While I don't think that any other carrier fared particularly well over the past two days on the East Coast, I think that most of them are able to deal with situations like that better than leaving pax on a plane on the tarmac overnight. When NW had chronic problems like that in Detroit several years ago, it got Congress's attention enough for them to strongly consider passing "passengers' rights" laws specifying how pax must be treated in this kind of situation. (I don't think they ever actually passed a law, but I think they got all the major US airlines to make "commitments" to be more honest and open with their passengers.)

In any case, Jet Blue obviously had to make a bunch of tough calls this weekend, and I don't fault their lack of 20-20 foresight. I would, however, fault their handling of the situation once it went from bad to worse to horrendous:

• Not canceling flights - If they had cancelled flights too quickly and other airlines had managed to get their planes out, they would have lost revenue and angered a lot of customers.
• Boarding the planes, even with long ground wait time - Another calculated gamble, just like not cancelling the flights
• Not having enough fuel - Fuel is heavy and expensive to load when you don't need it. They should have loaded enough for the expected ground wait and a good margin on top of that, up to whatever the practical limit may be for an Airbus on that route, but I doubt there's any way they could have reasonably prepared for an 8-hour ground delay.
• Failing to allow the passengers to deplane - This may have been beyond Jet Blue's control, but it seems that they should have other options than to keep pax on a plane for 8 hours that was equipped to accomodate them for about 3.5 hours. This is the part of the experience that I would expect most airlines to be able to handle better.
• Not being prepared to handle reaccomodating pax when they deplaned - Most airlines have trouble with a storm this big, but IME, I have generally had better information and assistance in being reaccomodated. Sometimes, the airline has automatically rebooked me on the next available flight, and other times when there were too many pax to be reaccomdated reasonably (as was the situation here, no doubt), they have at least had someone there to tell me that there are no flights for the next three days and I might want to consider going home or to a hotel and rebooking from there.
  
  There's really no t much point in waiting in line for hours at the airport when you're not going to be able to get on a flight for several days in any event. If I'm going to have to spend all that time making changes to my tickets, I'd rather do it in a setting of my choice. Plus, it's easier to consider other alternatives (other airlines, train, car rental, etc.) when you're not stuck in line at the airport.

In short, I agree with a number of the OP's compaints about how Jet Blue handled the situation as the night wore on. However, I doubt it was an intentional action on their part to avoid taking the pax back to the terminal to avoid having to accomodate them -- after all, it was a weather delay; if they dropped the pax off at the terminal, they wouldn't have had any obligation to do anything for them, anyways.

I think this incident does reflect on Jet Blue's ability to handle tough situations, but it is just a single case. While I don't think they handled it as well as the could have, or as well as other airlines might have, it's not enough to outweigh the good experiences I have had myself and have heard about with Jet Blue. I would certainly be willing to fly Jet Blue in the future, although I might be a bit more willing to reschedule in advance if I faced a situation like the OP's.

I was on the same flight as Flying Buccaneer, and I feel exactly the same way he does. JetBlue made a serious error by not canceling this flight much earlier in the day, and then compounded the problem by:
1. Sending the plane out without realizing that it would require extra fuel because of the traffic jam on the taxiway.
2. Failing to move empty planes away from the terminal so that planes filled with people could pull up to the gates as quickly as possible. (The company had plenty of advance notice that several planes would need to return to their gates).
3. Telling customers, once they had gotten off the plane, that their flights had been canceled and that they would have to stand on an unbelievably long line just to get basic information.

This is clearly a case in which there is a natural disaster to blame. But it is also a case in which JetBlue exacerbated the problem by making very poor decisions and by failing to communicate with its customers.

BearX220 and other detractors can certainly acknowledge that JetBlue really dropped the ball. They took a bad situation (the snowstorm) and made it worse. I really can't understand why anyone would stand up to defend JetBlue in how it handled this matter -- even if they think JetBlue is a good airline overall. There were lots of things outside JetBlue's control, but every single thing that JetBlue was in control of, it screwed up. And it screwed up royally.

I am willing to bet that there are hundreds of people who will never fly JetBlue again because of this incident. Ours was not the only plane that returned to JFK Terminal 6 after an eight-hour pleasure cruise on the tarmac. If you had spent one minute in Terminal 6 this morning, you would know that JetBlue had made some terrible decisions. If you had seen the weary families, carrying their worn out children, not knowing how to get home and not getting a shred of assistance from JetBlue staffers, you would not be so quick to stand up to sing JetBlue's praises.

I think the Flying Buccaneer is angry (and that comes out in his writing) but he's done a very good job of explaining what happened. Better than I could have done! I hope that airline insiders will read this and figure out what to do right next time, instead of lay blame at the OP's feet.

By the way, for those of you who say Flight 29 passengers should have rebooked, we were told by JetBlue all day Sunday that there would be no problem and that the flight would go out Sunday night. In all my many years of travel, I've never been on a flight that was cancelled eight hours after it had pushed back from the gate.

Actually everyone sticking up for Jetblue is wrong. They should of canceled all of their flights for the day like other carriers. By having all of these delays and angry coustomers, they are creating a bad image for themselves. Plus they must of wasted so much money on fuel , that it is ridicules .

