Flying Buccaneer, you had a bad travel experience during the worst single-day blizzard in New York City history. I'm not surprised.
I also recognize that you're writing in the throes of anger and fatigue. But I still don't think you're being fair. You expect perfect knowledge and total courtesy from B6 during a gigantic operational meltdown in which perfect knowledge did not exist and the staff were probably working double or triple shifts. And you ascribe nefarious motives to B6, as if they set out to deliberately hurt you, when you were almost certainly a victim of 80 percent circumstance and 20 percent poor planning.
Originally Posted by Flying Buccaneer
When I asked if it was delayed, she said "I don't know," a phrase that I realize now should be JetBlue's slogan.
She was probably telling the truth, though.
When I asked an agent where the TPA flight was departing, she said "I don't know."
Ditto. If Ops hasn't assigned a gate, and/or the agent wasn't working the TPA flight, what do you expect?
At 10:50 p.m., the pilot... told us that there were 20 planes in front of us and that--assuming 2 minutes per plane--we should be ready to take off at 11:30 p.m. However, before 11:30, I heard on TV that a Turkish Airways plane had skidded off the runway. Though we were never informed of this, we were told that there was only one runway for takeoffs and landings. Considering the conditions, this was understandable.
Around midnight, our pilot told us that we were now number 15, and that takeoffs had slowed considerably, because some landing planes were in a fuel-critical situation. In the meantime, we inched our way toward the runway.
How is any of this B6's fault?
At 1:30 a.m. or so, the lights came on and the pilot stepped out of the cockpit. Not a good sign. He informed us that ops had reported that we were in a fuel-critical situation of our own...
Actually, a very good sign. He went out there and faced his customers. I've been in plenty of situations like this where the crew hides in silence.
... we would not have enough fuel to get to TPA. Odd, considering that the A-320 has a range of over 3000 miles, and that quite a few other planes had been in the same queue as us.
They don't fill the tanks full every time. They fill them with enough to get to the destination plus a reserve. Considering the unanticipating ground time you had owing mainly to the Turkish Airlines accident, this isn't odd at all.
By 2:40 a.m., we've barely moved, and the pilot comes back on to tell us that the gates are full, and that it will be another hour or so before we can get one opened.
What do
you think should have been done at this point? When you pushed back Ops figured you were gone and put other aircraft at the gates. Should they have broken off another flight's turn process and evacuated that aircraft from the gate to move you in? Now you've got
another busted flight.
By this time, many of us are beginning to believe that our flight has been cancelled and that the crew is not being honest with us. A FA denies this when asked.
What motive would they possibly have for lying? They should have made more announcements to prevent conspiracy theories from taking hold, but chances are there wasn't any news to pass on.
In all likelihood, JetBlue cancelled the flight at 1:30 a.m., with no intention of making reasonable accommodations for pax on it. The crew knew better than to tell us the truth.... JetBlue kept us hostage on these planes so that they would not have to provide any services for us at JFK.
If you honestly believe that this level of Machiavellian plotting and conspiring against customers really takes place at the height of blizzard ops -- when the whole system is in meltdown mode and plans -- make that "plans" -- change on a minute-to-minute basis, I have no sympathy. You're interpreting chaos as dishonesty.
JetBlue chose not only to deceive it's passengers, but also to keep them in limbo for 8 hours with no real hope of going anywhere.
Oh, come on.
But considering how they showed a blatant disrespect for their passengers, they do owe us something they've yet to offer--the truth.
Are you turning your story into a screenplay?
You had a rotten time and probably have a refund coming. But as near as I can tell, the only thing B6 did wrong in this whole episode was fail to clear a gate for you when you had to come back and top up the tanks. Towards the end of the wait, toward breakfast time, the crew went illegal. So, flight cancelled. They tried. Stuff happens. There was no conspiracy against you. It was just... the way... things happened.
Any UA flyer who's spent four hours in the ORD penalty box, or waited 90 minutes to deplane at EWR while they find a working jetway, knows stuff happens.
Next time don't try to fly during the worst blizzard ever.