[pruneb]

This past week I used Jet Blue for the first and what will be the last time. I booked a round trip flight from Dulles airport to Phoenix, which had a stopover at JFK airport.

On the flight out Friday afternoon June 13, the plane we were to fly to NY was late by about an hour and 1/2. The company line was a weather delay. We then flew to JFK airport, worried that we were going to be late for our connecting flight. We arrived to find this flight delayed as well, only this time the delay was attributed to the pilots who were coming in from Buffalo being in a ground delay, It was a long ground delay and lasted several hours, obviously it did not take several hours for the pilots to make JFK airport from buffalo. The pilots finally arrived and we boarded the plane, taxied out onto the tarmac and then pulled to the side of the runway where we sat for over an hour for what was announced to be another ground delay. I was supposed to arrive in Phoenix by 10:30pm Phoenix time. We finally arrived at 2:00 am their time having spent over 12 hours getting to our destination.

We then proceeded to our vacation in the National park service in Utah and Arizona, where cell phone service is iffy at best and returned to Phoenix a week later on Sunday night June 22, to find that our return flight had been canceled due to weather in NYC on Saturday night. We were not supposed to arrive until 8:00am the following morning so I fail to see how the weather of a day earlier could be the rationale for canceling the flight. Jet Blue said that the earliest the could accommodate us on a new flight was 2 days later. They continually emphasized that it was the weathers fault and no fault of their own and when complained to suggested that everything was the fault of the FAA. Jet Blue did not care that we were stranded and offered to provide no assistance to us other than to offer a return flight in 2 days. They reluctantly issued a refund and I was off to try and secure a flight with another airline at 1000 pm phoenix time.

I was able to secure a flight with Delta the next day and I feel they accommodated me as best they could for such a last minute booking. But I had to fly to BWI and make arrangements to get my car which had been parked at Dulles. The flight cancellation cost me an additional day of car rental in phoenix, a additional nights stay at a hotel and another car rental fee the next day to rent a car to drive to Dulles to pick-up my own car. I estimate that the total costs attributable to the cancellation will easily exceed $ 700.00.

Jet Blue feels that this is not their problem. I spoke with many other Jet Blue customers while sitting around the three airports. All that I spoke with were similarly frustrated.