jetBlue's Customer Bill of Rights Unveiled

That's jetBlue CEO David Neeleman, who is paving the way for a jetBlue customer bill of rights. The full details will be revealed this afternoon, but customers who encounter delays will see discounts towards future fights starting at $25 for delays on the tarmac up to free tickets if left on the tarmac for more than three hours. These rights will be retroactive to February 14, when the Valentine's Day massacre of jetBlue's schedule began.

The future-flight vouchers would increase in value according to the length of delay. In the case of departures that are delayed one to two hours, for example, passengers would get $25 off a future flight.For a delay of two to four hours, the passenger would receive $50 off a future flight. With delays of more than six hours, passengers would be entitled toa free round-trip flight equal in value to the one bought for the delayed flight.

The payments are retroactive to last Thursday and the stranded passengers from the day before, an icy Wednesday, would also qualify for the flight credits. Similar flight vouchers would be given for delays in getting passengers off arriving flights. Arriving passengers on a flight stranded on an airport tarmac more than 30 minutes would get $25 off a future flight. Again, the discounts would increase as the delays lengthened, up to a round-trip ticket for a delay of more than three hours.

For departing flights that are stranded on the tarmac away from a terminal, passengers would be given $100 off a future ticket for a delay of more than three hours. If the delay is more than five hours, passengers would get round-trip tickets, and, unless takeoff is imminent, the plane will return to the terminal to let passengers off.

The penalties for stranding passengers on departure go into effect later because of the long lines that develop for takeoff at some airports, Mr. Neeleman said.

One potential problem is that the airline open itself up to liability at crowded airports like its JFK hub, where there are too many flights scheduled at peak times that result in delays and waiting for departures. Still, this appears to be a good start.

UPDATE:
jetBlue has posted the full details here. The keys are departure delays and ground delays. For departures:

DEPARTURE DELAYS
Customers whose flight is delayed prior to scheduled departure for 1-2 hours due to a Controllable Irregularity are entitled to a $25 Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue.
Customers whose flight is delayed prior to scheduled departure for 2-4 hours due to a Controllable Irregularity are entitled to a $50 Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue.
Customers whose flight is delayed prior to scheduled departure for 4-6 hours due to a Controllable Irregularity are entitled to a Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for the oneway trip.
Customers whose flight is delayed prior to scheduled departure for more than 6 hours due to a Controllable Irregularity are entitled to a Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for the roundtrip.

For ground delays:

For customers who experience a Ground Delay for more than 5 hours, JetBlue will take necessary action so that customers may deplane.

Arrivals:
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Arrival for 30-60 minutes are entitled to a $25 Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue.
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Arrival for 1-2 hours are entitled to a $100 Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue.
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Arrival for 2-3 hours are entitled to a Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for the oneway trip.
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Arrival for more than 3 hours are entitled to a Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for the roundtrip.
Departures:
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Departure for 3-4 hours are entitled to a $100 Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue.
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Departure for more than 4 hours are entitled to a Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for the roundtrip.

It remains to be seen if other airlines follow suit or whether this new policy will be tweaked depending on how well jetBlue manages going forward.