I watched JetBlue’s travails over the weekend with interest. Last week’s snowstorm had caught them up, and thousands of travelers were stranded due to canceled flights (bad) and/or up-to 6 hours spent on planes stranded on runways (worse).

Shel Holtz appropriately gives JetBlue CEO David Neeleman props for coming out with a genuinely human response. The NYTimes’ front-page story described how Neeleman’s voice cracked with anguish, during a conference call with the media. He claimed to be "humiliated and mortified," and seems sincere. I agree with Shel — Neeleman comes across as a guy who cares, not a corporate drone speaking from a script. Good stuff.

But the irascible Stowe Boyd is also wise in pointing out that JetBlue’s official blog — the CEO blog, no less — has not been updated since February 1, and anyway, it is clearly a fake blog: it’s nothing more than a "commercial," posted once or twice a month by a marketing flunky.

Granted, most of JetBlue’s travelers are probably not blogophiles. And of course, there were more pressing things to do about the crises at the time.

But I am wondering what I’d be doing, if I’d been a stranded JetBlue passenger last week.

Whether in the JetBlue terminal (with its free WiFi — thanks Mr. Neeleman!), or stuck on the plane with my web-browsing PDA, I’d be furious — and furiously hunting for any scrap of …

• updated data about the situation and,
• some frickin’ humility. An official blog is certainly one place I’d try.

…And if I’d visited Neeleman’s blog and saw the headline, "2007 Takes Off In The Right Direction," (no comments allowed, by the way!) I really think I woulda’ blown a gasket.

It’s great to see some real humanity in a corporation’s response to trouble, but — when these major flare-ups occur — smart marketers (and CEOs) will want to make sure that their genuine humility is reflected across every public channel.

Update: More good stuff on JetBlue & blogging from Shel Israel.

Tags: jetblue, stowe+boyd, shel+holtz, david+neeleman

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