Maybe. On the other hand, I flew in a similar snowstorm for my honeymoon 10 years ago this month. We flew ValueJet. They were the only airline flying out of Logan that day, so they had the runway to themselves and as soon as Massport cleared the runway we were off, just 2 hours late and very grateful.

So, the airline took a chance, and we took a chance, and it worked out. If it hadn't worked out, we'd have been sitting on the airplane all day and feeling angry, or we'd have skidded off the runway and died, but sometimes you just have to take chances.

JetBlue did all sorts of things wrong in this case, but simply trying to make the flight go out was not necessarily one of them. The biggest thing they could have done better was communicate more. Or better yet: they could have used some of that wasted 8 hours to help each passenger, individually, to rebook -- BEFORE they even reached the gate!

You forgot to say that everyone should fly Delta and that Jetblue should go away. Not that we couldn't already figure out your bias.

I too am with Bearx220 on this one. When your flight was decided to be cancelled several hours later, your flight crew have already spent the maximum time allowed by FAA. Jetblue(as well as others) have the problem of finding replacement flight crew which is typically not available in a weather of this magnitude. The LGB flight crew was just beginning their flight day and probably was the reason your aircraft was changed and cancelled. It's not the airlines fault, but a combination of crew availability and mother nature. Jetblue is not at fault.

Jiburi

For the record Ive never flown on JB, although I do hope to.

I do feel that they most definitely Dropped the Ball, as I wrote above already they really should ahve simply Cancelled out ALL of their flights under the circumstances as most Carriers eventually did.

Maybe they were hoping to beable to say once we were allowed to fly we did so why fly with anyone else.

JB should be taken to task for their LACK of concern for those aboard the planes that did in fact leave the gate and simply stood somewhere on the Tarmac for so long.

Tonight EVERY newscast in the NY area had a clip of the FAA knowing on Fri that a BIG ONE was coming in, no question about it. ALL the Carriers should have immediately put Warnings up and offering EVERYONE aComplete opportunity to rebook their flights. This wasnt done as even CO on Sat night ONLY waviered the penalty fee BUT NOT any fare difference unless they had already CANCELLED the flight themselves How Heartless!!

I personally had over a dz friends call me on Sat night asking what to do. I said REBOOK as I did to 3 on Fri. Most didnt why cause the Carrier hadnt Cancelled the flight and they thought theyd get out sometime, most are still waiting to find a way back home tonight.

I understand fully that it can be days before one can find an available seat back , but theres no way I would have left my plans as is, for a flight yesterday to/from the NorthEast. If I had a flight say FLL-IAH-LAX I would have called CO and find out if either of the 2 flights Aircraft were coming from the NE and therefore might not be available for the flight and the chance for a sub then.

But NO WAY would I have gone to any Airport wher the flight was gonna be to or from the NE. I couldnt care what the Carrier was saying. my folks told me to rebook them for today, I said no way even if its available stay in MIA till Tues at the earilest as even if you get into EWR it will be a pain to drive to EWR an dback, by Tues things should be close to normal on the roads. And So they remain in Florida till tommorrow, and a good thing at that, finally got the cars shoveled out this afternoon.


The Point is as much as MOST of the BLAME is on JB and the other Carriers for being $$$$$ hungry and not cancelling what they should have known would be very delayed flights if they flew at all. and allowing passengers to believe since the flight wasnt cancelled yet that its OnTime and will go, again my parents flight was showing On Time even 1 hr after it was to have taken off yesterday and with EWR still CLOSED. Its a TOTAL lack of CARE for the flying public at large, why did so many people have to go to an airport and hang out for hours before finally being told nothings heading up North?!

and YES Why did JB send its planes out ONLY to sit and sit and sit on the Tarmac for hrs.

ALL the Carriers are gonna simply hide behind "its weather related, and Not our fault". WRONG the snow and closing of the Airports were weather related BUT the lack of sesitivity and Care towards its Passengers was and is Totaly in their Hands and has NOTHING to do with the Weather.

I was trying to get the OP to realize that JB did MESS UP but so did he.Those few friends who listened to me had a very nice day yesterday, and I got calls Thanking me today. Those who didnt listen, paid the price yesterday , today and will do so again tommorrow. 2 cant get out before Fri, had they listened they would have at least been in a Hotel room rather then spending the past 36 hrs in an Airport Term.

when ever I hear of a possible Hurricane heading to X, If there I get out if Im suppose to fly there I dont. Sometimes it turns and goes esle where thats OK, Id rather be safe then Sorry.

I disagree. Jetblue mainly has only one hub, JFK and 98% of its flight operate from Northeast corridor, BOS/JFK/LGA. If it cancelled every flight, it's entire network is shut down, and major loss to the airline. A low fare carrier with little overhead can't do that. It must keep the passenger moving, no matter how minimal so that it can keep its system moving. This is why Jetblue, I'm sure, operated this flight because it had available staff and the aircraft, plus the airport was still open.

