Jaunted

HOW JETAMERICA HAS AFFECTED TRAVEL PLANS

Minister Forced to Pay More for Wedding Flight

I booked a flight with Jet America last Friday. Round-tripper between South Bend and Newark. I was going to a friend's wedding in which I am a minister. So, I was stuck looking for another carrier and had to obviously pay more.

Jet America's attempt to prevent erosion of consumer confidence was laughable. Oh, you won't charge me "convenience" fees, or a 1st-checked baggage fee or a seat assignment fee? Gee, thanks. I sent them an email saying as much and stated they were going to have to improve their offer if they ever want me as a customer or make a recommendation to anyone. Of course, I have no leverage so I'm sure they'll just offer a lame apology.

Bar Exam Now Costs More To Take

I was booked on the July 26 South Bend to Newark flight. I am taking the bar exam on Tuesday/Wednesday and am flying out the weekend before to be settled and ready to go. I thought my flight was all taken care of. Now I must re-book at considerable expense to me. I am not happy with Jet America’s response that they will refund the ticket price (of course they must!) and waive the $20 baggage fee on my “next” flight. I cannot see myself booking another flight with this airline considering the way this was handled.

Customer Unhappy About Handling of JetAmerica's Delay

I had a flight booked for roughly 2 weeks from now, and received a phone call today from the mentioned Florida number saying my flights had been cancelled from EWR-TOL. They said they would do a full refund in 1-2 weeks. I also received an email confirming this, mentioning something about them not understanding that they needed "slots" at EWR. It seemed very unprofessional for an airline - or should I say airline want-to-be.This is very upsetting, frustrating and inconvenient. It definitely was too good to be true.. but I guess we'll have to see once they start operating if they'll actually be reliable.

'Never Again': One Passenger Will Never Fly JetAmerica

NEVER AGAIN! I had two trips planned departing Newark to South Bend during the next month. I now will lose my money on the non-refundable hotel rooms because JetAmerica will not rebook us on another airline (any other airline would put us on another carrier if they could not provide service - it's required as part of their contract of carriage).

While they have refunded the airline ticket (which they should), it's too late to book on another airline without paying $400 per ticket. Does the airline actually think that inaugural customers will take advantage of free seat assignments and checked baggage and book with them again? NEVER!

This has upset many people - people who have tried to support this airline from the start. The airline knew about this mess with the slots when it originally announced the $9 fares so they should have warned their customers then about this issue at that time so that they could have decided whether to fly with them or not.

What slim hopes this airline had on surviving earlier have now disappeared with this recent announcement.

So let's recap - this airline starts as Air Azul scheduled for startup in June. Later reschedules startup date once then rebrands itself as JetAmerica. Now reschedules startup date the second time. Furthermore, JetAmerica STILL does not have landing slots for the August 14th date, but continues to sell seats. And the airline actually WONDERS why people jump to "negative conclusions" about them? Enough said!

Excerpts from a Letter Sent to JetAmerica's VP of Operations

Brian Burling, I am writing to express my sincere disappointment in the way in which JetAmerica has conducted itself as a company in the last few days. Let me begin by explaining the major inconvenience that your company's lack of foresight has caused in at least one case. Enticed by your low rates and local departure site, a friend and I could not wait to a board a JetAmerica flight.

We specifically planned our trip for many reasons - to visit a friend whom we lost to the great city of New York and to celebrate my own departure from the state of Michigan. Our trip dates fell specifically between these two events and that, accompanied by a $25 flight, sealed the deal for our NYC adventure. We ended up booking two separate flights. StudentUniverse offered a cheaper rate for the date that we needed to fly out and so we booked our departing flight through them and our return flight through JetAmerica.

Now, much to your knowledge, JetAmerica has canceld all flights prior to August 14th. This of course unfortunate and I understand that it's not something you are happy about either. HOWEVER, and this is one of the details of this whole fiasco that really disappoints me, JetAmerica sent a very lovely e-mail including the very blatant fact that the company was AWARE on MAY 30th that this may be an issue.

If you check my credit card statements you will notice that I booked our flight from Newark to Lansing WELL AFTER May 30th and in plenty of time for JetAmerica to have placed a disclaimer on their website. No such disclaimer existed. I am sincerely appalled that a copmany so eager to succeed would make such a critical (and deceiving) mistake....

No one will fly on a JetAmerica plane until one actually takes off and one cannot actually take off without passengers... all of whom you seem to have lost. If you think about it, many were already weary, but I was among the brave few who took trust in your $9 offers. Now, with all that has occurred, not even those brave souls can keep your company afloat unless you do more than waive an obscure $10 fee. Thank you for your time and I wish your company luck, for your benefit and my own.

A Letter from a Once and Former JetAmerica Customer

Here's my story with Jet America. I am traveling to New York for business (traveling seperately) and booked a flight for my wife and daughter to join me. We booked this flight on June 8th, which at the time many carriers had appealing offers since we were looking so early on in our travel plans. Long story short, I didn't get an email, I was goofing around on the Internet and found an article that said all flights were delayed. I called the company and only was able to listen to a recording no live person was even an option.

Long story short, next cheapest option (since we are so close to the travel dates) was $464.80 round trip for 2 tickets. I don't feel a 100% refund is acceptable, but it is in the so called contract. Guess bottom line in consumers don't win.

As far as I am concerned, I'll walk, hitch-hike, ride a bike, or drive before I will ever consider flying Jet America. They could give me free tickets, free hotels, etc ... I WON'T FLY WITH THEM ... EVER! They can take their 'discounts' for future flights and shove them. I'd join a class action suit if there was a chance of sticking it to them, but I don't see any chance of that.

Grandmother's Trip to Daytona Beach Won't Be Happening

I was so excited to find $9 tickets that I bought 5 roundtrip tickets from Lansing to Melbourne for a week for my family and my mother.

We rented a condo on Daytona Beach and with less than 2 weeks notice of our cancelled flights, you guessed it, we will not be refunded for the $1000 rental. We are so disappointed and sad, we don't have much money and we thought this would be a wonderful trip to take my mother on as she has not been to Florida or many other areas as a 65 year old widow.

She so deserved this trip to get away and spend time with her children and grandchildren. I feel like we have been in a bait and switch. Jetamerica got the presses buzzing with their $9 fares and they instantly call it a "delay in launch" like it is a minor inconvenience. No rebooking on other carriers, just "we are sorry for the inconvenience".

This is definitely a reminder to myself that I have always said and did not heed my own warning: "If it sounds too good to be true, ..." well, you know the rest.

And just so you know, a Jaunted contributor was booked on a Toledo-bound plane out of Newark. However, this did not wreak too much havoc on our travel plans as all we were really going to do there was renew our driver's license.

Have your own story about how the JetAmerica delay affected you? Send it to us!