A Promise is a Promise

[Winlow Alan <alan.winlow@marshalls.co.uk>]

The following text appeared in a large advertisement in a copy of the UK
Financial Times Tuesday 11th April. The advertisement was placed by easyJet
and reflects the work that they are doing in the area of customer relations
and improving the lot of customers travelling by air in Europe in general.

"A Promise is a Promise
Your money back when the proverbial hits the fan (or when the snow hits the
runway)
Dear Customer
At easyJet we take the punctuality of your flight very seriously. So
seriously in fact, that we will always refund the full cost of your fare if
your flight is delayed for 4 hours or more. This promise applies to every
easyJet flight, every day of the year.
Last Tuesday, 4 April 2000, we delivered on this promise in a big way.
London Luton Airport was affected by an unexpected snowfall that closed the
runway for 12 hours. Most airlines would have cancelled a large number of
flights leaving thousands of customers stranded. But, thanks to the heroic
efforts of our staff and the patience and co-operation of our customers, we
managed to fly almost everyone to their destination.
To prove that this was a very rare day for easyJet we refunded all customers
who chose not to fly with us on that day, or those that chose to fly but
arrived more than four hours late. This cost us nearly UK pound 600,000. But
we believe it is money well spent, as we want all those customers
inconvenienced by the weather, which is obviously not our fault, to fly with
us again.
Recent 1999 Civil Aviation Authority punctuality data, based on airlines
flying to and from all UK airports, illustrates that easyJet had a better
on-time record than BA.
Our four-hour refund promise goes to show that flying low-cost with easyJet
does not mean that you have to compromise  on punctuality.
Thank you for your continued support.
Stelios
(A slightly less well off)
Stelios"

Alan Winlow
Marshalls plc
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