JetBlue TrueBlue - Flight Had A Delay 2X Longer Than Other Carriers, JetBlue Fails To Compensate

I have held off posting this here until I got a response from JetBlue. Since I have not heard from them in two weeks (they said they would respond within 10 business days if I qualified for compensation), my assumption is that I am getting no consideration from them.

In a nutshell, my LAS-JFK flight on 1/27 was delayed from take off for 3 hours, allegedly due to the poor weather at LAS (there was rain & fog at LAS earlier that morning but both had been clear for several hours prior to the scheduled takeoff) and the heavy rain that was going on in California (my plane was coming from LGB).

I KNOW weather doesn't qualify for a certificate according to JB's Bill of Rights and I am a rational person/customer. But when I went on Flight Stats, I saw that the longest delay on other carrier's LAS-JFK flights that day was only 1 1/2 hours (and many were on or close to on-time), clearly my delay resulted from some other problem JB had that day. They used the good ol' weather get out of jail free card and that is complete and utter BS!

Below is the text of what I sent to them
On January 27, 2008, my fiancée (REDACTED) and I (REDACTED) had the displeasure of flying on Jet Blue flight #194 from Las Vegas (LAS) to New York (JFK).

The departure of this flight was delayed for OVER THREE HOURS, due to weather. Las Vegas had some early morning rain and fog, which wasn’t a problem for several hours prior to departure.

I understand that weather is beyond Jet Blue’s control but the over three hour delay was beyond excessive. I looked on flightstats.com at other carriers LAS-JFK flights on January 27th, I did not see one flight delayed more than 90 minutes and many that were ON TIME (or quite close). So, clearly the weather was not a huge issue for them. Why was weather such an issue for Jet Blue?

I know that Jet Blue has taken great strides with its Bill of Rights to take care of customers who experience non-weather related delays, but I can’t help but wonder if the passengers on my flight should be due the same sort of compensation. The passengers of flight 194 had to suffer delays TWICE AS LONG as any of your competitors; I think that that the delays we suffered were due to more than just the weather.

Needless to say, my opinion of Jet Blue has been tarnished after this experience.

Not sure why you'd expect that all carriers on a route would experience similar delays. To some extent all carriers are affected, but carriers also do get to choose which flights to prioritize once ATC says that flights have to be cut/delayed. Take DCA-NYC, for instance. When ATC puts delays in place in the region Delta gives their Shuttle flights priority, while CO cancels their flights and consolidates them. The carrier has a choice, but with the weather delay immunity they have no reason to be more responsive to their customers.

In addition, since your plane was coming from LGB and there was severe weather there, I'm not sure why you're surprised that your flight was more delayed than others that most likely did not come from SoCal. Were you expecting B6 to somehow get the plane from LGB to LAS despite the weather? Conjure up a new plane from somewhere? Some other miracle?

Not sure why you'd expect that all carriers on a route would experience similar delays. To some extent all carriers are affected, but carriers also do get to choose which flights to prioritize once ATC says that flights have to be cut/delayed. Take DCA-NYC, for instance. When ATC puts delays in place in the region Delta gives their Shuttle flights priority, while CO cancels their flights and consolidates them. The carrier has a choice, but with the weather delay immunity they have no reason to be more responsive to their customers.

In addition, since your plane was coming from LGB and there was severe weather there, I'm not sure why you're surprised that your flight was more delayed than others that most likely did not come from SoCal. Were you expecting B6 to somehow get the plane from LGB to LAS despite the weather? Conjure up a new plane from somewhere? Some other miracle?

