Don't Fly Jet Blue Next Year (A tangent NI week gripe)

[jed]

Jet Blue runs the only non-stop from SF to Austin. Tonight they had to cancel the flight for maintenance, and they aren't paying for a hotel.

Please remember this the next time you make your plans.

(I know, not really NI Week related, but we're stranded here in Austin with no help from JB).

[crelf]

QUOTE (jed @ Aug 7 2008, 11:51 PM)

Jet Blue runs the only non-stop from SF to Austin. Tonight they had to cancel the flight for maintenance, and they aren't paying for a hotel.

I saw Jed and Jake at the Austin airport this morning and, while I saw a little levity in his situation (mostly because I wasn't in it ), they were *not* amused...

[Val Brown]

QUOTE (jed @ Aug 7 2008, 09:51 PM)

Jet Blue runs the only non-stop from SF to Austin. Tonight they had to cancel the flight for maintenance, and they aren't paying for a hotel.

Please remember this the next time you make your plans.

(I know, not really NI Week related, but we're stranded here in Austin with no help from JB).

IDK about Jet Blue but perhaps travel insurance next time for such interruptions???

[Jim Kring]

Jed,

1) I flew United direct from Austin to SF.

2) It was great fun hanging out on Thursday night with you and the other stranded folks!

Cheers,

-Jim

[Michael Aivaliotis]

We had a 4hr delay on the way to Austin with Amarican so no airline is perfect. This caused us to miss the roller girls. I think Ed Dickens also had a horror story.

[jed]

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ Aug 9 2008, 03:19 PM)

We had a 4hr delay on the way to Austin with Amarican so no airline is perfect. This caused us to miss the roller girls. I think Ed Dickens also had a horror story.

Oh, I know there are always problems, and I know that there's no law that JB has to put us up. But most airlines have deals with other airlines and hotels. JB has neither. Just spreading the word. Fly at your own risk.

[Ed Dickens]

As Michael mentioned, I had some travel troubles both ways. (I flew American Airlines) Though I managed not to get stuck overnight anywhere.

Flying from Cedar Rapids to Chicago was no problem. Had about an hour and a half layover in Chicago. Flight is suppose to leave for Austin at like 1:30. It's 1:25 and we're still not on the plane even though the boarding time says 1:00. It's not looking good. They finally let us start boarding around 1:45. Not too bad. I've never gotten out of Chicago on time and this was actually fairly good for them.

So everybody is on plane just sitting and waiting, sitting and waiting, sitting and waiting. Finally, after about 30 minutes the pilot and a mechanic (I'm guessing) came walking down the aisle looking, pointing and feeling at the ceiling and the area above the overhead luggage compartments. They walk up and down for about 5 minutes then they disappear onto the jet way. Another 5 minutes and they're back doing the same thing. This isn't looking good at all.

They disappear again and another 5 minutes go by. We now hear the pilot over the intercom. It went something like, "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. This is your pilot Captain Over. I'm sure you noticed us in the aisle and some of you may have noticed the slight burning smell ( I hadn't) in the cabin. We seem to be having some electrical problems that we can't quickly identify, plus there's a liquid dripping onto some of the seats and into the aisle. At this point, I'm not comfortable flying this plane to Austin. And if I'm not going, unfortunately, you're not going either. We're going to need everybody to grab everything you brought on board with you and go back into the terminal. We'll provide more information as soon as we have some. Sorry for the delay."

A noticeable groan was heard from the passengers. I was in the far back of the plane so I was one of the last to get going. As soon as I stood up, I knew he made the right decision. You know that smell when you let the magic smoke out of some electronic doodad? Mix that with wire insulation that's smoldering and that's what it smelled like. Then, as I'm making my way up the aisle, something drips from the ceiling right in front in of me. As I walk by the captain I just smile and say, "Good decision". :thumbup:

So we're back in the terminal waiting in the gate area. They announce that our plane is out of commission and they are looking for another one. They finally announce a 3:30 boarding time at a different gate. Got another hour to kill.

So we get on the new plane. Captain Over gets on the intercom again and says, "Thanks for your patience and understanding. A preliminary look at the problem on the other plane revealed a fairly serious electrical problem. So we did make the right choice. We all should thank our flight attendants for first reporting the problem."

So now we’re flying home. Austin to St. Louis to Cedar Rapids. What can go wrong? Not going through Chicago.

Austin to St. Louis was no problem. We’re suppose to leave St. Louis at 7:30. It’s like 7:45 and we’re not on the plane and the board still says we’re “on time”. Not again.

We finally find out that they don’t know where the flight attendant is. Around 8:30, they say now they think there may have been a scheduling error and he might be on a different flight. But they do say they have now called in a replacement, but it will take about an hour for her to get there.

She shows up, we board around 9:45 and finally get to Cedar Rapids around 10:30. Only about 2 and half hours late. The captain then tells us that they just don’t know where the scheduled attendant is. He’s not on any flight and they can’t reach him by phone.

So, between the two flights, the flight attendants avoided a potentially serious problem on one flight and caused a lengthy delay on the other. Although his replacement saved the flight by actually getting out bed and taking the flight so we could get home. :worship:

And I have other travel stories from I worked at Rockwell Collins and traveled internationally. Like the time our 747 was frozen to the tarmac in Minneapolis and the 'tug' couldn't push us back from the gate. Or when we got stuck in Tokyo overnight because our DC-10 was too loud to take off after 10 PM. Or when I got on the wrong local flight in Taiwan and ended up in the wrong city where no one spoke English. Or the drunk that taken away in cuffs because he was upset about our flight being late due to the blizzard. (Minnapolis again)