Life of an Internet Entrepreneur

JetBlue has always had creative marketing programs, like its customer bill of rights. JetBlue is back at it again, and has sent out a press release detailing its “Promise Program“. Under the Promise Program, JetBlue will refund your ticket fare if you lose your job (with some additional terms attached, of course).

This is an effective marketing program, because many people are hesitant to purchase tickets in the future at a time when the “future” is so uncertain.  This takes out some of the risk to the ticket buyer which is at the root of the problem for many customers.

As always, there’s fine print. The two questions I have about this program are:

• Doesn’t this program discriminate against self-employed workers?
• If JetBlue doesn’t accept the request, they automatically charge you a $100 cancellation fee, and return the rest in credit…don’t you think that should be optional? It doesn’t sound terribly fair.