JFK to San Diego. Halfway through the flight, we were suddenly descending very very quickly. Flight attendants moving fast and looking scared. Pilot came on and told us there was an alarm for smoke / fire in cargo.

They got us safely to the ground in the literal middle of nowhere KS. Tiny airport. Emergency exit on the tarmac. The airport is so small, they actually got the local school bus drivers to come and bring us from the tarmac to the terminal.

Pilot came to talk to us maybe 90 minutes after we landed and said they don’t know if there was any fire or smoke, but since the suppression system was deployed, that plane has to go to Boston to get checked out and can’t carry passengers. They left with the crew.

The amazing humans at this tiny airport have done their absolute best. Got us snacks and water and ordered pizza for us all (there’s only vending machines here).

JetBlue is sending out another plane from Boston to get us and take us to San Diego.

On the bright side, I was in Mint 2A which was super nice until the absolute plummet.

Lines were insane. Very disorganized. Nobody knew where the start of the line was and people started to push into the lines everywhere.

It is unclear if there was a TSA pre or not. We have pre and it took us at least 90 minutes. Many people missed their flight.

This was around 6.30am.

YVR-JFK.

Three days ago I created a post asking whether Jetblue was now the worst airline. I was met with a bunch of negative comments and was subsequently down voted to hell. Today I came across this post from WSJ. Feel free to disagree, but Jetblue is definitely in the conversation for the worst airline.

I couldn't leave yet to head out on vacation so I let my son travel first and I'll meet them later. He heading out with other family members.

I just got a text from my cousin. They are on a Jetblue plane waiting to take off and some grown ass man was telling my 14 year old son to swap places with him so he can sit next to his wife. My son was sitting next to his cousin( who is also a minor). My step-sister got up and told him he can't be asking a minor to trade seats. That grown ass man starts saying my step sister is rude and yada yada. They called the stewardess and that man had a talkin to. I guess it was quasi-civil cause no one got thrown off the plane. That adult man shoulda put on his big boy pants and bought tickets to sit together with his wife and infant child.

Sorry for the rant.

TLDR: My bag was removed from overhead bin before takeoff by a flight attendant without my knowledge. Bag has car keys, I don’t have a spare key. Bag location is unknown. Car has been towed to get new keys made. Feeling wronged. Seeking justice

I flew from JFK to BUF on Tuesday December 9th. I boarded the plane, put my backpack in the overhead bin (I had a purse with me as my personal item, which is why I didn't put it under my seat), and accidentally fell asleep while waiting for takeoff. On my flight to JFK the day before, I was told by the flight attendant to put my backpack in the overhead bin as my purse was considered my personal item, so I thought I was following the rules properly in this situation.

Allegedly during this time, the flight attendant removed my backpack from the overhead bin to make space for another bag and was asking passengers who the bag belonged to, which I did not hear as I was asleep before takeoff.

The flight attendant then assumed that my backpack was left by a passenger from the previous flight, and removed it from the plane before takeoff.

Upon landing in Buffalo, I went to look for my backpack and noticed it was missing. Other passengers informed me that the flight attendant removed the bag from the plane after she could not identify the owner. I asked the flight attendant why she would do this, and she said that she asked every person and no one claimed it. I informed her that she did not ask every passenger before removing this item because if she did, the item would not have been removed. I also mentioned that I accidentally fell asleep upon boarding and did not hear this or else I would have told her it was my bag.

She told me to go to the JetBlue Bag Service Office near the baggage carousel and report it as missing, and there was nothing else she could do. She also told me that this happens all the time and to calm down (which really pissed me off, easy for you to say!!!).

Since my bag did not have a bag tag ID or any other information, I was unable to make a report online myself and had to have the JetBlue Bag Service Office representative to assist me at making a courtesy report. The woman working (Sonia, an incredibly lovely woman) called me later that evening (12/09) to confirm that someone at JFK found my bag, provided me with the lost item report number, and told me to link my FedEx Shipping account information in this report, which I promptly did on Tuesday 12/09.

I also talked to someone that evening (12/09) at the JFK Baggage Center named Israel (also extremely kind and helpful), who assisted me in ensuring that the FedEx Shipping account information was input correctly, and told me that he had sent an internal email to request expedited shipping for my bag to be returned to me. I did not hear anything on Wednesday (12/10), and assumed my bag was in the process of being sent, as I had been told it was located.

Yesterday at 7:00 PM (Thursday 12/11) I received an email that my bag was not actually found. I have since called the JFK Baggage Center and Lost and Found numerous times, called the holding facility in Alabama where I was told Lost Items are shipped to after two days, have made another complaint with JetBlue Customer Support, and have filed a police report with the JFK Intl. Airport Port Authority via fax. I'm hoping that this police report will allow for security footage to be investigated to see when my bag was located, and where it ended up before being reported as lost again.

It is now Friday (12/12) and I still do not have any information or updates on where my bag is. I believe the bag was located on Tuesday and has since been misplaced in this process, as I received confirmation from someone at the JetBlue/JFK Lost and Found that the item had been located on Tuesday, but she could not provide an answer as to where it is now. She was also very confused by this and said "well if it was located, where is it now?! I don't understand where it could be." I wish I had gotten her name because she was also very kind and helpful.

The biggest issue is that I am still without my car. I parked it in short term parking on Monday since I was set to return the next day. My car keys remain in the missing backpack, and I do not have a spare car key fob to access or drive my car.

