May I ask what the significance of April 7 is?
The photo in my profile shows my daughter (The Kid) and son (The Boy). This photo was taken in 2015. On April 7, 2015, we lost The Boy at only 7 months old. After a long investigation, it was determined he suffered great trauma at the hands of his babysitter (who was a close personal friend). She is now in prison for life and I always remind people on April 7 to tell your kids you love them one more time.
Heard about the airline mess. That's just brutal.
Brutal doesn't begin to describe it.
We left on a JetBlue red-eye flight Friday night with a layover at JFK. What was supposed to be a 3 hour layover turned into a 13.5 hour delay before they cancelled the flight altogether. I got an email every 30 minutes letting us know the flight was still on, just delayed. Our plane was supposed to come from Orland and go back to Orlando with us on it. We were supposed to take off at 11 AM. About 11 PM, we were given meal vouchers (the food court closed at about 10). At about 1:30, they finally cancelled the flight with nothing more than a good luck as they couldn't get us on a later flight unless we wanted to wait until Thursday or Friday. It took about 3 hours to get our bags.
We stayed at a hotel near JFK overnight and in the morning checked our options. There weren't any seats on any airlines into Florida at all, the closest we could get was Atlanta on Delta from Newark. So, we took an Uber from JFK to Newark and the nice lady was able to put us on standby for a flight leaving withing the hour.
Once in Atlanta, there weren't any rental cars available in the state of Georgia, so we stayed at the Embassy Suites near the airport (highly recommend). The next day (Monday) I was able to get a U-Haul and we drove a U-Haul from Atlanta to Orlando. Not the most comfortable ride but if we wanted to get here, that was the only way.
Upon check in at the offsite Comfort Inn, they had closed my reservation even though I had called each day to provide an update and they ensured they would not cancel my rooms. The manager was great though, and was able to work some magic between them, Priceline, and the other powers that be and we were able to check in.
We left The Kid to take a nap while we returned the U-Haul and pick up the rental car from MCO. There were only 2 people working rental car counter and a huge line (I couldn't use Fastbreak as I was now 2 days late). After 2 hours in line, I was able to secure an economy car when I reserved a full size (oh will, it has 4 wheels and a motor)
We're here now and having a good time. I only hope and pray JetBlue has been able to get the schedule fixed before we have to leave on Sunday.
Oh, and we were only given $300 travel credit on JetBlue for our troubles....
I will be filling out the survey as well. I understand the weather delayed flights, but had we known before 1:30 on a Sunday morning, I may have decided much earlier to take an alternate course of action. In my mind, 13 hours delay isn't excessive, it is absurd.