Lousy IRROPS, and horrible recovery
 

I was scheduled to fly from Bradley to DC Reagan last night nonstop arriving at 9:45pm. I went to the airport, discovering on the drive from the parking lot over Jetblue had canceled my flight and rescheduled it for 2 nights later, arriving Sunday night at 9pm. I had a prepaid hotel in DC, the Fairmont, in a suite, two prepaid tours, and a prepaid show, all non refundable. I never got my text alerts, which is what I rely on and what I've always gotten. I've flown Jetblue exclusively as a domestic airline since 2012, and I have 180,000 points with them. When I told the agent about being rebooked so late, he told me I did not book with Jetblue directly - I did, I always have, and I checked in late, which I checked in promptly. He did absolutely nothing. I had to book a train to get to DC, which cost $300 plus the $40parking plus a taxi since it arrived at 2 in the morning plus having to now fly home, get picked up by someone, and then driven to the train station to get my car. The cancelation was based on weather. Any thoughts about what I should ask for?

I'm presuming that Bradley refers to BDL. If wrong, disregard.

All you get is a refund of your ticket. No penalties apply. Your travel insurance may pick up some or all of your Amtrak ticket and other incidentals.

The northeast between RIC and BOS was a mess so hardly surprising that B6 cancelled. As a general proposition, always affirmatively check for delays & cancellations, especially when there are known travel problems. I have no idea when B6 cancelled, but it would obviously have been nicer for you to head for an earlier train.

That really sucks, OP. You should ask for a refund but I wouldn't expect anything more. The weather was pretty horrific in the Northeast last night with huge rolling delays all over. It's not surprising that you were cancelled but I'm very surprised that you didn't get an alert. As Often1 mentioned, travel insurance will very likely cover you for some/all of the cost you incurred. It sounds like you got a very unhelpful agent. If you run into this problem again, just hang up and give it another go.

I've been reimbursed for Amtrak tickets when getting cancelled at JFK in the winter as a data point.

This was actually the agent at the airport. And of course, I booked my tickets with my Jetblue credit card like the loyal Jetblue flyer I am. I am pissed at the agent attacking me for saying I did not book with Jetblue and I did not check in early-blaming me for their fault. They have given me credit for non working video systems and a child kicking my EMS seat for three hours, so it seems logical they should be giving me something as a longterm loyal Jetblue customer they really screwed. I fly Jetblue at least 5 times a year RT- I can't remember the last time I flew another domestic airline. And yes, it was Bradley! And there was a bit of limited space on earlier flights. Had I waited for a agent, I would not have gotten a train-they were pretty much sold out as well!

Aside from complaining about the agent via the proper channels (Email, Twitter), I highly doubt you will get anything. Your flight was cancelled because of WX and they are not at any fault for that. Very likely that agent had as long of a day as you did. It was a horrible day of travel and these things happen. Remember to claim your travel insurance.

What outcome did you expect the agent to provide for you? I get that they were brusque/rude but if the flight is cancelled and you are already rebooked on the next available flight what can he/she do for you? The agent didn't cancel the flight or not send the text messages so I'm not sure what bickering with him/her was supposed to accomplish other than waste more of your time.

If it was an airport agent, I would have immediately asked for their manager.

As other posters have stated, it's helpful to track the flight via the app before heading to the airport. When I'm at an outstation like BDL, I track both my flight via the app as well as my fIight's tail number via FlightRadar24 so that I know exactly when my plane is expected at the airport. I've had delayed flights before where I don't even head to the airport until I know the plane is less than 2 hours from landing. I realize sometimes these things happen after getting to the airport or en route, however, it's always good to be proactive rather than relying on the airline to communicate. As we all know, JetBlue IT is far from perfect.

I hope they reimburse you for your ticket.

I really love the B6 Mint product, but B6 does not provide acceptable irrops support. Even as a Mosaic traveling in Mint, when my connecting flight caused me to miss the last flight of the day out of JFK to SFO, I was given no help, no advice, no food or overnight assistance and no appology. I had stayed up all night since there was no acceptable place to sleep and got myself on the earliest flight out, which I had to book myself since B6 did not offer to help. I wrote them afterwards and they ignored my request for either reward certs or points.

But do I still fly B6? Yes, because I love Mint. I just wish they had some semblence of irrops support for passengers, particularly Mosaic customers.

I'm a jetBlue fanboy but I'm questioning my loyalty after bad IRROPS recovery both ways for my family of 4's vacation this past week.

Part of problem seems to be realtime flight status communication to their staff. Part seems to be what staff can and cannot do on their terminals at any given time. Part seems to be different priorities of different staff members. Part appears to be software that relies on schedule as opposed to realtime status information. see "Return".

