There are apps for tracking flights, tracking weather, finding restaurants, understanding world customs, and at least 85,000 other things, according to Apple. So I guess it was only a matter of time before someone came out with an app for those who fear flying.

Virgin Atlantic Airways has just launched an iPhone app for its Flying Without Fear course which VA claims has a 98% success rate. That’s very impressive.

According to the airline, this app was designed to help people overcome fear, whether it be about unfamiliar aircraft, the strange noises a plane makes, or of losing control. It seems to be a pretty good idea since it gives people something to do when they get a case of the nerves in the air.

The Flying Without Fear app has an introduction by Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic’s president, followed by a video-based in-flight explanation of a flight, frequently asked questions, relaxation exercises and a fear attack button for emergencies, along with breathing exercises. Reuters has named it the “iPanic button.”

Virgin developed the app with a company called Mental Workout which develops software to help people resolve issues and increase mental performance. According to the company an estimated one in every three adults is scared of flying. I think that estimate may be a bit high, although I guess we all get a bit nervous at one time or another on a plane.

Even though I’ve practically lived on planes for many years, I do get edgy during rough takeoffs every now and then. Years ago, when flying on Pakistan International out of New York’s JFK, for some God-only-knows reason we took off in a violent thunderstorm — and when the plane dropped after being airborne a minute or so my head hit the overhead luggage bin.

I’ve always tied my seatbelt a bit tighter since then.

Jim Ferri

I lodged a complaint via the company’s website and later brought it to the attention of JB’s corporate communications staff. The following are the exchanges of emails that ensued, posted without editing or further comment, from which you can draw your own conclusions:

My original message to JetBlue (sent, as directed by JB’s staff) via the “Speak Up” link on its booking website:

On flt 1309 — JFK to IAD — on Sept 29 the woman sitting next to me in the exit row (I was in seat 12D) was handicapped. Unfortunately her hands were deformed to a point where she was unable to hold things (she was unable to hold the cup of ice brought to her by the attendant and dropped it on the floor) and required a wheelchair to both board and deplane. Why was she permitted to sit in the exit row?

Jim Ferri

Two days later I received the following email from JetBlue’s Customer Service:

Dear Mr. Ferri,

Thank you for contacting JetBlue Airways regarding the guidelines for emergency row seating and the customer sitting in this row. We appreciate the opportunity to respond.

Emergency doors are often heavy and awkward to lift, push, pull and maneuver when opening. For the safety of all customers, federal regulations require that the customer seated in an emergency exit row be able to assist the crew in the event of an emergency.

All customers sitting in the exit row must be willing and able to meet the following exit row requirements:

15 years of age or older
able to read, understand and give instructions in English
free from any condition that would prevent you from performing the required duties
willing and able to assist in case of an emergency.

We ask the customer questions upon check-in to make sure they qualify for the emergency row. Airport Customer Service crewmembers will make the final decision in determining who will be seated in exit row seats, even when seats have been assigned prior to arrival at the airport. We will forward your concerns to our Inflight Leadership Team.

We assure you, Safety is our first priority to our customers and our crewmembers. We appreciate your feedback and look forward to welcoming you onboard a future JetBlue flight.

Regards,

Carolyn
Customer Commitment Crew
JetBlue Airways

On Friday morning I then contacted Jenny Dervin, JetBlue’s Director of Corporate Communications by telephone, explained the whole thing (and the FAA violation) and forwarded via email the Customer Service reply. I explained I would be posting another blog on the subject today and requested the company’s comments both regarding my original communication to customer service and the safety issue as soon as possible.

On Friday after noon I received the following email from JetBlue:

Hi Jim,

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to respond, but more importantly, thank you for the information.

As for the pro forma response… well, I can tell you that sometimes our goal of responding with relevant information in a very timely manner may inadvertently create the impression that we haven’t responded directly enough to the information given.  I apologize for that.  I will verify with our Customer support center, but in my experience, the information they receive is typically forwarded to the proper operational leaders as data points to motivate action.  I will make sure they receive the feedback that the responses they give can be a little more detailed and responsive.

Thank you again for the information, both of your flight experience and our response to it.

Please don’t hesitate to call me if I can be of any assistance.

Best,

Jenny

As I said, what’s up with JetBlue lately?

Has anyone else encountered similar Customer Service situations with the airlines?