Other airlines don't have the Jetblue problem. Major airlines have more than one hub city, and it can sustain some disruption in hub operation as they can redirect passengers using different routings.

Jiburi

Bucc-

I am sorry for your bad experience - seriously... But I think you are understimating that absolute SNAFU that was last night at JFK.

check out this thread-
http://www.airliners.net/discussions....main/2603221/

There are links in that thread to the ATC archives (audio files) from last night, but it was pure Chaos- planes on the ramp started running out of fuel while waiting, but so many planes returned to gate that there weren't enough gates left (let alone any path for them to get there)...

I mean - I've dumped airlines for less, don't get me wrong - I think you have every right to be upset...

But understand what you went through last night was a SNAFU of near legendary proportions...

If I were you, I would at least take the time to write jetBlue and explain your complaints, even refer them to this thread if you want (people actually read the 'contact us' page there... More than you can say of most)...

Hey, worse case scenario, you get a chance to vent... Best case- you get a perk or two... could be worse.

Hope You were able to enjoy tv during this horrible experience, but i do think you should give JetBlue another chance ive been flying since the begining and ive always been happy. You Got Unlucky. Hey atleast you werent on the Turkish Airways flight. Its a young airline, and i have noticed that some of the crew is clueless. I was on a Fort Lauterdale to Long Beach flight, refueling in washington dc then contiuning on to Long Beach and some fellow passengers that were also clueless started saying isnt this flight going to Oakland? one of the flight attendents announced that the flight would continue on to oakland soon, i figured after she heard the clueless passengers and there was a loud huh? in the plane. Anyways the flight attendents disscussed it and they found out its not going to oakland amazing they didnt know that where they were going. Just give them a chance.

Oh yea this is A JetBlue bias forum only jk jk :)

Thank you Bear for answer the question exactly how I would've, thereby saving me the time :p

Yeah, I agree that jetBlue could've canceled that flight earlier, but I don't fault them for having a reasonable belief they could've gotten it off either. I don't think ANY airline (US-based at least... we all know the reputation of one airline that begins with "R" and ends in "-yanair :D) is in the business of tying up one of the aircraft (AND wasting fuel) just to keep pax "hostage."

I'm sure some news crews would love to hear your story. NWA had the same problem with one of their planes a few years ago in DTW and it forced NWA to come up with their passenger rights guide.

Regarding 'hostage', keep in mind that the crew was in the same boat as you were with the delays. Nevertheless, I think the outcome absolutely blows and JetBlue (or maybe Port Authority) should have done something differently. Heck, everyone could have emergency deplaned and walked back to the terminal barefoot in the snow in less than 8hrs.

there was nothing that B6 could have done, once you pushed and got in the queue, even if those planes at the gates were empty, there was no way that Ground control could have gotten you back to the gates, there were A/C on every taxi way. Would you have preferred that they took the A/C off-roading? As an earlier poster said, you rolled the dice, you lost.

Perfect Storm
 

I can't imagine what a horrible experience you had. However, I just read the whole thread on Airliners.net and to tell you the truth this sounded like an ATC nightmare of historical proportions. It really seemed like a perfect storm of bad luck: Historical blizzard, Runway accident causing runway closure, multiple medical emergencies on various flights (which makes sense with elderly/children etc waiting for 8 hours) feuding and bickering between pilots and ATC, AT contollers on for 24 hours in straight in the tower, a Virgin plane stopped w/ engines off blocking the only route left back to the gates from one of the runways. I can't imagine it worse. Many flts did take off, especially international, but I highly doubt B6 crew had any idea of what would ultimately happen, until possibly near the very end of the horrible ordeal. They probably realized they timed out at some point, but it was such a mess and there were so many B6 flts in the same dilemma that it was madness.

One thing I think B6 did wrong, operationally, was try to get so many flights out on such a terrible day. They should have cancelled many more flights from the onset, and as someone said "cut their losses", and only tried to get some of their flts out. That would have made the AP open up a lot more and save a lot of grief, but i don't think the crew knew too much, nor were they really at fault.

If you had read my entire post, you would realize that what made this experience truly horrific was being left on the plane for another 5 hours after being told we would have to refuel, then realizing the flight was cancelled (only because I saw it on their website; no one else ever told us), and not having anyone available to provide assistance (or even basic information). For these things, JetBlue is at fault.

Actually, that's the only thing that probably kept many of us sane. There were 5 babies (that I could count) on the plane, and at least one was crying at all times. However, once 3:00 a.m. rolled around, about half of those 36 channels were showing infomercials. LOL.

Yeah, B6 did it with 4 of its aircraft. Whatever B6 "is in the business" of doing, this is what happened.

Wrong. For the last 4 hours or so, we were out of the queue, off the active taxiway, and for the last 3 hours, we were in sight of terminal 6. This would not have involved "off-roading."

B6 "rolled the dice" when it decided to send a bunch of planes out on the taxiway when traffic was barely moving. Given that international flights had priority, B6 should have realized these planes would be taxiing for a couple of hours, minimum. Maybe B6 will learn from this experience. Unfortunately, about 600 pax on 4 planes were part of B6's learning experience.

Good point.