Sunday, March 4, 2007

Brent's Story - Thanks Brent!

Hi Brent - Thanks for your letter, it's disappointing to know that this is still happening. We are in the SAME boat with the cab. Charlie and I are out $100 on cabs, our first Valentine's day together and a trip to see my whole family who came down to LA to meet me. Does anyone know how hard it is to get 12 adults and 4 children to take a 6 hours drive to LA from San Francisco.

The good news is, I'm not giving up. I'm with you for the fight.

Love,
Gen

PLS HELP ME
Sun, Mar 4, 2007 at 2:12 AM
To: jetbluehostage@gmail.com

Hi I saw your blog and I need help - the issues at JetBlue have not gone away and I was hoping that you would post my e-mail to JetBlue to your blog for others to see. Thank you sooooo much.

I certainly hope that this e-mail has reached it's intended recipients. I have literally tried every other avenue to find any resolution to my horrendous issues with your airline. I know its long but - here are the unbelievable details . . .

Last night (03/02) at JFK in NY due to JetBlue problems, the 7:45 flight to DC – flt 1315 ended up getting pushed back and back and back and back somehow - got to the gate 7:15 freaking out because I couldn't even see the flight on a depature board; only to find out that it was leaving at 12am… then 1am… then 2am… then 3am…

Anyway over and over again, JetBlue staff claim that due to the fact that the delay is weather related I have no reason to complain. However there are no weather advisories in the areas that I am departing or arriving from; and also in terms of Federal Advisories there were none anywhere near the time period that I was supposed to even fly or didn't fly because of delay at this point. (7:15PM) the only weather delays were at 11am for rain.

meanwhile in between all of these "weather delay" excuses, your staff was literally freaking out about the angry people, a shift freeze, and eventually they know that this is getting so ridiculous that they may as well appear like they realize it too. then it turns into them not knowing where the plane is, the plane is coming from an area affected by weather... etc

I went to go find this customer service desk that you supposedly have at JFK however there was a HUGE line of upset customers. Lots more passengers were sleeping on the floors. People were supposed to be ALL over the place and having the SAME EXACT ISSUES as me. Anyway I refuse to even touch the floor in my italian designer suit - perhaps it's ok to some people to lay on the floor of the airport for cheap airfare but not to me.

finally, being as that there was no option for me to get there in any way shape form, I decided that it would be easier to switch to a morning flight rather then wait in the airport. I had exhausted my customer service options. I switched to an early morning 7A flight and gave up and took a taxi all the way home (and I had taken one to the airport too, at $50 each way from Brooklyn) versus waiting in the airport. At this point I have literally spent $100 on a cab fare to the airport and back for no reason whatsoever, and my ticket cost the exact same so we're talking $200 trip now vs $100.

I was degraded by not one, but many JetBlue employees via about 7 attempts to allow your company to care about its service during my many attempts to let them do something about this ridiculous issue. In particular - a man named Arnold at the JFK terminal infuriated me by being particularly uncaring - he should be fired - and he also specified that security stall me for no apparent reason other than the fact that he was making me disproportionally upset.

It is not fair to claim that it is weather related and uncontrollable when all they had to do was get a plane that wasn’t coming from an area affected by weather issues – why should I have to waste my time with problems that ARE solveable? Also the other people that were stranded were going to other locations nowhere near me. Other airplanes leaving JFK took off during this time.

So eventually, I went back to JFK, left myself time to complain for about the 10th time that evening, eventually gave up again, and sat at the waiting area at JFK Airport, already dealing finding that there are new delays on the new flight that was supposed to board 10.. 20.. 45 minutes ago…. if JetBlue is still in business tomorrow I would be shocked at this point really… I am waiting for some kind of announcement saying this literally I do not understand what is going on here at this point. People who were on other flights trying to get on this one too start swarming the desk. The lady starts freaking out and saying to whomever that she is communicating with that the customers are getting mad and she doesn't know what to do. They keep telling us that they are short a crew member and therefore we have to all wait for one? Eventually this poor frazzled woman who just got off some double shift arrived, and we finally boarded this flight.

