My JetBlue Experience: Why I Now Refuse to Fly What was Once My Favorite Airline
It was February 19, 2022. I was at the airport to catch JetBlue Flight 257, an exciting route between Boston and Bozeman that would be a fantastic way to start a week-long ski trip to Big Sky. This was set to be an incredibly fun trip — one that I had been looking forward to for years. Little did I know that this would end up being the worst trip of my life, and it was all thanks to JetBlue.
First, some background. JetBlue had been my favorite airline for years, especially since they began building their base in Boston. I had known that JetBlue had been going downhill for a while at this point. From shrinking seats to bag fees, the airline I had loved was no longer what it once was. However, I still had no doubt that it was the best airline in the US — or I thought so.
On that cold February day, the first Saturday of school vacation week, we showed up at the airport to massive lines. Everyone was bringing their huge ski bags, excited for ski trips out West. We could tell something was a little off from the beginning — after waiting almost an hour in various lines, we showed up to our gate to find out our flight was delayed over an hour due to a mechanical issue. Eventually, we boarded, ready for the five-hour flight.
The flight brought together everything I loved about JetBlue: we had numerous drink services, the best crew of any flight I had ever been on, and free stream-capable WiFi. Throughout the flight, I heard people talking about all of the trails at Big Sky and planning out their vacations, fueling my excitement to get out on the slopes.
Unfortunately, the anticipation could only last so long. Upon landing, the flight attendants made an announcement saying that due to “weight and balance issues” they had to leave some bags in Boston…. Wow. Not only did they let us spend the entire flight getting excited about our trips, but this showed incompetency from JetBlue. This is a route between a city that has school vacation week to a ski destination, so obviously most passengers will be checking a lot of luggage.
Now, I would’ve been able to have a ruined vacation yet still forgive JetBlue overall. After all, this was just one little fluke that showed terrible route planning yet did not apply to other situations. However, what followed showed me how much of a mess JetBlue’s systems are and how easily they could mess up any flight.
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Let’s start back at that announcement. The flight attendants told us only a few bags had been left behind and they would be coming in on an American flight that night. They told us to check baggage claim and then go to the JetBlue desk if our bags were not there. We ended up needing to go to the desk along with everyone else on the flight. There, we were told that the number of bags left behind was 73 (we would later find out the number was actually 102) and they would be coming in on an American flight the next day. This not only contradicted our original information, but this too was incorrect. Furthermore, we were given a brochure here about JetBlue’s delayed baggage policies — keep this in mind for later reference.
Anyways, we frustratedly made our way to Big Sky. A few of us rented skis for the next day but others had left their coats and custom equipment in the bags that were still in Boston.
Most of us missed two of our five planned days of skiing. Over the course of those two days, we called repeatedly, waiting on hold for over an hour each time, sometimes being directed to the wrong line. When we called the people at Bozeman airport, they told us that they did not even know whether our bags were still in Boston or had made it onto any one of a number of possible flights.
I should also point out that JetBlue’s partnership with American Airlines is really weak. JetBlue had no way of knowing whether our bags were on the American flights or not. Especially if they rely on each other to transport bags, they should be able to track where they actually are.
I know that many airlines are struggling with baggage, but JetBlue really is the worst. American, Delta, and United all have buttons in their apps that let you track your bags because they actually try to keep track of where they are. Meanwhile, JetBlue does not even know whether your bags are still in the original airport, on an American flight, in the destination airport, or even on a JetBlue flight. It is really terrible and ridiculous that they have such an antiquated system in 2022.
Now, on the way back, we were less worried about them losing our skis because we would not need them in the next week. However, we did not realize how bad JetBlue could get. Throughout the day, we began getting notifications saying our flight was delayed. We looked at the incoming flight’s (257 — the same one we were on the week before) progress and found out that it had diverted to JFK. Weird, we thought, but we still got to the airport early. We asked the person at the check-in desk if we should be worried about our bags, and she said that it usually is not a problem going East but happens regularly going West. Just how regularly, we were about to find out, because after reaching the gate, we had to wait a full three hours for our plane to finally show up. When it finally did, we learned the full story. In an attempt to avoid what had happened a week ago, JetBlue had loaded all of the bags onto the plane, but since it was seemingly too heavy, they had to divert to JFK to drop off all of the ski bags, and then leave those passengers to sit on the stuffy plane for three hours before continuing to Bozeman. As those people were deboarding, we heard them discussing the flight in disbelief, having conversations that were remarkably similar to ours a week prior.
This is so confusing to me. Why in the world would JetBlue continuously operate a flight on a plane that cannot seem to make it all the way to Bozeman? Is it limited because of range? What is even causing this? It just makes no sense that this is a repeated issue for the same unclear reason, and they aren’t fixing anything.
Obviously, after this experience, I felt it was important to reach out to JetBlue to give them some feedback. I wrote them a four-page (single-spaced) letter that explained our situation and gave them some areas where they could improve. JetBlue makes it very difficult for consumers to reach out for them, so I sent it to the email under their “Share a Concern” page. After several weeks, I finally got my first response. And wow. This was probably one of the most useless customer service responses ever. She literally wrote a SINGLE paragraph addressing my main complaint: the baggage. Furthermore, all she said about it was a copy-and-pasted message saying I should call a number and she was sorry our bags were lost. That had nothing to do with what actually happened. The rest of the response was clearly copy-and-pasted and cited all of my other (more minor) complaints (the long hold times, the flight delay on the way back, and everything else I’ve shared here). This was truly the worst customer service I had ever experienced, and it made even more confident in my decision to avoid JetBlue.
Finally, if that was not enough, let’s talk about compensation. Remember that brochure I told you about? The one we were given at the Bozeman airport? Right. Well, remember that it said we would get anything we needed reimbursed and would give us $300 per bag for the time it took to get our bags back. After getting back, we found out from someone it was $300 per claim, but that was still okay. However, when we sent in our receipts from the $800 worth of goods that we had needed to buy, we only got about $250 of it reimbursed, with no explanation for why. This $800 covered things like ski rentals and new winter gear because our gear was still in Boston. In the end, only the ski rentals were reimbursed, though I would argue that we needed the coats and gloves even more. However, that is nowhere near from the end of the story. That $300 credit still had not arrived, so by July, we decided it was time to reach out again. After calling and waiting on hold for an hour and a half, we finally were able to speak to someone. When we explained our situation, she told us that it was EITHER the reimbursement OR the credit. That is absolutely not what the brochure they gave us said. While we lost the brochure so we can not be certain, it was definitely not what she said or heavily implied that it would be $300 per bag in addition to full reimbursement of goods. I should also note that JetBlue does not have this brochure anywhere on their website, which makes this feel like extremely questionable behavior on their part. Luckily, in the end, she agreed to give us the credit because she could tell they had made a mistake, but now we have a $300 credit lying around that means we have to fly JetBlue before it expires. And after all of this, it will be difficult to book that ticket. As much as I want to fly JetBlue again because their experience is still unmatched, a five hour flight is nowhere near as important as a weeklong vacation. Until JetBlue can prove to me that they have made significant changes to address their shortcomings, I will not book a single flight on them.
