A reader shared their experience flying JetBlue last month.between Fort Myers and Boston. Their flight was cancelled several hours prior to departure. The flight had gone mechanical.
The next flight that JetBlue offered was two days later. They told the agent they did not want that. They were still pushing for alternatives, but the agent processed a refund of the ticket. The passenger acknowledges there could have been confusion over what they wanted – they were frustrated with what the airline was offering, they kept declining traveling two days later.
They wound up booking Delta flights on their own. It cost them an extra $100 per passenger, arrived home 10 hours later than scheduled, and incurred extra meal costs in transit. They got in too late to take public transportation home from the airport, and were stuck with an Uber ride as well “(I don’t think I can dig up the UBER receipt, but returning at that late hour we were unable to take public transportation”).
They reached out to JetBlue looking for compensation or credit. After all, they thought, the cancellation was JetBlue’s fault, and JetBlue was responsible for their extra costs. JetBlue’s response was a hard no.
[O]ur team has shared your concerns with JetBlue Leadership, and a final decision has been made. While we’re unable to offer reimbursement or compensation in this case, please know this determination was not made lightly.
So I thought walking through my thinking process here might help.
- I much like JetBlue in the air, but everything on the ground before and after takeoff I find them to be a mess. Their operations haven’t been great. They aren’t as reliable as Delta, Alaska or even United.
- No regulation requires them to rebook a passengers on another airline. They’ve made an enforceable customer service commitment to do so but only on airlines with which they have a partnership. They don’t interline with most domestic U.S. carriers. This is actually an upside of their upcoming United partnership!
- They are required to offer a refund, which they did.
- It’s not 100% clear, but it seems like the passenger wasn’t satisfied with the offer of a refund and didn’t authorize JetBlue to cancel travel plans and issue the refund.
An agent’s first flight offer shouldn’t be the end of the discussion! I often find that what’s available when an agent first searches changes…. when flights get interrupted people are moving from one flight to another quite a lot and seats open up. So they might have had a better option a few minutes later. JetBlue shouldn’t have cancelled and issued a refunded without authorization.
- That’s where there may be a viable complaint, and since JetBlue isn’t going anywhere with their customer service responses that’s the basis on which a passenger might complain to DOT.
- When searching for alternate options keep checking online to see what seats might be for sale because if a ticket is for sale on the airline (or one they partner with) they should rebook that option.
- Look to see what credit card was used to purchase the flights, and whether that card has trip delay/trip interruption coverage that may cover incremental costs (including Uber, and that receipt will be in your online Uber account).
It seems to me that the customer should probably have been clearer about wanting to keep working towards another flight. JetBlue shouldn’t have been so quick to cancel. They’re not likely to pay for the extra $100 apiece it took to fly Delta, but they should offer a trip credit or some points to win back the customer.
After all, the whole ordeal was their fault in the first place. And if they had been able to accommodate the passengers on another flight, they would have been on the hook for meals and transportation as well.
They can’t “dig up” an Uber receipt – wouldn’t it be on their phone in the Uber app? (Or are they using “Uber” as a synonym for “taxi,” as many do nowadays?)
Yup – can’t understand the not being able to ‘dig up’ an uber receipt.
Not nice of JetBlue, for sure, but technically airline met their legal obligation, which is to re-book or refund. If pax refused the re-accommodation 2 days later, not sure what the other good option would be other than to refund. I suppose they could have kept the PNR with the canceled flight and active funds available, but if they were refusing the re-accommodation option offered and were not regular JetBlue flyers, that might not help, either.
This is one reason I put LCC options at the bottom of the list for book for a trip. B6 is better than most from a comfort/amenities standpoint, for sure, but without interline agreements, with a cancel, you are at the mercy of whatever they have available on their own planes for re-accommodation. With severely limits the options in IRROPS. Say what you will about United, but over the years, and yes, definitely not as good as they used to be in this respect, they have been able to re-accommodate me – sometimes on their own planes – sometimes on Star Alliance partners and sometimes on non-partners to get me where I’m going within several hours. Not always proactively, but everytime I’ve asked about specific routings I’ve found, they’ve worked with me. I can count on one hand the times they wouldn’t over the last 20’ish years – even when the issues have been weather/ATC related.
As for credit card insurance, depending on the specific insurance and reason for the canclation, it might or might not help. Always worth a claim.
When I read “they can’t dig up their Uber receipt” my antenna goes up that these are people trying to get more compensation then they deserve.
Maybe Jet Blue could do better but also maybe they see this customer as a scammer trying to get more than they deserve?
A JetBlue agent saw an opportunity to lighten their workload and headache. By quickly giving the refund to a complaining passenger, they were able to move on to others in the same predicament and potentially more willing to be accommodated. Should it have been handled in that manner? No, but I can’t really fault a stressed agent either.
Sounds like the agent knew there were no possible flights but the passenger kept insisting on finding something. What else can the agent do but refund?
Uber receipt? What is an UBER receipt? You get the info on your cellphone.
Sounds fishy.
Fort Meyers is not a large, bustling metropolis. I stayed in nearby Naples a couple of years ago. A better solution would have been to rent a car one way and drive east, making reservations on the way at either Miami or Fort Lauderdale. They should have been able to cut hours off of their trip and probably find cheaper tickets. Understanding that the USA only require a refund is key. Quit fighting and start making plans. JetBlue may have even had a flight that could have been caught out of one of those cities.
Same thing happened to my grandson flying on American. He was booked DTW-DFW-COS and ” “weather” forced cancellation of the DFW-COS leg. AA could not rebook for 4 days, and only offered a refund of the DFW-COS leg. No assistance and not even a meal voucher.
I rebooked him on DL into DEN and a shuttle to COS. Claim through Amex Plat is pending.
But it’s not just B6 – it’s all the mismanaged bottom of the heap airlines.
Unless it’s maintenance no airline is going to interairline you, even top elite flyers. Additional costs outside of what the airline agrees to pay (hotel, food, ground transportation) are on you. It’s called sh%t happens when you fly. Flights are jammed full. YOU need to do your own research and find alternatives with the airline because otherwise a burned out, harried agent is going to give you this kind of option.
This morning at 5AM at DFW looked to be about 500 still in line at the rebooking center because of weather in Dallas and AA’s inability to recover operations in a satisfactory matter. Even as a CK I was on my own to figure it out. No hotel rooms around at 11PM. Spent the night in the airport. Sucked but I got through it.