What's up with Jetblue?

[kimmar067]

Usually Jetblue has excellent on-time service, but what's the deal lately? We just returned from Puerto Rico from a family reunion. My brother and his family left San Juan Saturday, to continue their vacay at WDW. Their flight was to depart at 9:08AM, but they got a call from Jetblue at 4:30AM informing them that the flight was canceled Furthermore, they had basically 20 minutes to wake up and get to the airport to catch another flight out, which they made, since that flight was delayed. Trouble is, it was going to FORT LAUDERDALE, not Orlando.....my brother was told that the only next available flight to MCO was 8:30 the next morning [not acceptable, since they were only spending 3 days at WDW and would lose an entire day, plus the cost of the extra day in San Juan]. He had to rent a vehicle to drive to Orlando, since Jetblue never actually got him to his destination (BTW, no offerings of paying for the rental by Jetblue either).

Their flight back to EWR was scheduled for 5:45 yesterday afternoon. They boarded ME at 2:20 and arrived to find that the outbound flight was now delayed 3 hours. They didn't actually board the plane till after 9PM and then SAT ON THE TARMAC FOR ALMOST 2 HOURS before finally returning back to the gate. They waited in the terminal until after 12 midnite, when they finally reboarded....they finally landed at EWR after 3AM. What was most stunning about this entire ordeal was that they blamed it on the northeast weather. Really? My DS left Puerto Rico ON TIME and landed in EWR ahead of schedule.....what a nightmare for my brother and his family!

 

[StageTek]

I check the Jetblue website every morning to look at the time of a "redeye" flight from Los Angeles to Orlando. 5 to 6 days each week it's delayed. About once a week the delay is over 90 minutes. That specific flight seems to leave on time only once a week. What a nightmare for your brother and family. I, too, wonder what's going on with Jetblue...

 

[DisneyinPA]

I have seen it all from being in the airline industry for 15 years. Unfortunately that is the risk you take when you fly. Delays may be a part of it. No one likes delays and cancelations and sometimes yes you are going to have to adjust your plans. One airline or another isn't immune to delays. Yes the weather yesterday probably caused his delay. The FAA is in control of the airspace and when they say that you need to wait the airlines have to abide by that. There are hundreds of flights in the air and when you have storms it creates a lot of problems especially in the NYC area.

 

[StageTek]

Even those of us not in the airline industry understand that flights will be delayed. It seem to me that lately JetBlue has experienced far more delays than in the past. I flew with them often (LAX to MCO) from 2009 to 2012 with very few delays. In Feb my friend was delayed on all four of his flights (RT LGB/MCO) at roughly the same times I was on a different airline and I've been reading about delays so I've been checking 6 weeks before my flight out of curiosity. Delays 5 to 6 times a week seems excessive to me. I understand that's the risk - it just seems there might be something other than weather.

 

[klacey1]

Even those of us not in the airline industry understand that flights will be delayed. It seem to me that lately JetBlue has experienced far more delays than in the past. I flew with them often (LAX to MCO) from 2009 to 2012 with very few delays. In Feb my friend was delayed on all four of his flights (RT LGB/MCO) at roughly the same times I was on a different airline and I've been reading about delays so I've been checking 6 weeks before my flight out of curiosity. Delays 5 to 6 times a week seems excessive to me. I understand that's the risk - it just seems there might be something other than weather.

That's still a very small sample size. I travel all the time for business, exclusively JetBlue and Delta and have experienced FAR more delays on Delta than I have on JetBlue. Yet I still wouldn't say I think Delta has a problem.
Trust me, JetBlue isn't delaying planes for the fun of it. Obviously there are legit reasons. I doubt it's anything scandalous.

