Being bused to an international flight from the terminal is different then being bused from near the active runway. Secondly, I think it's been stated that the jetways were occupied. And again, 10 feet for some people can be a lot. Coming off a blizzard, I am sure the taxiways were full of ice. I am not sure how many time you go to Florida, but there are usually a lot of older folks and a lot of parents with younger kids. Those are not good combinations.

Secondly, the conspiracy theory that the airlines are intentinally keeping you captive on the planes doesn't make sense. In this age where fuel makes or breaks an airline's profits, it wouldn't make sense for them to be wasting fuel. If they wanted to refuel, then they probably still had intentions to fly you out. And if they could get back to the terminal and shut down the engines to save fuel, they proablably would have. However, it is possible that they couldn't get you off the plane. Why, I don't know and you don't know? It is something that only the ops. people for B6 at JFK will only know the reasons were for their actions.

My theory is this isn't done intentionally. it's that passengers stranded on planes too often get lost in the system when gate attendants are dealing with irate stranded customers from other flights and companies try to reroute flights. My point was there should be some automatic procedure.

p.s. after i posted my earlier comments on using steps instead of a jetway, I learned that there is a whole flyertalk argument thread on that subject of whether airlines should or shouldn't use steps in these situations.

it's here
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ferrerid=11426

I don't know if this was a response to my email to JetBlue, or if it was something automatically sent to all pax on Flight 29:

It's a nice gesture on JetBlue's part. To their credit, I don't know how many other airlines would have done this. I wonder if this was just for the flights stuck on the tarmac or all the flights that were delayed until well after midnight and ulitmately cancelled?

Hmmm....listening to the tower/ground ops ... I'm glad I wasn't there.

At least B6 admitted their fault in miscom. Hopefully they'll correct this in the future.

Out of curiosity, are you going to use the certs?

Irrops sucks big time for airline employees. At a hub, I can guarantee you that as long as ground crews can physically move, they aren't sitting on their butts. Everybody speaks of the great big giant conspiracy theory that is the airlines when things go sour. Try this one on for size: Nobody knows anything. As the turth is somewhere between the two points, I can all but assure you the truth lies fairly close to the later.

Everybody goes on and on about how "I know the flight is delayed, and the airline knows the flight is delayed, but the monitor still shows 'on time.'" You know what? You're right. The problem is that airline operations centers are staffed for normal operations. IRROPS increases their work load tenfold. I know, as I worked in one for awhile. When the people in charge of the operation centers only know that the flight is delayed, they're working on dozens of others as well. If the flight is "delayed indefinitely" with no real ETD, there's almost no point in taking the time to update the info. When I worked IRROPS in the ops center, I've had gate agents call me up when I've had other flights I'm working on (like clearing gate space to get inbounds in) ask about the ETD. First response: "Check the computer." Their response: "Computer says it's on time. It's past scheduled departure time." The FIRST thing I would do is throw in a two hour delay just to put SOMETHING into the computer. Wsa it accurate? No. Could it change either way? Yup. But without any accurate information (mine comes from system dispatch, unless the delays are local logistical issues like gate space and assignments) what SHOULD I put in there?

After 9/11, the few days it took to get the system fully operational sucked big time. Our crews and aircraft were all over the place. We had no idea which flights would actually operate until they pushed back. We had one plane, a captain for one flight, an FO for another, and an FA for a third. We'd finally put them all together and operate a flight, but which one? We had no idea until pushback. In that situation, what do you tell your customers?

I worked at IAD during the major President's day storm, in what, 2003? By that time, I was no longer with the airlines. That airport was at a standstill. The airport could only plow one runway at a time. It sucked. The city was no help with plowing local roads -- I actually drove to RDU that day, because I knew that if I left my car at home, it wouldn't have moved for two days. At that point, when people have been working double shifts with hundereds of angry customers, they reach breaking points. And if the city can't plow the roads well enough to get relief crews to the airport, you have trouble. Big trouble.

Somebody made a comment that you can't blame the airline for the "flights to nowhere." As true as that it, when it comes to customer service, it's usually not the screwup that matters, it's how it was handled that counts. If one wants to judge the quality of the airline by how they handled the storm of the century, the real question is if they can realistically expect better service from the competition. In this case, the two ECV's that B6 issued to affected customers I believe is sufficient. After all, what more could you expect?

How about "Delayed. See Gate Attendant."

or if you could get away with it: "Delayed. Look at sky for weather update."

