JetBlue passengers stranded on planes for hours at JFK

[Arizona Road Warrior]

Another airline that decided to keep their passengers on board instead of doing the right thing.

Airline apologizes after passengers stranded on planes for hours in NYC
Posted 2/15/2007 7:54 AM ET - USA Today

NEW YORK (AP) — JetBlue Airways Corp. tried to calm a maelstrom of criticism Thursday, after passengers were left waiting on planes at a New York airport for as long as nine hours during a snow and ice storm.
The airline said 10 incoming and outbound flights at John F. Kennedy International Airport were "significantly delayed" with customers on board during Wednesday's storm. Reasons included congestion, frozen equipment and an effort to keep planes ready to go in case the weather broke, said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin.

Calling the delays "unacceptable," the airline planned to offer the affected passengers refunds and free flights.

To Cheryl Chesner, 26, "unacceptable" was hardly the word for the 11 hours she said she and her husband, Seth, 27, spent trying to take a JetBlue flight to Aruba for their honeymoon.

You can read the whole article at http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...stranded_x.htm.

On the local FOX morning news and NBC Today, there was a JetBlue flight from JFK to Cancun where the passengers left the gate and sat on the tarmac for eight hours.

When will these airlines learn how to use common sense?

[deangreenhoe]

The same thing happened to a few people on other carriers, including AA, just not to the extent of what Jet Blue experienced yesterday.

Basically this crap has got to stop. I know they have their reasons for making an attempt at operating, but there must be a way to keep people in the terminal until they are reasonably sure of being able to do so.

[Lynn]

Well as a diabetic I can tell you that someone is going end up in a hypo situation at some point and there is going to be a major lawsuit. This is beyond a service issue, this ridiculous and someone's health is going to suffer because of it. I cringe every time I read about one of these hostage takings happening.

[Ned]

For a change, US Air at PHL came out as the good carrier yesterday.

At PHL, many US Air gates have a plane at it overnight for the early morning flights. It was clear with the ice storm in the morning that there was no way the planes were going to be able to take off.

They outright cancelled the early flights, and waited until they could reasonably expect planes to take off, before they considered loading the planes with passengers and baggage. In the long run, not only did this make the passengers happier than if they were stuck in the plane, but they saved a lot of bucks because they weren't idling the engines for hours.

As to Jet Blue, and any other airline who kept their passengers captive in the planes for hours on end, what was the point? First, idling the engines cost them a fortune. Second, keeping the crew in the plane for 11 hours meant that crew was wasted too. They had to be changed or the airline would suffer the wrath of the FAA for keeping them at the "stick" for more than the allowed hours. Third, compensation in terms of a free round trip flight isn't really going to take the sting out of being captive all that time.

Fourth, this is just more grist for the politicians, to make a new Passenger Bill of Rights far more restrictive than the airlines want.

What was Jet Blue thinking when they made their decisions yesterday? How come they didn't learn from American's fiasco over last summer?

[the dark knight]

Ned,
The point is that JetBlue was not thinking, nor did the learn from past similar mistakes like American's last summer. I think when one airline has a major screwup, the other airlines celebrate, for the screwup is hurting a direct competitor to them. At least they do until they mess up themselves. Jetblue knows that they must appear to be better in all ways than the big boys and Southwest so they can look better and possibly get bigger. Unfortunately, they forget that they are prone to mistakes just like anyone else. And I like JetBlue, but I would not take any mistakes like this from any airline, anytime. Period.

[Ned]

I certainly agree with that sentiment DK.

It's a shame these airline decision makers don't put themselves in the place of the passengers sometimes. If they did, they'd make fewer mistakes like these.

Originally Posted by the dark knight

And I like JetBlue, but I would not take any mistakes like this from any airline, anytime. Period.

[deangreenhoe]

I'm amazed that the passengers weren't on the verge of a riot. I had the experience of being on an aircraft stuck on the tarmac for well over 3 hours and the pilot was eventually "persuaded" to let everyone off because things were getting pretty dicey in the passenger compartment.

[mtp51]

My husband sat on the tarmac in MCO for four hours Monday afternoon/evening while Air Tran had some "mechanical" problems. All was well after they replaced the nose of the aircraft. Thank goodness.....

[Arizona Road Warrior]

Originally Posted by Ned

First, idling the engines cost them a fortune.

Based upon what was reported on the local Fox News channel and the NBC Today show, they shut down the power to the plane. It got so hot that they had to open up the door to cool off the passengers. They had pictures of the passengers and etc. on this flight on one of the news reports...it wasn't pretty.

[summergirl825]

Passenger Bill of Rights....hasn't this been enforced? They are lucky there wasn't an all out riot on that plane. No one should be subjected to that kind of treatment.