What should consumers expect when weather delays keep them stuck for hours on departing aircraft? JetBlue is offering an apology, a full refund, and a free ticket.
When this week's ice storm hit New York's JFK Airport, JetBlue was forced to cancel half of its 505 flights. Some passengers were stranded on planes for up to ten hours.
"JetBlue apologizes to customers who were impacted by the ice storm at our home base of operations in New York, specifically at John F. Kennedy International Airport," the airline said in a statement. "This resulted in unacceptable delays for our customers."
The airline issued an apology to all customers impacted by the weather and said it will issue a full refund and a free roundtrip flight to customers delayed onboard any aircraft in excess of three hours. The statement said JetBlue's customer commitment team will be contacting affected customers as soon as possible.
While other airlines were also impacted by the icy weather, JetBlue has thus far taken the initiative in its customer service response.
It acted in the midst of growing passenger unrest over service in the industry. A similar incident aboard an American Airlines jet in late December resulted in angry passengers launching a drive for an Airline Passenger Bill of Rights.