Jim Ferri

Although he called me on his cell phone the connection was so spotty I suggested he find a land line and call back. I then sat there for 15 minutes awaiting his call, wondering if he had gotten mugged in a phone booth somewhere. I was thinking what a great opening that would make for an episode of Law & Order…the body slouched over the house phone, the receiver dangling from the cord like some strung-up bandit in an old western…

When he finally called — on his cell again — he told me he couldn’t find a telephone in the hotel’s convention area or lobby. In fact, he said, according to the concierge all phones had been removed from the hotel’s public areas.  Few people have noticed, I guess, since we’re all busy chatting away on our cells.

This got me thinking about all the other things that hotels are quietly removing.

When was the last time you found stationary and envelopes in your hotel room? It seems most hotels have now put the cost of printing stationary towards the cost of installing modems.

And remember sewing kits? Now when you’re in a rush and a button falls off you wait a half-hour as housekeeping runs your shirt down to some hidden cave in the bowels of the building beneath the laundry room beneath the kitchen.

And pillows. Good hotels still give you nice comfortable pillows, but a few weeks ago I stayed in a chain hotel I think Mobil Travel Guides and Fodors have been avoiding for years. The pillows in this place were so small I would have used one for a stamp if there had been any writing paper and envelopes around. I mean what hotel GM in his right mind would ever think all his guests would have heads the size of Muppets?

It was, to say the least, a bit hard to fall asleep. But lying there in bed I thought of how a hotel guest here could escape a murderer trying to suffocate him or her with a pillow, because the perp could only cover one nostril. Ah, what a great opening for Law & Order…

Jim Ferri

This is a place that clearly defines what all airport terminals should be — large and roomy, plenty of restaurants and a large food court, free w-fi , plenty of places to recharge laptops, plenty of comfortable seating. You can even order meals down at the gates — just go to a touch screen monitor, select your meal and your food is delivered in minutes.  They’ve even put bars in a few boarding areas.

If you’ve never been to JFK’s Terminal 5 you should try to route yourself through it. (It’s too bad you just can’t walk in off the street and take a tour.) When I went through it again last week, I took a quick Flip video of it for those of you who haven’t seen it yet. Click on the video to the left, or use this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeBQ5roPlTU) to see it on YouTube.

Despite its great terminal, however, during the past year or so I’ve notice things that make me wonder if JetBlue is losing its luster. More and more I’ve encountered some staff that seem to be losing their attention to detail, one of the things that always made everything flow smoothly and ensured an enjoyable experience.

For example, on two different flights over the past few weeks, after “families with children”, etc. were boarded everyone else was told to just all board together which created mayhem. On another flight from New York to Washington three weeks ago my seat partner in the exit row was an infirmed woman who needed a wheelchair to board — a clear violation of Federal regulations.

And some months ago when JetBlue moved from it’s original terminal in Ft. Lauderdale for one much less nice, it didn’t notify outbound passengers until their return, angering those who had to find their way to a distant parking lot where they had left their cars.

Yes, tough economic times have clearly put pressure on airlines staffs. But JetBlue is the carrier that gave new hope to air travelers, hope that flying could once again be made an enjoyable experience.

Whatever is happening, I hope they get pass it soon and return to detailed-oriented philosophy that helped it take to the air originally.

Jim Ferri

The first has to do with an organization that quietly changed its name to avoid embarrassment, the second with an airline that now has to contend with an embarrassing incident.

Recently the Wisconsin Tourism Federation changed its name to the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin. It seems that a few months ago executives of the Federation realized that the acronym of their name  – WTF – was the same that people on blobs, Twitter, and instant messages as shorthand for “what the f**k?” The change was made quietly — so quietly, in fact that the change only came to light a few weeks ago.

The Women’s Tennis Federation and the World Taekwondo Federation have not yet announced what they plan to do.

And about that image problem on the other side of the world. It seems that when you buy a ticket on Air India these days you not only get a seat for the flight but also a seat for the fights.

Onboard a recent Air India flight into Delhi a fight broke out at 30,000 feet. While any mid-air scuffle has to be a bit discomforting for passengers, this one was a bit different – it was between two pilots and two crew members after a heated exchange of a charge of sexual harassment against the pilots by one of the cabin staff.

Although blows were exchanged in the turmoil that spilled out into the passenger cabin, Air India has announced that “at no stage was safety compromised.”

