Much has been written by several people on the JetBlue saga of apologizing for their cancellations. They actually took out full page ads detailing it on NY Times.

“The advertisement appeared in newspapers in New York, Boston and
Washington, D.C., said Bryan Baldwin, a spokesman for the airline. It
will be repeated on Thursday in several other cities affected by
canceled flights, he said. In total, it will run in 15 cities and 20
newspapers.”

“He refused to say how much the advertisement would cost the company.”

I can tell you if they ran it in 15 cities and 20 newspapers how much it exactly cost them – WAY TOO MUCH.

Instead if they would have consistently had an online community of their fliers, linked to their website which among other things can also be used to get closer to their fliers, will also allow their passengers to “socialize” with one another before the flight and after – (let me tell you I have met many an interesting personality on 11B, on the way from JFK to SFO) they would make raving fans of their already happy customers.

Not to mention they would have known who exactly to apologize to and hence made it less of a big issue.

Here is the ROI:
The best part of it all, building and managing this community I am sure will cost them a lot less than the full page ads.