 

[NFLDERS]

Usually Jetblue has excellent on-time service, but what's the deal lately? We just returned from Puerto Rico from a family reunion. My brother and his family left San Juan Saturday, to continue their vacay at WDW. Their flight was to depart at 9:08AM, but they got a call from Jetblue at 4:30AM informing them that the flight was canceled Furthermore, they had basically 20 minutes to wake up and get to the airport to catch another flight out, which they made, since that flight was delayed. Trouble is, it was going to FORT LAUDERDALE, not Orlando.....my brother was told that the only next available flight to MCO was 8:30 the next morning [not acceptable, since they were only spending 3 days at WDW and would lose an entire day, plus the cost of the extra day in San Juan]. He had to rent a vehicle to drive to Orlando, since Jetblue never actually got him to his destination (BTW, no offerings of paying for the rental by Jetblue either).

Their flight back to EWR was scheduled for 5:45 yesterday afternoon. They boarded ME at 2:20 and arrived to find that the outbound flight was now delayed 3 hours. They didn't actually board the plane till after 9PM and then SAT ON THE TARMAC FOR ALMOST 2 HOURS before finally returning back to the gate. They waited in the terminal until after 12 midnite, when they finally reboarded....they finally landed at EWR after 3AM. What was most stunning about this entire ordeal was that they blamed it on the northeast weather. Really? My DS left Puerto Rico ON TIME and landed in EWR ahead of schedule.....what a nightmare for my brother and his family!

My Dsil's sister "WAS" to fly from Vancouver, British Columbia to Toronto, Ontario Air Canada, direct on Monday. She waited through not one but, two delays then, the flight was Cancelled. The passengers boarded a Non-direct to Calgary, Alberta. More delays... She arrived in Toronto 24 hours later! AND. of course NO LUGGAGE! She was to say the least not impressed. . My brother, and Dsil ^ (same one) are on route to Hamilton from Vancouver, B. C. today but, they fly with West Jet so.. We shall see!

 

[StageTek]

I agree, klacey, and I trust you; I know they aren't delaying for the fun of it. I apologize for giving you the impression I was suggesting anything scandalous was going on. And for giving you the impression I felt I had done exhaustive research on this. As I said, it was just a couple of weeks on ONE flight. Sorry to hear you have experienced so many delays on Delta.

 

[writerguyfl]

That's still a very small sample size.

This is the key. It's easy to come to a (perhaps) false conclusion when your sample is just a handful of flights. According to their website, JetBlue operates 1,000 flights each day.

That said, it's entirely possible that JetBlue is having operational issue that have resulted in more delays and cancelations than in the past. I don't have time to do the research, but you can compare JetBlue against it's own past performance, against other airlines, or at select airport using data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Link to "Airline On-Time Statistics and Delay Causes" data: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/OT_Delay/OT_DelayCause1.asp

 

[StageTek]

Again, I apologize for giving the impression that I thought I had done extensive research. I should have been more clear is stating that I know a couple of weeks looking at one daily flight does not show a scandalous pattern of abuse. I am checking for my own, personal curiosity. I see now I should not have made it public.

 

[Pooh2]

Until this year, we were happy with Jetblue.

We've had to round trips from Boston to Orlando this spring/summer and both were delayed from 45 minutes to 2 hours, each direction. Both trips, the weather was great. No explanation was given for the delays on either trip.

 

[kimmar067]

....What was most stunning about this entire ordeal was that they blamed it on the northeast weather. Really? My DS left Puerto Rico ON TIME and landed in EWR ahead of schedule.....

....I wanted to add that my DS's flight was a Jetblue flight too.

 

[kimmar067]

Until this year, we were happy with Jetblue.

We've had to round trips from Boston to Orlando this spring/summer and both were delayed from 45 minutes to 2 hours, each direction. Both trips, the weather was great. No explanation was given for the delays on either trip.

....and this is MY beef with Jetblue...

