What happened:
I was suppose to fly out of one airport, have a two hour layover at JFK and make my way home. I could have actually driven home however it was a 7 hour drive and I was only doing a weekend trip... So I arrive at the first airport on time to find that my flight had already been delayed an hour due to weather (found this out AFTER I returned the rental car). Right away I ask a Jet blue employee if the delay really was only for an hour or if it was unknown. I make it clear that I would rather just drive home then spend the night in the airport. Was told not to worry I would make my layover at JFK. After 4 hours waiting I say to the same employee "I don't think that I will be making my layover. I was told that flights out of JFK were also delayed and I would make my flight" After another two hours I hear my name being paged and I was told that my flight out of JFK had been cancelled alltogether.By now it is 11:00pm and I am not going to drive home. I ask if I can just get a voucher for a hotel and fly out the following day. No - I have to wait until I am at JFK to request voucher. I get into JKF around 12:30AM. First Jet Blue employee I see I ask if my flight had been cancelled. Yes it has get in LONG customer service line. Waiting an hour in line to be given a ticket for the following day at 11:00AM. While I am waiting in line I call for hotels - all booked since most flights had been cancelled that day. Ask Jet Blue for a blanket and pillow. All out. Ask if my I will be able to claim my luggage as I was wearing a dress and wanted to change. Yes-could get luggage but would not be able to reenter terminal until morning. Not that there was any place to sleep in the terminal as there were many people already there. I go to get luggage - was told that it was put into a back room and they would not get it for me. So I had fun "sleeping" (in my dress) at the bagge claim where it got very cold. At 4:00am I was able to go back into terminal only to find no place to even sit as it was so full. I flew out later that morning but missed a day of work, had to pay extra parking fees and kennel fees for my dogs. Get to my destination and find that my luggage did not arrive. I go to fill out a claim and see my luggage already in the claim office with a note stating that I would be there the following day to pick it up. It seems that my luggage made the flight back home but I could not.
What I did...
I spend about 2 hours calling various airports and speaking with various Jet Blue officials to find out that yes the plane that I was trying to catch at JFK did take off and that someone read the computer wrong - so I could have made my flight. I begin E-mailing jet blue asking for compensation and I was told that someone would contact me back within 2 weeks of me filing a complaint IF I was entitled to anything. I wait the two weeks and hear nothing. I look up the Jet Blue bill of rights and see that if the airline refused to allow me to board the plane without a reasonable reason then I am entitled to $1000.00
I call several more people and get shuffled around for several more hours before I am directed to the correct department for the complaint. I am told by someone that they will give me a $15 voucher towards my next Jet Blue flight. I stated that was not reasonable. I asked to speak with a supervisor. I was put on hold and the girl came back stating that SHE spoke with the supervisor and that Jet Blue was going to be so generous as to give me the price of the one way ticket minus any of the fuel charges, taxes etc. I state that is not good enough. I argue with the girl for 30 minutes about wanting to speak with a supervisor and finally was able to. This guy tells me that I am probably just lying and have no proof of any of this. I told him that I had my original ticket and the second ticket stub to at least prove that I was given another ticket before my plane even left that night and that seeing as I didn't pay for the second ticket it was probably JetBlue's fault. I went on to say that I wanted the cost of my ticket reimbursed along with the wages I did not collect due to missing work, as well as the extra kennel fees and the exta parking. I was tempted to throw in for "pain and suffering" as well for having to stay at the airport overnight but I decided to be reasonable about it. So this guy goes and speaks to his supervisor and comes back saying that they would give me a Jet Blue voucher for the entire amount of the round trip ticket. I state that will not over everything that I feel I am owed and furthermore I have no intentions of flying JEt Blue EVER again. I ask to speak to his supervisor and am flat out told I can't. I am placed on hold again only to be told that If I don't accept what they are offering me then a note will be placed in the computer that I am refusing any sort of compensation that JetBlue is offering and will not have any other opportunity to get any sort of compensation again.
End result is that I did take the voucher for the cost of the round trip ticket (minus all taxes and surcharges) but A) that did not cover the expenses that I occured due to their mistake and B) I don't plan on every flying with them again.
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