1. JB's flights earlier (take off closer to the bad weather) and later flights that day had far lesser delays.
2. Do the other carrier's planes magically appear at LAS or do they too have to fly them in from different locales? I am certain that other carriers originate flights from the LA area or San Diego and then fly through LAS to JFK or EWR. I know because I've been on such flights.
3. If you have a delay that is 90 min longer than other carriers, then something clearly is not right IMHO. "Weather" is too often used as a cop out by airlines.
Read this: http://www.elliott.org/the-travel-critic/5-things-airlines-won%E2%80%99t-tell-you-about-weather-delays/ (http://www.elliott.org/the-travel-critic/5-things-airlines-won%E2%80%99t-tell-you-about-weather-delays/)

1. JB's flights earlier (take off closer to the bad weather) and later flights that day had far lesser delays.
2. Do the other carrier's planes magically appear at LAS or do they too have to fly them in from different locales? I am certain that other carriers originate flights from the LA area or San Diego and then fly through LAS to JFK or EWR. I know because I've been on such flights.
3. If you have a delay that is 90 min longer than other carriers, then something clearly is not right IMHO. "Weather" is too often used as a cop out by airlines.
Read this: http://www.elliott.org/the-travel-critic/5-things-airlines-won%E2%80%99t-tell-you-about-weather-delays/ (http://www.elliott.org/the-travel-critic/5-things-airlines-won%E2%80%99t-tell-you-about-weather-delays/)

I know that "weather" dealys are anything but; I thought I made that point in my initial post with respect to the DCA-NYC market. The fact that the flight before and after had what you consider "normal" delays furthers the fact that the delay was, in fact, due to the weather issues in LGB.

Re your point number 2, I can't think of another major carrier that flies a plane from SoCal to LAS and then through to NYC on a regular basis. CO flies everything in from LAS/CLE/IAH. DL flies from SLC/ATL/JFK for the most part. They do have XJet operations from LAS-LAX but those don't continue on across the country. UA has most of their TED planes do out and back runs from LAX/SFO/DEN to LAS, though I'm sure a few continue through to IAD or ORD.

It looks like the only non-stop carriers on the LAS-NYC route are US/HP, DL, B6, CO and AA. I don't think any of the other three route their flights from SoCal to NYC. I'm glad that you were on one once, but that isn't really applicable to the current situation that you are in.

I know that "weather" dealys are anything but; I thought I made that point in my initial post with respect to the DCA-NYC market. The fact that the flight before and after had what you consider "normal" delays furthers the fact that the delay was, in fact, due to the weather issues in LGB.

Re your point number 2, I can't think of another major carrier that flies a plane from SoCal to LAS and then through to NYC on a regular basis. CO flies everything in from LAS/CLE/IAH. DL flies from SLC/ATL/JFK for the most part. They do have XJet operations from LAS-LAX but those don't continue on across the country. UA has most of their TED planes do out and back runs from LAX/SFO/DEN to LAS, though I'm sure a few continue through to IAD or ORD.

US also does LAS-JFK non-stop.

It looks like the only non-stop carriers on the LAS-NYC route are DL, B6, CO and AA. I don't think any of the other three route their flights from SoCal to NYC. I'm glad that you were on one once, but that isn't really applicable to the current situation that you are in.

I have been on a DL flight (several years ago) from LAS-JFK that had come from LAX and I am fairly certain that I was on a US (it was an America West flight at the time) flight that did the same thing.

As for the weather in LGB, it was bad all day that day (and for several days before--Calif. was getting pounded by rain). There is some other reason why my flight had such a ridiculous delay.

You have to remember that delays in other parts of the system will ripple throughout the day. An early morning FLL to JFK flight that gets delayed could cause problems for a BOS - RSW flight later that day if the same plane also flies the JFK - BOS flight (routing was made up for example sake). Sometimes time can be made up in the air which will reduce the effect on flights later in the day.

Delays are a part of air travel ... its out of anyones personal control to fix the situation. Everyone on FT has run into delays ... of every size, shape and airline ... its just part of air travel.

I have been on a DL flight (several years ago) from LAS-JFK that had come from LAX and I am fairly certain that I was on a US (it was an America West flight at the time) flight that did the same thing.

