When I last flew back East I flew Jet Blue because they fly direct to Boston from a location nearer my home than many other airlines. Oh, and, the price was right! So, on my way to Boston my flight was delayed three hours. We waited on the runway while other planes were taking off due to "weather." I'll give it to the pilot though, he came out of the cockpit to make the announcement of the delay and said, "You know it's never good news when the pilot comes out of the cockpit to make an announcement." I am not a good passenger when it comes to "weather", I don't get sick, just nervous, the kind of nervous that a glass of wine or a few, depending on the amount of "weather," will do the trick. I braced myself the entire trip expecting the plane to start bouncing around like a ping pong ball in a wind tunnel. And, lucky for me, the flight was smooth sailing all the way cross country.
After my stay in Boston I flew through New York to visit with my sister and her husband for a few hours on my way home. My flight out of Boston was at 6:00 am. The flight actually left Boston at 9:00 am and I arrived into JFK around 10:00 am. That significantly cut into my visiting time but I was just happy to get a few hours to see them and chat. Because of the delays in the morning flight I continued to check on the status of my outbound flight from JFK home. There was no hint of delay on Jet Blue's website or by using the phone service. So, although the visit with my sister and her husband were short, I climbed back into a car and headed back to the airport for my flight home.
On the way to the airport I found myself grateful that the driver knew the way to the airport like the back of his hand because it began raining so hard that I could not see beyond the inside of the car. I thought to myself, "Uh oh!" We arrived at the airport and I piled out of the car with my carry on bag (having already checked my luggage through to home so I would not have to deal with claiming and rechecking it). I trudged through the terminal checking the monitors at each interval along the way and each monitor showed my flight as "On Time."
Since Jet Blue is building a new terminal the temporary terminal that my flight would depart from was a bus ride away. I boarded the bus at the end of one terminal and proceeded up the ramp at the temporary terminal. When I entered the temporary terminal a pit formed in my stomach as I noticed how many people were crammed into the small space and, further, the wave of people lined up six deep and across the terminal in front of the customer service counter.
I proceeded to my gate and queried the gate agent about our flight. He said it would be on time and no less than two minutes later they pushed back the departure time for our flight, now it would be leaving one and one-half hours late. As I sat at the gate I heard many a person discussing how their flight was cancelled. I telephoned my sister and gave her a heads up that the prospects of me getting out on a flight did not look good. She said she and her husband were checking the Internet and the online information still showed my flight departing on time. I was quick to tell her that the on line information was clearly incorrect.
As I waited flight after flight cancelled, those seated around me and I took turns approaching the gate agent to ask about the status of our flight. The gate agent all but assured us that the flight would leave that evening. As it got later and later and the gate changed several times, I phoned my sister and told her that although all information we had showed our flight leaving, I was not at all confident. I was sitting close to the gate agent when the manager came over and quietly told the agent that our flight would be cancelled. As soon as I over heard the conversation I phoned my sister in a complete panic and asked her to book me on the first flight out in the morning, not caring which airline. She booked me onto Virgin America, can you say "AHHH!"
The terminal was complete chaos and the gate agents clearly wanted us out. They instructed everyone not to stand in line at customer service but to call Jet Blue's 800 number and wait over one hour on the line to have the opportunity to speak to an agent. The gate agent also instructed us to proceed to baggage claim to claim our baggage. As I was waiting to settle up with my sister on the telephone I heard people saying that they were told that the earliest they would get out of JFK would be three or four days! Well, that was just not feasible for me because I have two small children at home who were missing their mommy. Now, in my pre children days, I would have been dancing to celebrate a longer stay in the Big Apple.
I followed the instructions to proceed to baggage claim where everyone from every Jet Blue flight for the entire day was congregated and the baggage staff were locked in the customer service office with the door closed like we would not notice they were in there. Every so often one of the customer service personnel would appear and tell everyone to form one line and they would not help anyone until everyone was on line. Then they would retreat back into their glass enclosure. First they would announce that luggage for certain flights would be loaded onto the carousels then they would tell us that we could claim out luggage at our destination. The crowd was understandable becoming agitated and beginning to get a little unruly. Before I was caught in a situation that I needn't find myself I left to go back to my sisters place figuring that my luggage would find me eventually.
I went back to my sister and her husband's place because they were gracious enough to host me for the evening, we ate dinner and had a glass of wine (not necessarily in that order). The next morning, early, I headed back to JFK for my flight home. I arrived home in one piece and my luggage followed me five days later.
I was so disturbed by the entire experience that I waited until a couple days ago, several weeks after the incident, to call Jet Blue customer service and request a refund. When I phoned, the agent told me she would have to "check with her supervisor" to see if they could issue me a refund or if I would receive credit that I had to use within a year for another Jet Blue flight. I was not impressed! I explained to the agent that I understood she needed to get authorization but that in the case that they decided not to issue a refund I would be contacting my credit card company to be reimbursed for the services I did not receive. When the "nice" agent returned to my line she said they would credit my Visa for the full cost of the flight.
What a snafu!
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