What is Jetblue doing for the customer's in this situation? doesnt look like a travel alert/waiver has been issued even though i would definitely consider this to be a major disruption in travel. 4 days in a row SEA-BOS canceled and counting! It's going to take more than one shuttle flight to get everyone out.
They're definitely letting people rebook without fees, the problem is that everything through the 25th is full.
I was on the 11:30pm on the 19th, then the 11:30pm on the 20th, then the extra 1pm added yesterday (21st), all canceled. After yesterday's extra flight canceled, the best reservation I could get was for the 25th, so if tonight's flight 498 gets to Boston, I probably won't be on it. (could go wait in line again standby at the airport, but I don't think I can take the family back for a fourth straight day without a little more hope of getting on.)
apparently we're 15th out of 300+ groups on the "displaced people list", so still hoping for an extra section tomorrow, since it looks like there won't be any today.
looks like 497 BOS-SEA canceled tonight already. That flight usually turns and goes to JFK. which means that SEA-JFK is gone tonight.
I think that they have a plane planned for JFK--I was at the airport yesterday at 2pm when they sent two crews home for the day because their planes weren't going anywhere... so it's clearly not a "usually" sort of day. Probably it's the other way around, i.e. 497 got canceled because the plane they want to fly to JFK is already in Seattle.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davidmay
apparently we're 15th out of 300+ groups on the "displaced people list", so still hoping for an extra section tomorrow, since it looks like there won't be any today.
I'm not sure that they have the aircraft available to run an extra transcon r/t. I know that they've cut capacity significantly so there theoretically are planes grounded, but I don't know if those can be put back into service right away or not. Plus, there isn't a lot of financial motivation for them to do it. Lots of PR to gain, but it costs real money to fly the flight versus just refunding folks money if they don't fly it. I wonder which way they come out ahead.
I'm not sure that they have the aircraft available to run an extra transcon r/t.
well, they at least tried to add one yesterday, so that gives me some hope that they're trying. obviously, perhaps they just added that flight because they had a plane they needed to get back to Boston that hadn't flown the night before...
Tuesday 23 December is supposed to be a good weather day until nightfall. That should help delivery of fresh suppliers of deicing fluid. (Each airline is responsible for sourcing its own supply of deicer, BTW.)
Runways are clear at SEA but Monday ops were as slim as 25% of normal, mainly because of the deicer shortage.
We expect more snow and/or freezing rain from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, so overnight ops (e.g. redeye departures) could be affected.
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Owing to heightened security you must comply with any crazy fake "regulation" we make up. Thank you sir.
Virgin America has space available on tonights 940 flight to SFO (222 each).
B6 then has room on the 24th overnight flight to BOS via JFK. Unless they add an extra flight (it looks like the other airliners are sold out also). All I can say is good luck.
davidmay..were you finally able to get out to BOS??
yes, we actually got to Boston at 2am, after a crazy sequence of events on Tuesday. Yesterday morning, I decided there really were no miracle pre-Christmas B6 extra sections coming, and I paid a ridiculous amount of money for the four available seats on AA's 11:55 am BOS-ORD flight (showing as delayed until 2pm at the time) continuing on AA ORD-BOS at 8:20am Wednesday. I also reserved seats on B6's ORD-BOS flight, scheduled for 6:55pm, but showing as delayed until 9pm.
Based on the scheduled times, there would have been 50 minutes to transfer at ORD, basically making it impossible to do it with 2 kids and three checked bags in tow, so I paid an extra $70 per B6 ticket to get a "refundable" fare. I was doing this as I was running out the door, so I made it a new reservation rather than a continuation of my old one.
After a crazy drive to the airport (local roads completely iced over, I-5 completely bare, requiring removing snow chains at the on-ramp) to get to the airport in time to pay for my AA ticket 30 minutes before its originally scheduled departure, we boarded that plane at 2:20, taxied out to the runway, and came to a stop. The pilot announced there was a ground hold at O'Hare and he'd update us in 45 minutes. After the longest 45 minutes of my life, during which I remembered why I try so hard to fly nonstop SEA-BOS during the winter, and fully assumed we'd be back in the Seatac terminal after another hour or two, we actually took off. We landed in ORD at 9:30, 3+ hours late in the end.