As for the weather in LGB, it was bad all day that day (and for several days before--Calif. was getting pounded by rain). There is some other reason why my flight had such a ridiculous delay.

DL doesn't route planes that way anymore. I have no idea if US/HP does, but it doesn't really matter, as that isn't relevant to your actual situation in the here and now rather than years ago.

With bad weather in LGB the inbound TO LGB might have been delayed because of the weather. Or it was delayed getting out of LGB because of the weather. Just because it had been raining for three days doesn't mean that the flights are all that much more likely to get out on time on day 3 versus day 1. The plane was 3.5 hours late out of LGB, so it isn't like it was sitting around in LAS waiting for weather to clear there or in JFK.

It was a 3 hour delay. It happens. In this case it actually probably was weather related, though at neither your origin nor destination. I'm not sure what you expect from all of this. B6 isn't going to change the way they route their planes, nor are they going to change the way that they account for the delay - especially when it actually was caused by weather.

S.

1. JB's flights earlier (take off closer to the bad weather) and later flights that day had far lesser delays.
2. Do the other carrier's planes magically appear at LAS or do they too have to fly them in from different locales? I am certain that other carriers originate flights from the LA area or San Diego and then fly through LAS to JFK or EWR. I know because I've been on such flights.
3. If you have a delay that is 90 min longer than other carriers, then something clearly is not right IMHO. "Weather" is too often used as a cop out by airlines.
Read this: http://www.elliott.org/the-travel-critic/5-things-airlines-won%E2%80%99t-tell-you-about-weather-delays/


1. What were the routings of the other flights?
2. What other airlines routed planes LA Basin->LAS->NYC?
DL, AA & CO don't. US might, but they have a hub in LAS which they use to swap planes to mitigate delays.
3. I don't think you have proved that. If the B6 plane was delayed twice due to weather (in LA and LAS) and all others only had to deal with one delay (LAS) then your delay sounds legit.

As for the weather in LGB, it was bad all day that day (and for several days before--Calif. was getting pounded by rain). There is some other reason why my flight had such a ridiculous delay.

So LA had bad weather and your plane came from LA. Is 90 minutes that ridiculous?

Have you tried calling 1-800-JETBLUE? Sometimes mistakes happen and your name might have been marked as being called/emailed when you actually haven't been notified. Tell them your calling about a flight that was delayed and you haven't recieved any information about possible compensation and you want to know where that stands.

I had a similar situation where Jet Blue cancelled two flights two days in a row while other airlines were flying similar routes, and JetBlue was flying plenty of other planes (in fact they took the inbound plane for my flight and redirected it less than an hour before my flight was supposed to take off). I sent a letter to Jet Blue in Salt Lake City asking for compensation since basically those few days I was JetBlue's b!+$h and stuck in NY till I decided to drive the he77 outta dodge.

I had a similar situation where Jet Blue cancelled two flights two days in a row while other airlines were flying similar routes, and JetBlue was flying plenty of other planes (in fact they took the inbound plane for my flight and redirected it less than an hour before my flight was supposed to take off). I sent a letter to Jet Blue in Salt Lake City asking for compensation since basically those few days I was JetBlue's b!+$h and stuck in NY till I decided to drive the he77 outta dodge.

Any response to your letter?

They let me know there would be no compensation.

Have you tried calling 1-800-JETBLUE? Sometimes mistakes happen and your name might have been marked as being called/emailed when you actually haven't been notified. Tell them your calling about a flight that was delayed and you haven't recieved any information about possible compensation and you want to know where that stands.

In my case, I did recieve compensation. Of course, my delay was 2 cancelled flights (and net delay of 30+ hours), and I provided copies of the receipts showing how much I spent on a rental car, along with a copy of a flight I booked on another airline the next week to NY (ie business JetBlue lost), and asked for the standard JetBlue credit (never ask for cash, period). In the end, I still spend money even after subtracting the credit but I considered that fair resolution for both jetblue and me.