I'll have a blue Christmas

I flew home for Christmas and did not have a good experience with the airline. As is typical for me, I wrote a letter about it when I got back. I received their response yesterday.

The airline was JetBlue.

Here is my letter:

On Dec 24, 2007, my flight, 1253 to Dulles, was cancelled. I received a phone call about it and was able to re-book. At that time, the customer service agent on the phone told me that I was on flight 1255. She gave me the flight number and times. She was efficient and helpful. When I arrived at the airport, the automated check-in listed flight 1257 instead as my flight. I proceeded to the reservations desk to double-check this. It occurred to me right then that I may have been bumped to a later flight because so many passengers needed to rebook from the earlier cancellation. I am not unused to this, but I wanted to be sure that was the case, as it disrupted quite a few travel plans for me.
At the reservations desk, the agent was extremely rude. When I explained that I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't double-booked, she refused to check the roster for the other flight. When I asked why would the phone agent have given me the wrong flight number, she offered that the phone agent probably just read the wrong number to me. As simple-minded as this answer was, I countered, "You can see that this causes quite a disruption for someone's travel plans," her completely unapologetic response was that she had to defend her teammate. You cannot believe how angry I was that she gave me such a moronic and insincere explanation for having been bumped. I paused, dumbfounded that she would defend such a ridiculous excuse rather than offer a sincere apology and the truth. Only later did I realize that she was basically accusing me of lying.
Is this the award-winning customer service recognized by JD Powers and Associates, that I heard so much about while on hold that morning when re-booking my flight? I would have gladly boycotted JetBlue from then on, had it not been for the excellent service of another agent at that same airport.
As I approached my gate, I noticed that another flight was headed to Richmond and leaving very soon. I asked the agent at the gate, Karen, if there was room aboard. It was just as easy for my family to get me from Richmond as Dulles. She checked for me and then asked me to wait while she finished de-boarding the plane. Afterwards, at the customer service counter, she re-booked me onto that flight to Richmond. She also made sure that my luggage made it to the right airplane. She was expeditious and very kind. I wanted to be sure that she is recognized.
While I understand that nothing could have been done about the inconvenience, a little patience, sympathy and sincerity, especially at Christmas time, could have gone a long way. I am in retail and it works for me. At this point, you are on sketchy ground. Thanks to Karen, I am willing to fly again on JetBlue, but I don't know that I believe in your customer service. I feel strongly that you should know about my experience.

Here is their reply (I detect cutty-pasty-ness):

Thank you for contacting us and for taking the time to share your disappointment regarding your JetBlue experience. We regret the circumstances that prompted your message to JetBlue and we appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns.We sincerely apologize for the added difficulty you experienced due to your flight cancelation. We can appreciate how upsetting this experience must have been for you, especially since you found our airport crewmember to be rude and helpful. (hunh?) Please accept our sincere apologies that we have not met your expectations in our service to you.We also thank you for letting us know that Karen was able to get you on the flight to Richmond and ensure that your baggage was loaded on the right aircraft. We are very proud of Karen and those of our outstanding crewmembers who consistently demonstrate a passion for excellent customer service. We will forward your letter to our Leadership Team so that Karen will receive recognition for her kind help.While it is our goal always to offer the highest level of customer service, we fully recognize that there are areas in which we can improve. Your valuable feedback allows us the opportunity to review those areas, and make any necessary improvements to ensure our customers are pleased with all aspects of our service.We appreciate you as a JetBlue customer and we thank you again for contacting us. We hope to have the privilege of welcoming you onboard again in the future.
Sincerely,Kirsten Customer Commitment Crew JetBlue Airways

I'm not going to recommend boycotting them ... yet.

A fraction of the time and 100% of the deliciousness!

Tonight, I went to ImprovAsylum in the North End of Boston and there I saw a performer that I swear is Zach Ward's twin. Whether he's the good one or the evil one, I don't know.

Merry Christmas!

For Christmas, I got numbers 3, 7, 13, 15, and 16. It was a good day.

Ginger's ever-expanding Christmas Wish List

This list will start small but will grow and grow as I add things to it over the next couple of weeks. Feel free to comment.

Things I'd like for Christmas:

1. Brad Womack
2. Banjo Lessons
3. Money for improv classes
4. A Nintendo DS
5. Guitar Hero III
6. A game system to play Guitar Hero III on.
7. Money for skiing
8. Tinkerbell - not some toy, the real one.
9. A full body massage
10. Snow
11. Ex-boyfriends to answer emails
12. A new boyfriend
13. Gift card for Borders
14. DVDs
15. Alex Trebek's speedy recovery
16. Not so much snow that I can't fly home for Christmas
17. A snow shovel.
18. Hannah Montana's/Miley Cyrus's new CD. ... Shut up.
19. For people to realize that I don't owe them the money that they think I do.
20. For just one person in my family to do something the way I ask them to, when I ask them to, and because I ask them to. It'd be nice if they would acknowledge that I'm at a point in my life where I actually know what I'm talking about.

15th Century Italian Renaissance Artists

So I explained the 15 date challenge to someone the other night and she thought it was a good idea. I mean, I admitted that it really got me out there and we again ended up on the topic of how difficult it is to meet people these days. We joked about how we would meet people at work. I mean, what could I say to men I meet in my dept? "Hey, how you doin? Are you sing ... oh, this is your son and wife ... buying shoes ... right here ... in the Kids Shoes dept. ... Right." Yep, I meet single eligible men every day. Well, at least they're straight.
My friend is dating someone that she met online and she AND he didn't feel awkward about it, until ... someone reacted to it. You know ... reacted, like with a face and an "Oh" and then realized too late that it was the wrong reaction. This made my friend a little self-conscious and then I told her that almost all of the men that I dated for the challenge I had met online. I don't know that it made her feel better but it supported the argument that it's hard to meet people these days ... unless you're trolling bars. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
We did meet a really cute waiter that night at a pretty cool bar called Bukowski's in Cambridge. They serve all kinds of beer. Really unusual $45 a pint imported beers. AND they had sweet potato fries. It was a classy joint.
Then we went to an improv show. They are trying to raise money to move to a new theater, and they have a pretty cool fundraising gimmick. For $20, I purchased a pie of shaving cream from them that I could then use to "pie" someone in the face at any time during the show. Using my impeccable comic timing, I "pied" someone right when he used a really bad Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference in the middle of the show. The audience groaned at the joke, so I knew it was the right time. They then cheered me on with the pie. It was awesome. They have classes starting in January. I will definitely be partaking.
An improv show would make a good date with someone. I'm on the lookout for December's date.