Emergency Brand Management

Transparent backend systems integration is critical to brand management.

I called JetBlue to find that Sunday’s and Monday’s flights to Orlando were cancelled, and rescheduled for Tuesday. Then I called Disney Cruise Line‘s Cruise Command Center to rearrange our trip. They were helpful, within limits, and patient with my displeasure. Because, you see, while they were quite forgiving about fees related to changes, they had a problem: they could not reschedule the four nights at the resort. Nor could they refund any monies from our losing Sunday and Monday. Because one company, Disney Cruise Line, buys packages from another, Walt Disney World, and has no leeway to alter the terms of the package. It was just not possible for them to move the four days from before the cruise to after the cruise.

The could, however, cancel the land package, and give us a partial refund. Meanwhile, I would have to book those nights separately, with Walt Disney World.

The customer sees both companies as the same company, and expects them to act like it. Being able to act like it is a system integration problem, but it appears that contractual arrangements between these companies got in the way.