 

[kimmar067]

Actually, our flight was 'on-time' [I checked "Flight Status" on my cell phone] until about 40 minutes to departure. It [Jetblue Flt #1890] was scheduled to depart San Juan at 5:55PM and was delayed to 6:55PM. At around 6:30, I got another email on my phone saying that it was delayed AGAIN to 7:20. In the bigger scheme of things, those delays weren't too terrible. However, once again no explanation was offered. I guess, to help reduce time, they offered to put 25 carry-on bags as checked-in bags for free, to help speed things up during the boarding process.

 

[kimmar067]

That's still a very small sample size. I travel all the time for business, exclusively JetBlue and Delta and have experienced FAR more delays on Delta than I have on JetBlue. Yet I still wouldn't say I think Delta has a problem...

...I agree with you on this - that's why we don't fly Delta any more.....

 

[Debbie Jean]

I was a loyal Jet Blue customer flying EWR to MCO several times a year. My experience has mirrored what others have said... in the past couple of years, my flights have been consistently late, not by minutes but by hours. I have gradually switched over to Southwest... some flights delayed but nothing near the problems with Jet Blue. Worse still is the utter lack of explanation, concern or communication. I just cringe when I see them bringing out the terra chips and water into the waiting area. Like that makes a difference.

The last flight I had was supposed to arrive at MCO at 5 PM. Stupid me paid to check a bag. We were delayed hours for no apparent reason or none they cared to share with the passengers and didn't arrive until well after resort luggage delivery ended for the day so I was without my suitcase until the next morning. I really should have known better. But hope springs eternal and I was flying on the last of my reward points so thought I would treat myself LOL

 

[writerguyfl]

Again, I apologize for giving the impression that I thought I had done extensive research. I should have been more clear is stating that I know a couple of weeks looking at one daily flight does not show a scandalous pattern of abuse. I am checking for my own, personal curiosity. I see now I should not have made it public.

Not at all. I hope you don't feel like I was attacking you. That wasn't my intent, at all.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with expressing an opinion based on anecdotal evidence. I only provided the link in case someone was curious. On that page, you can search by airline and airport. It's entirely possible that JetBlue has issues getting into/out of Orlando on time.

Sometimes asking a question or offering an opinion can lead to very specific information as to the cause. For example, back in May, there was a massive terminal swap at Los Angeles International (LAX). Fifteen different airlines changed terminals all at once. If your comment had been about that time frame, I could have provided a possible answer as to why there were delays. (Unfortunately, I'm not aware of reasons for repeated delays out of LAX or Long Beach right now.)

 

[cluvsdisney]

I was a loyal Jet Blue customer flying EWR to MCO several times a year. My experience has mirrored what others have said... in the past couple of years, my flights have been consistently late, not by minutes but by hours. I have gradually switched over to Southwest... some flights delayed but nothing near the problems with Jet Blue. Worse still is the utter lack of explanation, concern or communication. I just cringe when I see them bringing out the terra chips and water into the waiting area. Like that makes a difference.

The last flight I had was supposed to arrive at MCO at 5 PM. Stupid me paid to check a bag. We were delayed hours for no apparent reason or none they cared to share with the passengers and didn't arrive until well after resort luggage delivery ended for the day so I was without my suitcase until the next morning. I really should have known better. But hope springs eternal and I was flying on the last of my reward points so thought I would treat myself LOL

This has been our JetBlue experience for the last few years as well so we switched to delta last year and so far no significant issues. My mother is still loyal to JetBlue and her flight in one direction or the other is always 2+ hours late on each of her visits.

I get it's a small sample of JetBlue flights and that no airline is perfect but it's an unacceptable percentage for us.

 

[Kaytie]

I was a loyal Jet Blue customer flying EWR to MCO several times a year. My experience has mirrored what others have said... in the past couple of years, my flights have been consistently late, not by minutes but by hours

Doesn't this timeline reflect the change in CEO? Not that there's necessarily any correlation...

 

[kimmar067]

Doesn't this timeline reflect the change in CEO? Not that there's necessarily any correlation...

.....coincidence?.....hmmmm.....