JetBlue is a low-cost American airline, known for their award winning customer service (not to mention DirecTV programming in every seat). They sell the majority of their airline tickets through their website. Since customer satisfaction is a vital factor in JetBlue’s business, reputation and brand identify, it is imperative that their website reflect this as well.

My main goal when visiting the JetBlue site is to search for and possibly purchase tickets when planning for a trip. Upon first entering the JetBlue website, there are input boxes that allow you to do just that. One doesn’t have to click a link first to bring up the boxes which is nice since this is probably what the majority of Users will want to do when visiting the site. However, if the User went to the site to check in or check a flight’s status, those links appear directly underneath.

Have you ever been to a travel site that required you to enter the departure and arrival cities 3 letter airport code? It can be quite frustrating because unless it’s a big airport (like LAX), I’m usually not one to remember what it is. Sites have gotten better and more flexible allowing one to enter the city name or the code. Others, like Southwest, provide a long drop down list to select from. Unfortunately, you are limited to the number of airports you can see at one time and may force someone to have to scroll down to find their desired airport.

JetBlue’s site has made it more elegant and easier to select by displaying a formatted list of cities and airport codes. Not only that, users also have the option to type in the city/airport code where a simplified look ahead search drop down box appears. Furthermore, since JetBlue flights in one city has certain cities it flies to; JetBlue filters them out for you when selecting the arrival city. Another nice feature to point out – JetBlue remembers a past search so next time you return, you can simply select it and the arrival and departure fields are filled in for you.

JetBlue has done a great job in translating the JetBlue brand experience on the web. The changes are so simple, yet make a world of difference compared to competitor sites. Not only will past customers continue to be loyal to JetBlue but new customers, who are busy trying to compare prices and flights on different sites, will have the impression that JetBlue was thinking about its customers when designing the site.