Thanks for the update, Sent.

I have the same feelings about JetBlue as you. I generally like their product, but I pretty much use them only as a back-up airline because they are too inconsistent around weather delays.

I had almost no expectation of actually flying out last night, but booked the ticket on JetBlue because they claimed to still be flying and were the only airline that could "guarantee" a seat. Since I had already "mentally prepared" myself for the idea that I wasn't going anyplace I was able to watch all this with a degree of amusement while others were clearly getting very frustrated.

I attribute JetBlue's failures this year and last year to being too aggressive in wanting to keep the planes flying. I thought that perhaps after last year's experience they would have learned their lesson. A small part of me now wonders exactly what it will take for them to actually learn the lesson. Hopefully not a tragedy.

I watched the interview on CNBC after market close - the CEO was talking about the flight to Aruba being cancelled, in response to Maria Batiromo's question, he said this was the first time such unfortunate thing happened, that they did not expect weather could be this bad, blah blah blah...

Wasn't similar mishap happened the same week last Feb?

Can we please stop using the term "hostage." They were stuck in a plane with TV and food, so they were in an "uncomfortable and undesirable situation."

Anyway, so let's say that the ground is salted, and snow cleared, and busses ready, and they are deboarding. In the process, a person trips at the top of the stairs and pushes people into the frozen tarmac, with injuries. So, now you need emergency vehicles along with the busses to get the people away. This would be followed by a class action suit, saying that they were in a dangerous situation, and we would be here criticizing B6 for letting people out on an active taxiway in a storm.

Next, hypothetically, you shut down both engines for the passengers and disembark. But, then, the engines freeze and are unable to restart. So, if there are any planes behind the aircraft, they are stuck until a tug is able to move the aircraft. If that takes a long time, than the passengers demand to be let off, which causes more and more passengers to disembark onto the taxiway, causing even more chances for dangerous situations. Security is not an "excuse," it is a valid reason, because anything can, and will happen.

.....

If they were hostages, they the flight crew and the airline should be put on trial for criminal charges. Being hostage is a serious crime. Since there is no law on the books that makes this illegal they weren't hostages... If they wanted to get off the damn plane, open the freakin' door, set off the emergency slides and jump down. Oh wait, you might go to jail for that... why? Because that is illegal.... hostages... I doubt more than 50% of the people absolutely HAD to be on that plane. Sure the experience sucked, deal with it.

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Yep...
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=525916
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=526431

Definitely amazing that Neeleman says on camera "we've been around 7 years, and nothing like this has ever happened to us before". He has apparently forgotten about last year. Strike 2.

Again, holding hundreds of healthy able-bodied people in a frozen coffin because someone might go mental or might be disabled or might slip and fall is just an outright poor choice. Someone might go into a diabetic coma too. The possibilities are endless. Do we all have to be treated like the least common denominator?

People go mental and slip and fall every day at workplaces and shopping malls. But we as a society don't fell compelled to drum up the cliche "security " card.

Exactly what I heard, and my jaw dropped...

Let's say Neeleman CONVENIENTLY forgot what had happened last year and wished no one would ever notice.

This is incredible, and reading some posts here defending JetBlue action is even more mind-boggling.

We met a couple from NYC on our last cruise. They said JBLU was terrible in its pricing practice. Us who never flew it but were considering it for some "cheap" one-way between Florida and NYC fares were discouraged to even try it. I was thinking about using it to go to a wedding in summer, and now I definitely had second thought.

Tell these people that sitting on the ground for 8 hours is being held hostage.

http://www.airliners.net/discussions....main/3259991/

Who says that they were all healthy able-bodied people. What if there was a handicapped person on the flight? And you are right, all of those things could happen. And guess what happens. The people don't take responsibility. There will be 20 Ambulance chasers ready to sue the pants off of Jetblue. Once those passengers board the plane, they become the responsibility of the airline to safely deliver the passengers, so they won't be taking frivolous chances which could result in legal matters for the company.

"People go mental and slip and fall every day at workplaces and shopping malls. But we as a society don't fell compelled to drum up the cliche "security " card."

Yeah, and people get fat from Twinkies, and burn their tongues on coffee. Then, they sue McDonalds and Twinkies because they weren't aware of the "risks" that they faced. Stupid, yes. Welcome to America.

"Do we all have to be treated like the least common denominator?"

A group is only as strong as its weakest member.

People, people...

I saw the interview on CNBC today and David Neeleman did NOT lie in any way. NEVER in jetBlue's seven years has the airline had so many airplanes with people on an active taxiway. Maybe one or two last year - but ten this year, that's a different story.

The customers on this plane were held hostage? PLEASE! Get real. Our government never stepped in after the 1999 NW incident or the more recent AA incident. There is no law that jetBlue broke in this situation. Imagine if this happened to be on an AA or NW plane for instance. No TV (media reports lied - TV was on), no snacks, and TERRIBLE legroom. I'm not saying jetBlue is right. They responded to a bad situation in a TERRIBLE and UNACCEPTABLE manner. The fact is that if I HAD TO BE in this situation, I'd rather be stuck on a jetBlue A320 than an AA MD80 or NW DC9 any day of the week.

Oh, and customer service? Again, get real. JetBlue ranks number one in pretty much every poll...

JetBlue made a mistake yesterday - it's not the end of the world. JetBlue's future will not be ruined because of this mistake. I can guarantee (due to common sense and probability) that for every person who will "never" fly jetBlue again due to this, there are thousands who will fly jetBlue.

More like, they offered a free ticket because there passengers were on a plane for 8 hours!!!

Did AA offer a full refund and a free round trip ticket to ALL customers? I believe AA just threw miles at the problem.

It is very very very unfortunate that this even happened. The old saying is "Hind sight is 20/20. Well we can't go back and change what we did, but we can try and try to make up for it. The only way we can do that now is by offering customers a full refund and a free systemwide round trip ticket.

The context of the conversation was having planes on the ground with passengers stuck on them for hours at a time. To say they have never been in the situation before is definitely misleading. Its not the number that matters its the situation. If its 7 or 15 next time, he can again say its not the same situation?

Bottom line, pax were stuck on planes AGAIN at the SAME airport. Apparently nothing was previously done after last year's events. Had something been done between last year and last week, those learnings may have helped with this year's events. Unfortunately it looks like last year never even existed.