Robin N. Hayes is a British businessman who currently serves in the position of CEO of JetBlue.
Unlike some airline CEOs who may have worked in other sectors before working for an airline, Hayes began working in aviation when he graduated from college. The summer after he graduated, the engineering major worked by delivering duty-free items to passengers at Logan International Airport.
His next career was designing military cockpit avionic systems, but that was soon tossed aside when he got a job as a gate agent and at the ticket counter at British Airways.
Hayes stayed with BA for nineteen years, and eventually attained the position of Executive Vice President for The Americas. He also served as the General Manager for Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Hayes became JetBlue’s chief commercial officer in the summer of 2008. But with his eye on the position of CEO, he became a U.S. citizen in 2012, since that’s a requirement to be the CEO of a U.S. airline. He was named the airline’s president in January 2014, and CEO in February, 2015.
Under Hayes, the airline:
- introduced Mint, its first premium-class option (2014)
- begun charging for the first checked bag for the lowest class of fares offered (a’la Basic Economy) (2015)
- was the first American airline to resume commercial flights to Cuba after more than 50 years of air travel to Cuba limited to charter services.(2016)
- founded JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV). The wholly owned subsidiary is the venture capital arm of JetBlue that invests in and partners with early-stage startups at the intersection of travel and technology. (2016)
- announced a new JFK Airport Terminal Project, an extension of the airline’s terminal T5, replacing Terminal 7 and the former Terminal 6 site (2017)
- ordered 60 Airbus A220 300 aircraft, with the option for 60 more aircraft beginning in 2025 (2017)
- launched transatlantic flights to Europe (2020)
Granted, there have been some bumps in the road, too. The end of JetBlue’s partnership with American Airlines stands out, and who knows what’s going to happen with its offer to buy Spirit Airlines? But overall, Hayes’ leadership has been a positive one, to the point that in December, 2022, he was offered a 2-year contract extension. Good for him.
Hayes recently answered questions from students, faculty, staff and the public during a fireside chat at Quinnipiac University. One of the questions that was asked came from NBC CT Responds Consumer Reporter Caitlin Burchill. She wanted to know what was Hayes’ #1 consumer tip for travelers.
His response? How to write a complaint letter.
So, when you’re the CEO, you get a lot of complaints and that’s fine, it goes with the territory. And, most people don’t know how to write a complaint letter. If you want something done because you are unhappy and you want to get it in front of busy people, first, make it really short. You know, people write long letters because they think if they write another thing, but actually, you’re only as strong as your strongest argument.
He continued by saying to not write that you’ll never fly or work with the company you’re upset with again. He said it’s not a good incentive.
Instead, he suggested writing that you’re willing to give the business another go, if the company can make it right for you, the consumer.
I have to tell you that I 100% agree with that suggestion. Back in the spring of 1998, I was still living in Staten Island, NY and was visiting Walt Disney World for a long weekend.
I usually would love to stay at Disney for longer than however long my trip at the time was, but in this case, I had some other things going on:
- I had what was later diagnosed as a massive sinus infection and besides not being able to smell or taste a thing, I was also very fatigued.
- My 93-year-old great-uncle, who had been something of a surrogate grandfather to me, had been hospitalized and I was concerned about him.
- My father had been diagnosed with cancer 4 years earlier, and the cancer had since spread. He was scheduled to get an MRI the next day and I was very worried about the results.
So on that particular day, all I wanted to do was go home. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be that easy.
Our plane to Newark took off without a hitch but thanks to my then-undiagnosed sinus infection, after flying a few minutes, I started experiencing some massive pain in both of my ears – almost enough to make me cry. Once we got high enough and the pressure equalized, the pain improved a little bit but then all of a sudden we started descending again. What the hell? (well, I actually said something a little stronger than “hell”) More ear pain and more near tears. Anyway, we arrived back at Orlando International Airport, where the pilot told us we had a problem with the plane’s landing gear.
Awesomesauce.
That was around 1 pm or so. The flight crew said they hoped it could be fixed quickly, so they would keep us on the plane. At 2 pm, they allowed us off the plane because whatever quick fix they hoped would happen, wasn’t happening. So now they were trying to get us another plane. On a Sunday. During the week before Easter.
Good luck.
This whole time, our designated main contact was a Continental customer service employee whose sole focus was to keep us informed and, I think, to keep us in good spirits. I don’t remember his name, but I’ll call him Chris. Chris was wonderful. He was knowledgeable, he empathized with us, he had a good sense of humor, and he even knew how to de-escalate the passengers who appeared to be REALLY unhappy about this unfortunate turn of events.
Anyway, at 3 pm, Chris told us that he had some good news and some bad news and then some more good news. The good news was that they were going to have a new plane for us! YAY! The bad news was that it wasn’t going to be available until around 9 pm that evening. Ugh. But the more good news was that each party would be issued a free hotel room at the Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport, inside the main terminal building of MCO (Joe and I stayed there almost 25 years later!), until 8 pm AND each person would receive a $25 voucher to eat dinner anywhere we wanted at the airport. They unloaded our checked luggage so we could collect it (it was going to have to be loaded onto another plane anyway and that way if we wanted anything from our checked luggage, we would have access to it), told us our new flight number and which gate to go to later on that evening, and off we went to the Hyatt.
My fellow passengers’ emotions appeared to run the gamut from resigned to angry to everything in between. Personally, I was calm – just sad and anxious because I didn’t feel well and just wanted to go home to my ailing family members – but it was nothing that a good cry wouldn’t fix. And when I got to my assigned room at the Hyatt, cry I did. Hard. And then I took the best nap ever, followed by the best shower ever, followed by a meal at the Chili’s in the airport (which was only OK but that was my fault for eating at Chili’s).
The rest of the trip home went as planned. We all got to our new plane at 8:30 pm and were in the air right around 9 pm, as promised. I didn’t step foot into my house until just past midnight, but I didn’t care – I was home.
So yeah…with a bazillion opportunities to potentially drop the ball, Continental totally ROCKED that whole situation. So much so that I wrote to their then-CEO, Gordon Bethune, told him so and sang the praises of Chris. But I also let them know about the stress that delay caused me. And do you know what? Within 2 weeks, Mr. Bethune’s office wrote me back, thanked me for my kind words about Chris, AND sent me a refund for my flight. Again, more awesome customer service (and not something you’d EVER see nowadays). All I have to say is that it was a sad day when Continental merged with and was eaten up by United.
So yep – the right complaint letter – without blowing up, with being reasonable, by keeping it short, and sweetening it with positives, can make all the difference in the world. You GO, Robin Hayes!
H/T: NBC-CT
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