Outbound: Friday JFK>ABQ cancelled. Rebooked on Monday flight. Since we were going to Mesa Verde NP and were going to drive, we asked to be booked onto the not cancelled Friday JFK>SLC, JFK>PHX or JFK>DEN flights. Phone agent said sure, that will be an additional ≈ $1600, $2000, or $1800 to get onto those flights. They were willing to waive the change fees, but we had to pay the difference between our tickets and the walk up fare. Ended up on JFK>SLC flight. There were still some open seats. I resent the upcharge for creatively solving our mutual problem. Insult to injury, the IFE froze so my row couldn't dim the screens, change channels or volume. Emailing CS in hopes of some relief from the upcharge.
A shout out to Homewood Suites ABQ for not charging me for cancelling after deadline once I told them the reason.

Return: Pardon the Tome,
Saturday afternoon LAS>JFK cancelled; called CS. They couldn't get 4 of us back to JFK with Sat. departure. I was put on LAS>BOS>JFK with our 1 checked bag so that I could get our car. The rest of family was booked on LAS>FLL>EWR.

Saturday night: Plane arrived at BOS gate. FLL gate had LGB bound plane in it, delayed awaiting incoming crew. Then a dust and thunder storms hit LAS. Incoming FLL plane diverted to ONT, LGB flight still no crew, BOS flight boarding held due to lightning. Internet search showed no availability on later FLL>NYC flights. Called CS, They said that BOS flight now had 3 seats, but they could only be ticketeded by the GA.

Went to understaffed BOS gate. GA didn't see the now open seats but said the change could only be made by CS. Recalled CS. While on hold GA saw open seats but could not change. New CS agent couldn't rebook because plane was shown to have departed. CS also didn't see incoming FLL plane's diversion to ONT. We put the GA on the phone with CS. Meanwhile the GA was trying to preboard. She finally got help at the gate but was still unable to make change. CS needed to transfer us to a different department. We're on hold. BOS flight is boarding. Explain situation to 2nd CS department. They release seats, GA prints BP's. CS and GA would not book onward BOS>NYC flights for family on my flight due to MCT. See BOS CS or GA we are told.

BOS flight takes off late. Connection possible, but will be close. Search showed later B6 BOS>NYC all full. Amtrak almost full. Couldn't connect to B6 via Twitter. Bought 4 Megabus Boston to NYC tickets as insurance. Insult to injury 2, the IFE audio jack on the red eye was broken.

Land late: Connection still possible. BOS>JFK flight at last call. 13 passengers rush FROM C-19 to C-32. We explain family situation to GA. He says flight is overbooked and to hang on. Wife tells me to board. Plane has 5 open seats and at least 1 non-rev. They have a chance. 5 minutes later door closes without family on board. GA told them that he didn't have time to make their changes plus get the flight off on time and sent them to BOS CS. BOS CS couldn't book them that day (Sunday). Family took bus back to NYC. The checked baggage didn't make the connection and has been "on the way" for the past 24 hours.

I get how hard WX makes things and it's been a really bad summer. Things change very quickly and there are a lot of moving parts. I've had issues with all of the airlines but find the legacy 3 much better at recovery even if you don't have status. In similar situations I've been told to board, take any available seat, and that the GA will fix the paperwork before the door closes on multiple occasions.

The single flight stations are a huge issue, and I'll think twice before booking one of those flights in the future. But for flights where there are options - the lack of empowerment of GA's and CSA's to make changes, either by policy or by software, is a bigger issue. The inability to get current information out to all just makes every situation worse.

*UPDATE*
B6 has refunded the upcharge for the change of station, and has given my family the requested credits for their inability to get them from Boston to New York. The checked bag arrived 26 hrs after landing and I was given a credit for that as well.

Runner123 I feel for you, BUT, we all know that this is jetBlue.

We fly jetBlue because when things go well (which is what happens almost day) it is the best domestic airline. However, when things go bad, it is the worst airline.

Bottom line problem with B6 is that it does not have interline agreements with the other domestic carriers. This means that in IRROPS, all B6 can offer is its next available service or a refund. That will not help much in the case of massive IRROPS such as OP experienced, but that is not always the case.

This leaves one with the option of accepting the B6 reroute or taking a refund and booking whatever else is better.

Not frequently. What I would say is other carriers can have you connect through one of their other hubs. Let's say BOS-SEA was cancelled on Jet Blue. Your options are probably the BOS-SEA the next day or possibly connecting through JFK.

If the same thing happened on Delta, you could connect through MSP/SLC/DTW/ATL or if those are not looking good they can, as a last resort, accommodate you on another airline like United.

This is so true although WN is not much better in IRROPS.

With the interline arrangements slowly going away, I find that I haven't been allowed or offered an interline rebooking in a long time. The legacy 3 just have more options to accommodate a stranded traveler.