New York Local News

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Hundreds of JetBlue passengers experienced nightmarish delays at JFK Airport in Queens on Wednesday, and many were stuck on planes without food or water for up to 10 hours. One passenger described her day as "hell on a trip to nowhere." Here are other horror stories of Wednesday's mess at JFK submitted by other passengers.

E-mail us your JetBlue or JFK horror stories.
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My wife and I had our long planned honeymoon canceled due to Jet Blue's ineptitude. We were to fly to Bermuda on Sunday the 18th....4 days after the ice storm. Having been an airline pilot based out of LaGuardia, I didn't think that 4 days after a storm an airline would still be reeling from 1 1/2 inches of slush and ice. Evidently I was wrong. Saturday morning I check the Jet Blue web site and find that they have canceled flights to a long list of destinations...Bermuda among them...for the entire weekend. I then speak to friends of mine who fly for Jet Blue who tell me that the company has canceled most of their Embraer 190 flights from JFK. Lovely. I call Jet Blue to find out of I can be rescheduled on a flight during the week but am greeted by a message stating "due to the volume of calls we are receiving, we will not be able to answer your call." I then go to their web site and follow the steps to get a refund...only to learn they are putting the money in my "true blue" account. I don't want to fly on this airline ever again....I want my money back. Let's recap to this point:

They cancel the flight. They don't notify me. I can't contact them over the phone. I learn they voluntarily opted to discontinue the flights through the holiday weekend. My money isn't credited to my credit card...but is in a true blue account.

I learn that if I hit 0 prior to the recording on their 1-800 line, I can get to speak to a representative.

After 30 minutes of waiting, I finally get to speak to someone who verifies that my credit card has not been credited - but does remedy that over the phone for me. She also tells me that the Bermuda flights are booked for the next few days. Thank God the hotel in Bermuda is run by great people who rebooked me without any fees for April (and held the off season rates). I find out this morning that Jet Blue again canceled the same city pairings for Monday. I feel bad for anyone flying on this airline. Any of the legacy carriers can re-book you on other legacy carriers and get you where you need to be. I rebooked on American Airlines for April - it cost $40 per person more....money that I feel is well spent. I'll never try to save a buck with Jet Blue again. Thanks David Neeleman. Trust me, you're in my thoughts as I sit here freezing on my week off in NY when I could be with my beautiful wife in Bermuda.

--Chris G.
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Hello from Seattle! My daughter Kyla is a 17 yo music student who has played the cello for 9 years. She has been working very hard practicing 5-6 hours a day in order to fulfill her dream of getting into a major Conservatory next Fall. She has been offered auditions at Julliard, and New England Conservatory among others. Her first audition was to be at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY Feb 16 - 9am.

We purchased our JetBlue tickets several weeks ahead of time. Her flight was supposed to take off from Seattle at 11:59PM Wednesday Feb 14. It didn't take off until 7:45Am the next day. This caused her to miss her connections to Rochester NY. She spent another 9 hours at JFK waiting for a plane, then a crew to take her to Rochester. She arrived in Rochester around 3AM - 6 hours before the audition of her life with no sleep and most importantly - NO CELLO!

During this whole time she had to keep calling back to me in Seattle to get online updates on the flights being cancelled or delayed because she wasn't able to get that info from JetBlue at the airport. We were in limbo not knowing if we should try to get a flight on another airline or what. We decided to stick with JetBlue thinking (ironically)] that it would be the least risky in terms of losing her luggage - her cello. Her cello finally arrived at the Rochester airport Saturday, but too late for her audition which the Eastman people were kind enough to push back to 5pm Friday. She decided to go through with the audition on a borrowed cello, but feels she didn't play very well in the audition since she was not used to the size, shape, and sound of the borrowed cello.

She's now about to fly from Rochester to Peabody for an audition there - thank goodness JetBlue doesn't fly to Baltimore - she'll be on Delta. Her last auditions are in 2 weeks in Boston and NYC and we purchased our tickets for that trip a few weeks ago from - you guessed it - JetBlue! I'm seriously wondering if they can get it together by then.

--Micki Hills
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I was scheduled last Wednesday night to depart from Fort Lauderdale at 6:40pm to JFK. Telephone flight status was not available as all circuits were busy all day. Jetblue website listed 5 flights prior to mine as either delayed or cancelled and one after mine as delayed yet my flight was curiously still posted as OnTime up to 5pm. This effectively forced me to go to the airport to make my supposed flight. Sure enough upon arriving at the airport, the terminal boards listed the flight as now delayed. Gate operators had zero information and advised us to wait until 8pm for an "update."

The 8pm update gave no new info except to wait for a 10 pm update. 10pm update said "maybe" midnight departure but you can reschedule for the a.m. if you like. At this point the 7 a.m. flight into which many people had already rescheduled into had also been cancelled because Jetblue didn't have crew to man the flight they were booking. Gate agent advised to wait it out as he assured us that our flight was "definitely" going out before 6 a.m. 12:30 a.m. update: gate agent informs the now weary and angry mob that they are now cancelling the flight that he had previously assured us would depart. If we like we could rebook at the gate.

75+ people now rush the counters. One gate agent is clueless and produces ZERO rebookings. I proceed to the ticketing counter where Jetblue rebooked me on the 6 a.m. flight. I return home for 2 hours sleep and arrive at 5 a.m. the next morning. Terminal board lists my flight as ontime. I proceed to security, where they inform me that my flight has been cancelled, a fact that Jetblue apparently is unaware of as the terminal boards are still listing the flight as on time now less than 1 hr prior to its scheduled departure. Ticket counter informs us that as opposed to other airlines, they do not have any relationships with other airlines to take overflow or help book stranded passengers. One counter down at Continental airlines I managed to easily book one of many available seats they had going to Newark 1 hour later with no hassle and zero delay.

Weather delays are inevitable and delays understandable however Jetblue's incompetence is unacceptable displaying obvious mismanagement and panic under duress. Inaccurate information regarding flight status both on the website and in the terminal was rampant. Gate employees were inept and clueless. Flights were booked yet cancelled within 3 hours despite no change in weather patterns. Strangely, most other airlines experienced identical weather challenges yet where are their stranded passengers!? I think its time for Jetblue to stop cutting corners and pony-up some profits to invest in better organization or else they will be gone. People shouldn't have to put up with this abuse.
--Anonymous
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