Dear JetBlue, I'm writing this letter concerning my wife and son's journey to California from the JFK airport on March 15th (15 Mar 09 353 New York, JFK 08:15am Burbank, CA 11:43am 0). We are extremely, extremely dissatisfied with the service provided by your in-flight crew, and decided to follow their advice to lodge an official complaint "If you have a problem with it." I'll qualify that statement later. I have had a great history with JetBlue, I, Austin Murkland, use you exclusively whenever i have flown anywhere over the past 6 years. I recommend you to all of my friends, i brag about your plane-wide leather seats, free in-flight DirectTv, free drinks and snacks. From this point forward the only story i will tell is the one below, which details just how horribly you treated my wife and child, and how incredible Virgin America treated us every time we've flown on their planes how abhorred they were to hear how their competitor or any airlines that allows children on their planes would treat another human being, more specifically; a mother and a child. JetBlue has been my airline of choice since i started making cross country flights in I've been trying to convince my wife to fly your planes since i met her, she has steadfastly refused citing over and over that every person she knows has had a horrible experience with your airline. With my own experience as my guide, i belayed her warning and booked her flight on your airline this march saving me approx 6 dollars on the same flight over virgin, but more importantly granting a landing in Burbank which was easier for her family there to retrieve her from than LAX. This will never happen again, even if it means a 50 dollar cab ride, because none of us will ever fly JetBlue again. JetBlue doesn't offer a priority gate entry for mothers/fathers with children so my wife was forced to bring the stroller to the gate, with her son, and baggage in tow. My wife then stood and watched as every person on the planed boarded and the entire in-flight crew boarded. My wife kindly asked each passing steward and stewardess if they could assist her in getting the strollers, baggage, and her and her child into the plane. Every single one of them said no, but they would tell someone to come back and then boarded the plane themselves. Finally they needed to clear the gate to prepare for takeoff and discovered my wife still standing there waiting for the assistance that was promised, but never delivered. She was the very last person to board the plane. Once my wife made it to her seat, the passengers next to her (one male, one female) decided to make their disgust that she would bring a child on board an airplane immediately known. Shortly after this an incident arose where my son "touched" the man sitting next to my wife (she apologized), and he got up and never came back, the woman sitting next to him put her purse on his seat, so my wife assumed he had gone to the bathroom. Then, the second incident occurred where my son spilled my wife's cup of ice (on my wife) and a few cubes of ice landed near the female passenger. She was EXTREMELY upset by this and the woman got up, told my wife "If you wanted 3 seats you should have paid for them" and my wife replied "If you wanted special treatment you should have flown first class" and she found the steward who then placed her in another seat. Immediately after she was seated the steward came to the now empty isle where my wife and son were sitting and quickly FLIPPED OVER THE SEATS. When my wife asked why he was doing this, the steward stated that if he didn't that he would "have to deal with the other passengers." My wife stated that there's no reason why they should be more important than anyone else on this flight, and if the passengers have another seat, then why do these seats NEED to be flipped over. He replied that they originally paid for those seats, and there was nothing he could do because he didn't want to upset the other passengers, my wife replied that it was dangerous for a 1 year old to be around seats that are flipped over like that, and he stated that he agreed and understood, he has children too, but that there was nothing he could do because he didn't want to upset the other passengers. He offered that "If you have a problem with it you can complain to JetBlue " and walked away.
I've Provided an illustration taken before the second seat was flipped: Needless to say we didn't feel the need to use the return flight (23 Mar 09 352 Burbank, CA 06:50am New York, JFK 2:59pm) for what i believe is a legitimized fear, anxiety and a sense of utter dread of the same events occurring again. We paid for another ticket, this time on Virgin America, our new airline of choice. To the passengers who couldn't stand to sit next to a mother and child, for shame. To the steward who radically misrepresented JetBlue to the point where I've contacted all of my friends, and rescinded my accolades, For Shame. To JetBlue for allowing their once great service to deteriorate into its present conditions of indifference and vicious animosity, FOR SHAME. I think a refund for the unused portion of the flight is more than fair, and considering our phone calls have gone unanswered for almost two months now, I'm employing a more powerful form of statement, one which is historically bested bullets, swords, and the will of men: The Pen.
Sincerely,
Austin Murkland
Husband of Nancy Murkland
Father of Julen Xavier Murkland
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