CHICAGO -- The customer bill of rights and the $30 million that JetBlue Airways will hand out in vouchers and expenses related to last week’s operations meltdown could deliver more impact than any marketing executed by the seven-year-old airline. Or the new policy’s downside is it creates an entitlement that would make profitability even more elusive.

By proactively enacting its own customer bill of rights, the No. 9 carrier, in terms of operating revenue, has grabbed industry leadership on the issue of reconciling with passengers on delayed and canceled flights. That policy eventually will include compensation for lost or late luggage, said airline spokeswoman Jenny Dervin. It’s a reform that flyers—particularly grass roots groups like the Coalition for Airline Passengers’ Rights and "Travel Insider" e-newsletter publisher David Rowell—have been pleading for since long before 1999 when 4,000 of Northwest Airlines passengers were stranded, some for up to eight hours, on airport tarmacs during a Detroit winter storm.

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