JetBlue’s Green Initiative Means Only One Change You’ll Notice

Last week, JetBlue announced its new green initiative called “Jetting to Green.” A lot of it appears to be an effort to put together a nice little PR package of things they already do. I wrote about the details over on BNET, but there was one thing that I wanted to point out because it will change the customer experience.

You know those crappy disposable headsets that they used to hand out? The ones that you couldn’t hear anything from even if you pressed them uncomfortably close to your ear? Those are toast. Oh, the airline will still offer the upgraded headsets for $1, but if you don’t have that kind of big money, then you’re on your own. No, this really isn’t much of a loss, but it’s something to keep in mind for your next JetBlue flight (mine happens to be this weekend). A JetBlue spokesman tells me that they went through about 20 million free headsets last year. That’ll be a nice little cost savings for them.

And that’s really about it regarding the whole “green” thing from the customer experience perspective. Oh sure, they talked about not having an inflight magazine to save the environment, but, uh, they’ve never had one. So that’s not a change. Again, it’s mostly just bundling it up for PR purposes, and as I said a couple weeks ago, that’s smart for them to be proactive here. But for you, well, you might be able to win a Prius, but that’s about the only major change you’ll notice.