Stephen D: Another "Hostage"

I'm starting to put quotes around the word "hostage" not because Stephen was NOT in the same situation as me and I'm being sarcastic (insert image of a sarcastic person doing air quotes with thier fingers,) but because of getting reprimanded by that JetBlue employee for using the word so lightly. I have yet to properly respond to him, but since he was sentsitive to my using the word, I'll make note that not everyone knows to not take things so literally.

Love,
Gen

I too was held hostage, but luckily I was not on a plane. My Jet Blue 8:45 flight #711 bound for San Juan left the gate about 9:00am that morning. We sat on the tarmac for about an hour and a half. The pilot came on the public address system and announced that we were going to be delayed and he estimated a 12:30 departure and that he was taking us back to the gate so we could de-plane. At 12:38 the pilot announced the flight was indeed being cancelled and that all passengers should go to carrousel #2 to collect our checked luggage. I received my bag at 5:50pm...over 5 hours later! There was another flight to San Juan, #701, that was supposed to take off about 3 hours prior to mine. All of those passengers were also waiting and received their bags about 30 minutes before the passengers on my flight.

We were given excuse after excuse by 3 young, but untrained members of the Jet Blue staff. One young staffer even said that his co-worker was watching our bags come off our lance. That was about 3 hours before we actually received the bags.

My problem was that there was no one to take charge and make things happen. Someone of authority should have been present to give an order for the luggage to be taken off the plane and delivered to us. After all, the plane was only a few hundred feet away from us. But, no one with authority had the guts to face the increasingly irate paying passengers. Instead, they allowed these “kids” to take the brunt of the customer’s frustration. Those “kids” deserve battle pay for what they had to put up with so that their cowardly bosses could shrink from their corporate responsibility.

In retrospect, my trouble pales in comparison to those passengers forced to wait on a plane for up to 11 hours, but the problem I experienced is symptomatic of the total meltdown that Jet Blue experienced last Wednesday.

Thanks for listening and thanks for what you are doing! Your efforts are appreciated by more people than you possibly know about!

Stephen D