Called 1-800-Jetblue from the plane, found that 992 to Boston was currently leaving at 9:50pm, basically gave up hope. Got off plane at 9:50, found that the AA ORD-BOS 10pm flight we'd signed up to standby on had been cancelled, called Jetblue again, 992 listed as leaving at 10pm. Jetblue rep on phone confirms the 10pm time the automated system has given me, and tells me that if I cancel my "refundable" reservation after the 10pm currently listed departure, I can only get a credit rather than an actual refund. I almost decide to cancel at that point, but decide given how much else I've spent today, like the hotel room at ORD I already paid for, that it's not a big deal.)
Left family to collect bags and went to try to find the JetBlue counter; luckily it's at Terminal 2, only perhaps 500 yards from AA baggage claim. (100 yards of which are outside, but the walkway is covered so the falling snow isn't such a problem.) There's an employee at the B6 counter who seems to be getting ready to go home, the display behind the counter is a manually-operated one which shows all flights as "delayed" but doesn't give any times. I'm in luck due to the misfortune of others: the ORD-JFK flight took so long to be de-iced that it's crew is no longer legal, and it is cancelled and going to return to the gate. She says they can't start boarding BOS passengers until that plane is unloaded, so I have another 30 minutes or so.
The on-line kiosk won't let me check in (computer basically thinks my flight has already left) so she has to check me in manually, and she can't/won't do that unless my wife is there to present her ID. Miraculously, bags have come by this point, only 15 minutes after leaving the plane, so I run back to Terminal 3, find family pulling bags toward me, turn around, we all run back to Terminal 2 checkin counter, show ID, sign something saying we're "voluntarily separating" from our bags, repack a few small gifts into carryons, run back to Terminal 3 (because Terminal 2 security is closed), almost run over the two people in line ahead of us there, forget that we have a bottle of water in our bag from the last flight, run back to Terminal 3 to the gate, and arrive at the gate at perhaps 11pm, just as the last ten people are patiently filing past the gate agent. My family comes puffing up behind just as I hand over our boarding passes.
Pilot announces that our flight time is 1:40, but it will be an hour or so until we make it to the runway. The runways look like they did on Sunday in Seattle when everything was canceled, a solid blanket of white, but I'm guessing ORD's supplies of de-icer fluid are more substantial than Seatac's, and indeed we're in the air an hour later, on the ground in BOS at 2am, in the car of a devoted relative at 2:30am on the way to Cape Cod.
I called to release our reservation on the Christmas night SEA-BOS redeye and get that ticket refunded; I suggested that they might refund the $1600 I paid for the ORD-BOS tickets rather than the $1500 I paid for SEA-BOS, but was told that wasn't possible. Maybe I'll argue about that later, but the $100 difference represents a very small fraction of the total trip cost at this point.
Lessons learned: it's a good thing to have rolling luggage and a family that enjoys watching the Amazing Race; I shouldn't expect B6 to add extra flights just because people have been delayed five days unless they happen to have planes out of position that need to get home anyway; I should consider paying extra for an airline with more flight options during the winter. (but unfortunately, as long as AS and B6 are the only nonstop options, that's a little hard.)
Glad you were able to make it home safely. I was thinking about suggesting people use Amtrak but then I saw on tv about people sleeping in the Chicago train station for 24 hours while waiting for the snowed out trains. Perhaps Santa Claus is right about his mode of traveling .
Perhaps the lesson learned is to not travel during winter times unless absolutely required (life and death situations).
Quote:
Originally Posted by bmg42000
In the summer you have thunderstorm related delays. I think the best mode of transportation is to drive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sbm12
Yeah, because roads are always passable. And traveling 60 mph makes it easy to cover great distances. Or cross oceans.
I have had some great road trips and still set aside the extra time it takes to travel that way on occasion. There is also something great about waking up, after minimal effort and time, in a place far away from where you were. The book "Old Patagonian Express" by Paul Theroux is a great read and has a bit of commentary about different modes of travel, chiefly the old curmudgeon's take on how great train travel is when compared to an airplane. Happy trails to all, however you may go.
I shouldn't expect B6 to add extra flights just because people have been delayed five days unless they happen to have planes out of position that need to get home anyway; I should consider paying extra for an airline with more flight options during the winter.
I agree with you. It's not that you shouldn't fly in the winter unless it's "life or death" ( ); it's that you should protect yourself as much as you can against irregular ops and poor service recovery. JetBlue does not have the network capacity / robustness, or service recovery policy, to do anything out of the ordinary for people delayed for days at outstations like SEA. Make booking decisions accordingly.
__________________
Owing to heightened security you must comply with any crazy fake "regulation" we make up. Thank you sir.
