dear jetblue i'm begining to hate you

After spending five hours at JFK airport this past Friday, I am starting not to hold jetblue in such high regards. After reviewing their Customer Bill of Rights pre-trip I expected to find any inconvenience (s) during my flight to be handled with the utmost care to preserve what is left of the brand after the Valentine's Day debacle. This Bill Of Rights was actually emailed to me by jetblue; with the Youtbue video of CEO, David Neeleman apologizing for holding passengers on board for longer than it takes to make Thanksgiving dinner. Watch the video below to hear his heartfelt apology.

As one comment reads from 'skyhitchhiker':
"The fact is that it was good intentions that paved this particular road to hell. They thought there was a takeoff window and they were wrong. In all the years America West existed, you never saw them apologize for MUCH WORSE treatment of both their passengers and their employees. I know for a fact Mr. Neeleman apologized to his employees as well AND took care of them. 7 years of WOW doesn't disappear overnight! I'll give them this ONE..."

So back to me. While waiting I positioned myself in front of my gate hoping to see an employee I could talk to regarding why my plane was delayed once, twice, and changed gates more than Miranda from Sex in the City changes partners. No one showed up at that gate for a very long time. I waited for 4 1/2 hours before approaching the customer service desk. Mind you, there had been no announcements as to why my flight had been delayed. Customer service rep Maria's drawn-on red eyebrows arched high as I expressed my frustration and pried for answers. With a dismissive glance she said, "You are entitled to a $25 food voucher, call this number." She then writes down an 800 # on a photo copy of the Customer Bill of Rights, and waves me away.

I sat back down and called the number. While on hold for 20 minutes I find out that I am entitled to a $50 voucher as detailed in my photo copy. When the muzak switched off, and an operator returned to the line she tells me my flight is delayed because of weather. Meanwhile I see other airlines flying planes out with little trouble. I then asked about my voucher, could I get some food, compensation...another flight (at this point its 11pm)? Well the attendant doesn't know so she asks to put me back on hold to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor eventually gets on the line to explain to me that weather does not constitute as a 'Controllable Irregularity", duh. I then tell this supervisor I had been promised a voucher which turns into the supervisor asking me to walk back over to the Customer Service counter and hand my cellphone to this Maria. I tell the lady can't you call her on your phone system, since I've been on the phone for an hour burning cellphone minutes like calories in a marathon. No, that would mean I would have to call back. I was NOT sitting on hold anymore by this point. I tried to hand my phone to Maria-pencil-eyebrows but she waved her hand in my face. That really pissed me off. The story goes on, but dear Reader I'll spare you. Longer story short, I got my $50 voucher thanks to my persistence & good ol' college try. Moral of the story? Have an attendant at the gate to tell passengers whats going on. Streamline the voucher process by removing the messy 800 # business. And for God's sake, when your airline is having the worst month of it's life put more than two customer service rep's at the desk! What did I learn? Never get a layover @ JFK even if I'm saving 70 bucks.