Around 7:30 p.m. A woman who works with the TSA tells us the checkpoint is closed. We should, she says, "remain calm, keep your place in line, someone from JetBlue will come and tell you what to do." A couple passengers and I work out that they've probably closed it because there are too many people in the departures lounge. Could be a good time to open up Terminal 5, I think to myself, since there aren't any other aviation nerds around to get my joke.

7:55 p.m. So many people are trying to get past security, the ID checker can't keep up. Crew members as well as civilians go past, in a hurry to catch their flights. The line for security is so long, people at the end of it don't know what's happening at the front of it. It takes almost an hour (at least I'd been standing there for an hour) for the JetBlue employees to realize they should be making announcements to the back of the line, in case there are any latecomers hanging back. As I reach the front of the line, I find out that my friend was right. I'm looking at a 2 a.m. departure. Might as well get comfortable.


Baggage claim 4. Bags and passengers were not exactly meeting up like they should.

8:58 p.m. How could it get any worse? Well, they're still not letting everyone past security. Which means you can't get on the internet. JetBlue's signal stays inside the departure lounge, and trust me, I tried to pull it up on the sly. I got close to the checkpoint. I went to the baggage claim--right beneath the departures lounge--but couldn't get a signal. There's nothing worse than a lack of 'net connection when you're looking at a five hour wait.

9:11 p.m. Well, I've made it two hours so far. I just met Jim, who's heading to Rochester on flight 36 with me. We're at Away Cafe. I'm having a Sam Adams. Jim's having not his first Long Island Ice Tea. Matt, also with a Sam Adams, and sitting to the other side of Jim, is going to Buffalo. Jim's pushing to rent a car and drive. I'm not eager to get in a car with him. Besides, Evelina is doing a good job of pouring beers.

9:30 p.m. Enrique Iglesias, "Bailamos," now playing at Away Cafe. I've never felt worse.


Evelina, before she changed the channel.

9:38 p.m.. As far as I can tell, things are starting to relax a bit here. People have been swarming the bar, drinking Coronas for $6.75. We had bartender Evelina turn off Larry King's riveting, big-screen Anna Nicole coverage in favor of ESPN News. The newsstand is staying open until at least 1 a.m., much to the chagrin of the cashier who has to stay until the planes take off. Another one of my bar friends--Toby--is on the phone with STA Travel, who issued his ticket. He needs to get to the west coast, but he's been on hold for forever.

9:56 p.m. Just found out my flight is canceled. Interesting. If JetBlue would've told me that instead of pushing back our "scheduled" departure, I could've been at home instead of at Away Cafe. After I finish my beer I'll head down to the ticket counter to find out what I can do. Word on the street is I can get a full refund. We shall see.

10:52 p.m. After standing in a queue for a few minutes a nice JetBlue ticket agent took down my information, assuring me that I'd be contacted by the airline. I'd not only get a full refund but also a free voucher for a round trip ticket. I didn't bother to ask why they told me we were going to fly at 2 a.m. only to have the flight canceled before 11 p.m.


At nearly 11 pm, people were still swarming the check-in counters, trying to find out what was happening.

After dealing with the agent, I asked two of the Port Authority cops if I could snap their picture. It looked to me that they were there to guard the terminal and take care of any unruly passengers. Here's the exchange:
· "Hi. Can I take a photo of you two?"
· "A photo? I don't think so."
· "Really? Just a snapshot?"
· "No."
· "I won't take down your names or anything"
· "If you take a photo of us, we're going to have a problem."

It was the perfect ending to a perfect night. Thanks for all the memories, JetBlue!

markj
Jaunted

Damn (none / 0)

Good thing you got her to change the channel to ESPN.  It is cold in the JFK JetBlue Annex all the time---bet it was freezing last night.

by markj on 2/16/2007 at 1:46 PM

djk
Jaunted Member

You mean... (none / 0)

...you don't care who the babydaddy is in that case? I think it's David Neeleman.

by djk on 2/16/2007 at 1:50 PM

sf592000
Jaunted Member

miserable (none / 0)

wow, sounds like quite the debacle... you wait in an airport for 4 hours drinking beers and get a free roundtrip flight out of it.  Without internet nonetheless!  Poor Poor soul...

by sf592000 on 2/18/2007 at 3:19 AM

DadEO
Jaunted Member

JetBlue Haiku (none / 0)

The entire DadLabs production crew recently spent 18 hours in the jetBlue terminal at JFK.  It was Valentine's Day.

So we're bitter.  But when life gives you lemons, make poetry.

So we are inviting you, creative DadLabs passengers, to help us shake our puny fists at the man. Submit your poetry that decries/commemorates the recent airline meltdown in the comments here. The bitter editors at DadLabs.com will then select the best poem in each division and and award it a $50 gift certificate at our DadLabs store.

Our poetry contest has two divisions:

The jetBlue Haiku
Show the airline your 5-7-5

Or

Enter our "Roses are Red/I Flew jetBlue" category with a variation on the famous verse.
http://www.dadlabs.com/humorous/jetblue_haiku.html

by DadEO on 2/21/2007 at 11:49 AM

leo998811
Jaunted Member

Sounds horrible (none / 0)

 My mom & I were to go from JFK on Feb 14 to San. After waiting 6 hrs, they finial canceled a flight. Than the next flight out was canceled 3 hours after it was to take off.
   We went back to JFK on Feb 15, the flight was to take off at about 8 am but did not start boarding to around 2pm. We did not make it on the plane, but pepole from the latter flight, flight 185, on Feb 14, were placed on the plane that were standby.  
  We than tried to get on standby for the night flight, but it had already been canceled. We than choice to fly out of Dulles Airport in Washing DC, because JFK was horrible with angrey passangers on Sunday.
   When I got down in Washington, DC on Friday. I check the flights to San Diego from JFK. The first flight that day at around 8:00 am was canceled.
  The 2nd flight that was to leave around 5:55 pm was delayed to around 10pm. My question is why was this flight not cancled earlier. There is no way that that flight could have landed in San Diego, due to the rules of San Diego airport which I believe does not allow flighs to land after 11:30 pm until 6:00 or 6:30 am. I told my mom the flight had to be canceled and 45 minutes latter the flight was still canceled.
  After reading this post, I am very happy that my mom and I got out of JFK. I actually think if we stated at JFK, we probally would have not got back to Feb 21 or latter.  
  This personally was my worst airliness experince in my life and I don't plan on using jetblue every again. I strongly recomended not flying jetblue.
Thanks for the story.

 

by leo998811 on 2/26/2007 at 12:07 AM

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