t pay for your mistakes. Nor will Easyjet, Ryanair, or any other low cost airline.
It’s always the customer’s fault (sarcasm)- especially when the website doesn’t work.
Nothing has changed. They claim less than 40 quid for a return ticket to Geneva, we paid 500 quid each. They charged an extra 39 quid because the website did not work, we tried to check in online. My friends were recently married and used there married name, however the passport is in maiden name, this cost 70 quid as they did no have there marriage cert, but for 70 quid they did not need it? I have to say worst airline I have flown on. Return flight was from terminal two ? We struggled to find the second terminal in a shed 1 km from the main terminal we had to walk in the rain to find it. Never ever again