Shame On You, JetBlue. (Yeah, I Said It.)

Transcript of the letter of "concern" I just wrote to JetBlue:

Ok, I love JetBlue. You guys consistently have the lowest fares for the places I fly and the staff and crew have always exceeded my expectations for customer service. I was thrilled to hear about the partnership with Aer Lingus, which is my favorite overseas carrier--great service, great food, even their planes are cute!

The only thing that I don't like, and I mean REALLY don't like is that, in order to keep my TrueBlue points, I had to get an American Express card. It's not the fact that I had to apply for a new credit card to get them--I was ready and willing to do that! It's the fact that it's with American Express, who, in my opinion, provides the worst customer service. Along with millions of Americans, I was recently laid off. Which meant that my source of income was cut off, which meant that I had trouble making payments to my credit card. And I'm not talking about thousands of dollars worth of debt--I'm talking about small, monthly payments. $300. $25. $90. When I lost my job, I called Visa immediately and explained the situation, and asked what they could do to help me. (I had about $1500 worth of debt on that card that I had been working to pay off at the time I lost my job.) They bent over BACKWARDS to help--cancelled late fees and adjusted my rate. American Express could not be bothered to help--they've only made the problem worse, tacking on another $30 late fee when it took me an extra two days after my billing cycle ended to scrape together the $350 that it took to pay off my purchases that month. When I called to explain my situation, they even had the audacity to not only refuse to help, but to condescendingly tell me that I would "be hoping things would turn around for me." I'm sorry, but have you watched the news lately? Things aren't going to turn around for me, or any of the other millions of Americans who've recently lost their jobs anytime soon. What irks me the most is that I was never irresponsible with my credit card, and I'm not sitting on about $9,000 worth of credit card debt, which is the national average. No, I'm lying awake at night trying to figure out how I can make the $30 payment before May 13, when I'll get charged another $30.

JetBlue, I'm sorry if you've felt like this has been a tangent, but my point is that your company is one that constantly exhibits the highest quality of customer service, yet you've chosen to partner with American Express, who, at least to me, exhibits the lowest. So, from one of your most loyal customers, all I can say is: :(