Well, thank God for that…I just wonder which passenger was flying the plane while the pilots were duking it out in the main cabin.

Jim Ferri

During all those years I have never been faced with type of communications crisis that now faces All Nippon Airways (ANA), a major Japanese carrier.

The problem at hand is self-inflicted, much to the chagrin of its pr executives, I’m sure. It involves airline staff now asking passengers to go to the bathroom before boarding their flights. In fact, airline staff will be waiting at boarding gates to ask passengers to relieve themselves.

The idea is to save fuel since lighter passengers = less weight = less fuel burn. The airline says they’re doing this to reduce carbon emissions.

And now, I know what everyone is thinking — just how much weight could this save?

Well, you knew someone would try to figure this out, and an enterprising reporter on the Foreign Desk of the UK newspaper the Daily Mail has done the math for us. According to the newspaper since the average human bladder has a capacity of 15 ounces, if 150 passengers relieve themselves prior to boarding that will save about 140 lbs of weight.

I have a better idea. If ANA really wants to reduce carbon emissions why not just get rid of all the passengers, bladders and all? Think of it this way — if the average passenger weighs, say 160 lbs, getting rid of 150 of them could save 24,000 lbs.

Now there’s a real way ANA can cut carbon emissions in a meaningful way.

Jim Ferri

The first surprise came from Southwest Airlines which sent me coupons for free drinks on their planes since I had recently received a free frequent flyer ticket from them. Then just a week later I was again surprised to receive a card on my birthday. It’s these little things that go a lot further in instilling customer loyalty than all of the other impersonal things competing carriers do.

The second lesson about good customer service came from Senih Geray, the General Manager of the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen, CO.

I was scheduled to attend a meeting at Mr. Geray’s hotel next week, but due to circumstances in my family I had to cancel my reservation. When I called the hotel’s reservation department let’s just say that although the person with whom I spoke was courteous and business-like, she lacked a sense of compassion as to my plight, and then also informed me that I’d be paying a penalty which, I later learned, amounted to the entire bill. I sent a quick email to Mr. Geray in which I alluded to my situation but, more importantly, I wanted him to know how one of his staff was treating one of his customers.

Within just a few hours I received a letter back from this General Manager — who, I’m certain, has more important things to attend to — apologizing for the entire situation.

“There are certainly policies in place for every operation,” he wrote, “but for these very special reasons we make exceptions to the rule and accommodate our guests at these very stressful times.  Having said that, I will make sure that your reservation is cancelled and a full refund is issued by our Accounting Office at once. And thank you for bringing this matter to my attention, so that I can personally follow up with the resolution and the additional training piece that it will require with the reservations center.”

With such customer-oriented management providing such personalized service I will certainly stay in Mr. Geray’s hotel in the future. And fly Southwest to get there.

Jim Ferri

They’re at it again. The airlines that is, with their extra charges.

Southwest — which doesn’t assign seats in advance but puts you in line based upon the time you checked in online or at the airport — now charges another $10 if you want to go to the front of the line and board before others to get a better seat. I can live with that since it’s not really a fee but rather an additional service.

But British Airways has just added a whopper, and it’s not the kind you get at Burger King.

Starting October 7 BA will now charge you $30+ to reserve a trans-Atlantic economy seat or $80 for an exit row seat (and almost $100 for a business-class seat), if you want to reserve a seat in advance. I’m certain a few American carriers will be eyeing this as an opportunity to promote a second revolution against the British.

While I deplore airline’s nickel-and-diming of travelers (in BA’s case, penny-and-pounding us to death), the real sneaky operators are on this side of the Atlantic. And their names are American and United.

These two have just quietly added sneaky fees for November 29, January 2 and 3. In case you haven’t yet looked at your calendar, these are three very busy travel days — November 29^th is the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the 2^nd and 3^rd, of course, come immediately after the Christmas / New Year holiday.

American and United haven’t raised the price of tickets, but have quietly added $10 fuel surcharges for those specific days in order to gouge the traveler even more, hoping no one would notice. I guess jet fuel must cost more on those days that any other day of the year. Talk about devious operators.

Oh, wait a minute, I think I owe them an apology. I forgot that airlines do need to raise extra cash at the end of the year.

Isn’t that the time when they pay all those executive bonuses?

Jim Ferri