I'd assume it was in response to your e-mail. I doubt JetBlue has the e-mail addresses for all their pax. Although, if you have a frequent flier account and have an e-mail address associated with that account, maybe they could send out automatic messages like this. The day an airline does that and proactively offers me an apology and/or compensation for a bad situation, I will be seriously impressed. It's probably cheaper for them to just respond to only those who complain, so I'm not holding my breath, but it would be quite a statement for an airline's customer service to be that responsive.

I agree that JetBlue's response is pretty reasonable. They admit that the situation was unacceptable to them and that they might have been able to handle some things better, even though the primary cause of the problems was the blizzard.

What you you think, Flying Buccaneer? Are you reconsidering your decision to never fly JetBlue again?

I received the same email so I am assuming they sent it to everyone on the flight that they had contact information for. I emailed them back and said thanks, but no thanks. Getting a voucher for the price I paid for my ticket does not convince me to take a chance on B6 again after the experience I had. For me to get from Tampa to NYC, I will stick with Song or AA even if the ticket cost is a little more.

The point is "we know nothing." The gate agents have to be briefed for the flight, and if the briefer knows nothing, neither does the gate agent. I guess my point is that irrops sucks for everybody.

I'm with res1968. I'm not really wild about the idea of flying JetBlue again. But to be honest, I rarely turn down free plane tickets. :)

I interpreted the email to mean that JetBlue was issuing two vouchers, each equivalent in value to what we paid for our RT tickets:
Our RT fare was $98 each, including taxes, so if that is the case, the vouchers amount to about $196 for each member of my party. That should be enough to cover a RT from TPA-NYC/BOS. But I will say that the vouchers are the only reason I would ever consider flying JetBlue again.

By the way, res1968, when/how did you get back to TPA? We flew the AA LGA-TPA nonstop on Monday night. We paid $414 for the two tickets, but it was the only way we could guarantee that we would actually make it back on Monday.

We flew the Song non-stop on Tuesday morning from LGA-TPA. Tickets were only $200 each and all JetBlue was offering us was standby till this coming Sunday when they could confirm seats for us.

Nothing says FREE ticket than sending an airline a letter whining on and on.

The fact that you're getting both a voucher for the full round trip and a second free voucher doesn't do it for you?

I mean, that's entirely your choice... But given that B6 had absolutely no liability here (legally - weather/airport caused delays), I think the fact they're not only offering compensation for the flight in question, but an addition 'we're sorry' voucher is pretty remarkable...

Obviously - not having the situation happen in the first place would have been the best solution... but it wasn't their fault, and they went so far as to apologize and offer you a substantial amount of vouchers...

I guess I can't figure out what more you'd want... Is it that hard to forgive?

My only contact with JetBlue has been a brief email sent via the "Speak Up" link on their website, at the urging of another FTer. I never asked them for anything, and I never expected anything. As I noted, it was a nice gesture on their part.

I can understand why res1968 would be hesitant. When I told my partner about the vouchers, his immediate response was "Do we really want to go through that again?" Sure, the chances of something like this happening again are slim-to-none, but it's not something I would wish on anyone.

Looking at it from another angle, it could be that proactively offering compensation is a way of acknowledging that they bear some of the responsibility for what happened? Whatever the motivation, as I said earlier, most airlines would not have offered the vouchers, and I commend JetBlue for doing so.

For the people that have posted how great Delta/Song is to them, I am sincerely happy for you. I am glad that you have found the airline of your dreams, fly them, praise them, great. If you don't like jetBlue that's fine too, but give the jetBlue bashing a rest. You had a bad experience, fine, Delta is great, go fly Delta, priase Delta at the Delta section, everyone is happy.

I like jetBlue because they've always done me right, I haven't flown Delta so I really have no opinion about them. I've flown UA, to me they've been good on international and lacking on some domestic. I'm not all over the UA forums saying jetBlue is the way to go, UA is crap. I praise the airline that I enjoy. We all have our preferences and experiences with the different carriers, stop trying to impose your bias views on the rest of us.

As for Flying Buccaneer when I first started reading all this thread, I took on a jetBlue evanglist position and was pretty annoyed, but putting myself in your shoes, I would have been just angry as you. I personally probably would've chosen not to fly that day, but that's just me. If you choose never to fly jetBlue again, that to me would be unfortunate. If you give them another shot and they screw up that experience too I wish you safe travels and hassel free trips in the future.