Another example of consumer power

I'm always interested to see examples of travel consumers exploiting the new power that the Internet has given them, to complain about bad service.

A decade or so ago, it was only travellers like me (a travel journo) who could complain about bad service with any sort of clout. Travel and transport companies could safely ignore howls of protest from anybody else and, if the worst came to the worst, leave them to flounder about in lengthy and confusing claims procedures. Now they do so at their peril because anybody could have a 'loud voice' on the web.

This week's 'loud voice' is John Heald - Senior Cruise Director with Carnival Cruises who has pretty much had it with easyJet.

Unfortunately for them he writes one of the top 100 most popular blogs in the world (2+ million readers since he started just over a year ago) and in last Thursday's edition he ripped into the treatment he recently received at their hands.

Even easyJet, who in common with their low-cost airline rivals are notoriously thick-skinned, must have wondered what impact his comments would have on their reputation, particularly if it gets picked up in the blogosphere and begins to run...oops.