I learn something new everytime I fly jetBlue... My intention is not to complain in this post nor seek advise on what to do. I think after about an hour on the phone with several jetBlue supervisors before and after the flight I got it more or less straightened out, but I'm still amazed how jetBlue made an elephant out of a fly just to get some money out of me today, be advised to protect yourself from similar misfortune.

As I posted previously I fly to Ft. Lauderdale quite often with my friend, in the past two months we've gone back and forth every week, I think I could qualify to be a resident of Fla right now since I spend as much time there vacationing as I do working in Jersey. But anyway...

I booked the flights as I did any other time, mind you my friend flies even more often than I do so I've booked flights for him in the month of July through BookingBuddy.com for $89 each way which is exactly the deal I got when I booked our flights together for this week and next. The EWR to FLL leg of the trip couldn't be more perfect, everything went right, it was awesome. But we seemed to hit a wall when he decided to stay in Florida over the weekend and cancel his return trip today and another for Monday going to Florida so he'd be left with a return flight at the end of next week.


Seems simple enough right? Well, not exactly. The customer service rep advised that since we booked our flights together we got a "Get-it-Together" rate, the same $89 he previously got alone mind you, and in order for him to cancel the flight he could exercise one of the two options:

1). Forfeit his own flight and mine would remain unchanged
2). Cancel his and my flights, and rebook my flight for an additional fee

Naturally I was outraged. Why should I be affected by something that I had no vested interest in? I did not ask for the "Get-it-Together" priviledge, it was system generated and basically designed to screw us out of our money by outrageous fees applied (this is what I meant they made an elephant out of a fly --- meaning instead of cancelling my friend's flight and charging him $30 bux cancellation fee for each trip... they wanted to charge both of us those same fees and the price of difference for the flight for me while rebooking it last minute - go figure)



After much complaining and reasoning, and more of the same, the third supervisor we spoke to agreed to cancel my friend's two flights so he could stay in Florida for another week, and cancel/rebook my flight for only $20 more since I should of received a $99 rate if I were to book my flight separately from his (which is bull$h1t) as I said I booked flights for him alone in June for $89 through BookingBuddy.com But anyway, my friend agreed to pay the difference for me since he was the one wanting to change the itinerary by cancelling his flight.



So there. Be careful what you do booking flights online especially if you're traveling with someone that might develop plans different from yours. At one point the jetBlue supervisor told me "JetBlue did you a favor by automatically enrolling you in a Get-it-Together program to provide you with a $10 discount" which obviously did not work!


The flight today was full. Everything was great, I was in the exit row seat which was pretty neat first time for me. There was a loonatic on the plane who got up and started walking towards the front bathroom while the plane was about three minutes into take off and the nose was banked high in the air... the all male flight crew was especially macho, one dude got into a heated argument with a customer who wouldn't get off a cell phone as they were doing the safety presentation, that he threatened to give the guy a writen warning after the verbal ones obviously didn't work... and as we approached Newark we were put in a holding pattern as there were delays on the ground, but we still landed on time. So like I said, other than the cancellation dilemma everything was perfect!


--Russ

PS. The thing that got me most was the fact that they jipped me 4 trueBlue points that I was supposed to get for booking my flight online, due to the fact that they made all those crazy changes thanks to Get-it-Together mess over the phone. What a bummer!

Sorry to hear about your mess with the fares...

Did you inquire about still earning the 4 extra TrueBlue points, since it was an extenuating circumstance? JetBlue TrueBlue is usually very accomodating when it comes to this...for example, when I need to book over the phone with a voucher (NOT a credit), they ALWAYS send an email to TrueBlue while I'm on the phone to ensure that I earn double points for the segments flown.

Anyway, I agree with you - you should not be penalized for an automaticly generated fare.

I called jetBlue after the flight... I had a bad feeling about fare (I was getting ready while my friend was arguing with them on the phone so I didn't really know what agreement they came to) so I logged into my trueBlue to find out the points were missing, so I called them immediately.


I asked Julie, the first customer rep that answered to speak to the supervisor, very politely in a calm voice, she put me on hold and about five minutes later Diana from trueBlue reward points picked up. I asked her if she was a supervisor and she said that she thought I wanted to talk about my trueBlue points. I insisted that I'd rather talk to the supervisor and she put me on hold for a very long time. It was literally 30 minutes, no lie. The wait wasn't so bad as her final claim: "All supervisors are at the meeting and one would have to give me a call back when they get out" I told her that I would rather call them back, asking them when she expects them to finish, to which she replied: "call back tomorrow since they were at the meetings all day today...."


weird? you bet I thought it was, but common sense told me to try my luck with her and so I asked her if I could please have my 4 points back since I had absolutely nothing to do with all the changes made today other than being friends with the guy. She said she would be glad to honor my request but the points would only be added a day after my flight back to Florida next Monday. I got a real sense of mistrust she had in me, but since I have no intention of changing my itinerary I told her that would work fine.


I don't know why I get this feeling but I think jetBlue is treating its frequent flyers worse than it would with a one-time client who for whatever reason has to make changes to his/her schedule. It seems everything is set in stone once you book your trip, and god forbid anything goes wrong, you're coming along for a ride of incredible extra fees.


--Russ

Conditions seem pretty clear here:

http://www.jetblue.com/travelinfo/ho...asp?topicId=18

But you may want to grab a screenshot, as there is no mention of EWR.