By this point all of your staff cannot hold themselves together. I learn that one of your flight crew has never even flown on the type of aircraft we are on. They are visibly exhausted and trying to cope with your companies issues but the overall effect creates absolute fear for me - I get the impression none of these people, however kind they are - have any idea whats going on - and I start to feel like I am in the movie Airplane. At this point I decided that there is NO WAY that I will be taking my return flight back to NY 03/03. I do not trust JetBlue at this point. If your company is this bungled it is only a matter of time before you loose a plane.

I don’t care about the travel voucher that I should be entitled to under the bill of rights – the flight was $50 each way… it’s the principle of the situation and the horrible responses from the employees when all I tried to do was find some resolution - I just wanted to see my 86 year old grandmother for what might be the last time.

I absolutely refuse to give up re: this issue until someone proves me to me that JetBlue does care about me, a long term passenger. I gave your airline the benefit of the doubt and you let me down. If you have to charge me DOUBLE for your ticket that would have been fine if the service had been better at this point - its cost me an extra $200 in taxis. I will do absolutely everything to not let this issue rest until it has been resolved. I appreciate any response re: this issue.

6 comments:

Anon said...

The problem with Brent, and the creator of this website, is that you all have lost credibility. If Brent isn't going to fly JetBlue again, then he shouldn't really care about "resolving" the issue. Similarly, if the creator of this website will use her vouchers and then not spend more money on JetBlue tickets, drop it and move on.

I don't feel any more sympathy for people like you. Getting stuck on a plane sucks, but either take the compensation, or sue. But do the rest of the flying public a favor by stop acting like crazy people who won't be happy under any circumstances. You end up doing the flying public a disservice because you can't figure out what your message is beyond being overly melodramatic.

JetBlueWeHaveAProblem said...

hi, this is brent the author of the letter. i just wanted to write a response to this person who is calling me overly dramatic. i am overly dramatic in regards to this situation and i will admit this freely. the reason for my being so upset simply boils down to the fact that this situation is overly rediculous to me. i have never experienced this level of personal frustration with any corporation. at first i had hoped for the chance that the jetblue customer service would actually do any good. then, it became a matter of principle. i did not realize that i was buying a ticket on an airline that would "eventually" get me there at their leisure. had i known this i could have avoided the $200 extra cab fare plus a $90 amtrack ticket on top of the $100 jetblue fee, $50 of that i never used being that i refused to fly jetblue back to ny. i dont have time to waste, id have rather wasted money vs time in this instance. i want the public to know that flying jetblue is taking a chance that some do not have time to take in the first place. the lack of corporate responsibility to the customer leaves me no choice but to bitch. you never know who you are dealing with when you are in NY. I have a huge list of press and media contacts in my back pocket and i threatened that i would do something if no one helped me.

JetBlueWeHaveAProblem said...

oh and one last thing - certainly not least - i am very concerned about the safety of others in terms of this airline as a result of my experience. a company that is this disorganized is headed for a disaster sooner or later. i wish the federal government would investigate the issues at jetblue just to ensure that things are kosher. otherwise i felt as though i was flying on an airplane service that knew as much about flying as i know about sleeping on the floor of an airport, which is not much :)

sassyblue said...

As a JetBlue flight attendant that held you hostage i hope we go out of business.I hope you all get to pay 500 bucks round trip for the same flight with a bag of pretzels ands a cup of warm soda not the can.I hope you get stuck in a weather related delay that the company denies all responsibility for and that you get a big fat nothing.Next time book a ticket on another airline.Come back here and tell me how it was.My airline took responsibility for something they could have walked away from and even if you sued it would have been minor money.If you think we are that bad then go elsewhere then you will get what you want right?

JetBlueWeHaveAProblem said...

brent, back again; thanks for the commentary! i hope you are not one of the stewardesses who cant get the door of the plane shut :) as far as the cost - when you add in $100 for the tickets, $150 for the cabs and $90 for the amtrak ticket home, $500 for that trip is only a hundred some odd dollars away from the five hundred you quoted so im not sure what point you are making... other than the fact if jetblue dies out the other airlines will still be competing at their price points with or without them by this day and age... their celebrity star has fizzled out!

me said...

hahaha I love how you cannot touch the floor with your "expensive designer suit" yet are flying a "discount" airline. HAAAAAAAAA