Why Do Airlines Still Make Consumers Telephone for Help?

I do not like to talk on the telephone. It is an odd admission for a journalist. But I have worked my entire career in the digital age, and my best sources — you know who you are — prefer to contact me via email, iMessage, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Public relations people may pester me via phone, but I rarely receive a call from someone with whom I wish to speak. Yet I spend an inordinate amount of time on the phone with airline customer service agents. I'm what you would consider a high-touch customer — I book complicated itineraries and often want to upgrade or change a flight — and with most airlines, I must place a call, wait in the queue, and explain my problem. Then the agent puts me on hold to conduct some research and perhaps chat with a supervisor. What if there was another way? Well, my colleague Dennis Schaal spent time last week with David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue Airways, to learn more about his U.S. startup airline, coming as soon as 2021. And while they talked network, fleet, and customer experience — "I could call this airline crap and people will love it because of the way I’m going to treat them,” Neeleman said — I'm more intrigued about what Neeleman said about how he plans to handle customer inquiries. “You don’t have to speak to us,” Neeleman said. “You won’t be able to speak to us. You’ll be able to reach out to us and you’ll be able to chat with us and we’ll call you. You won’t be able to call us because everything will be functional.” That sounds like a great idea. Many companies, including Apple and a fe