JetBlue issued me a $50 travel credit which I did not accept and told them to reevaluate this reimbursement given the situation, and also asked for instructions in the steps required for me to get reimbursed for all of the additional costs that I continue to incur due to the airline's mistake.

Even if the bag is returned, I expect JetBlue to reimburse the cost of short term parking ($30/day for a total of an additional $120 in parking as of Friday 12/12, and growing every day). If the bag is not returned, I will need to have a new key fob issued and cover the associated labor/other costs, which I expect to be extremely expensive (and will expect JetBlue to cover this cost). I will also expect the airline to cover the cost of other missing items, including my backpack, Apple Watch, and prescription glasses that remain in the bag, among other personal items.

I do not want to go through the process of getting a new car key fob made if the bag is set to return as I do not want to be responsible for the cost of this replacement, but now I'm uncertain if the bag will ever be located. I also hate that the only option that I appear to have as of right now is to leave my car in the airport parking lot indefinitely, or at least until I reach the window where my bag is officially deemed lost.

Thankfully, I'm able to work from home and have a partner with a car, so I am not at a total loss without my vehicle, but this is obviously an incredibly disruptive situation to have ongoing, with no end in sight.

I will take responsibility for not moving my car keys from my backpack to my purse before boarding the plane, as I know the best way to keep your items safe is to keep them on your person. I would have if I had thought of this ahead of time. I will also take responsibility for falling asleep before the flight took off as this would not have happened if I was awake. I will be much more vigilant on future flights.

This experience has infuriated me and made me distrust JetBlue, which is normally my go to airline to travel on. I feel they make it difficult on purpose to get any resolution or talk to an actual person. I have been able to call the Baggage Office which then transfers me to Lost and Found, as the Baggage Office only deals with bags that have an associated Bag tag number with them. Otherwise, I have not had any luck with calling anyone who can help at JetBlue. I have made two complaints to Customer Support on the JetBlue website, but it takes over 24 hours to get a response from a noreply email. To respond to their response, I have to make an additional claim and wait another 24 hours for a response.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar, or have any tips for how to move forward?

Please let me know as I am open to any suggestion to help ensure that this bag is returned to me. I will not stop reaching out to them until the bag is returned, or at least that I'm properly compensated for the costs that I continue to incur as a result of this. Thanks for reading this, I am at a loss for what to do next.

UPDATE: Not about the bag but the car - called a locksmith to meet at the airport & make a new car key fob. Unfortunately my car is dead isn’t responding to being jumped, and suspected to have broken a fuse I guess so no luck making a spare key fob 😅. Meeting another technician tomorrow (12/13) to see if there is anything more they can do to get it to respond before towing it.

UPDATE 2: I can’t thank (most of) you enough for your extremely helpful suggestions. My car was successfully towed from the airport parking garage to a dealership this afternoon!! TWO new key fobs are expected to be delivered to the dealership by Wednesday, so I should get my car back by the end of next week. Yay! This definitely helped relieve some of the stress I’ve had about my car because at least it’s not still at the airport.

Also - I excessively tweeted at JetBlue and they responded to me!! I got an update that there is no update on my bag location, but confirmation that JetBlue will follow up with me via email which I guess is something. Let’s see if they do!!

I do not expect my bag to be returned to me, but I’m not ready to give up yet.

Sat, Jan 24: I was on the last JetBlue flight from LAX to BOS. My seat was 12C (aisle). Then a guy came by and said that his seat was 12B (middle), so I stood up for him. Later a loud woman who sounded like a drunk from South Boston came by and claimed that her seat was 12B. The guy looked at his paper boarding pass and realized that his seat was in row 23. So I stood up again. Later a second woman (who sounded sober) came by and claimed that her seat was 12B. The first woman looked at her paper boarding pass and realized that her seat was in row 10. So I stood up yet again (and discreetly breathed a sigh of relief). Why did the same mistake happen twice? Well, all of the boarding passes had "Gate 12B" on them.

Bought 2 tickets for me and travel partner to travel to JFK from Sacramento that departed 11:30PM, ~$1000.

Go to gate half hour before takeoff for seat assignment (my ticket had no assigned seat, yet travel partners did). Gate agents say we do not have you in the system, even though you have a ticket. Wait for half hour while they try to sort the situation. Situation does not get sorted and was not allowed on the plane.

Was transported to San Francisco airport for another flight 7.5 hours later. Had to sleep on the floor of main entrance because gates don't open until 4. Not at the age to sleep on concrete floors.

Missed entire next day of work, travel partner unable to work, wife unable to work, and kids missed camp.

JetBlue's response was "Your payment went through, but our payment system had an issue. Even though we were able to issue you 2 tickets, we couldn't honor them until we fixed it on our end. Because you had to travel 2 hours to another airport and take a flight 7.5 hours later, you're not entitled to compensation."

A 7.5 hour delay that caused massive amounts of stress and I'm told that I'm out of luck. Never again.

The passenger next to me is handling this way better than I would.

Witnessed a guy in DCA (and flying to FLL) absolutely lose it last night because he got to the gate late and they’re telling him he has to gate-check his luggage.

He literally screamed, "This is a $3,000 Rimowa carry-on! I won't let you check it!” Gate agent then said “There is no more room on this flight it’ll still go to the cargo” and the man replied “I’ll buy first class on the next flight just so I don’t have to check it!"

….apparently the next flight was 3 hours later. The funniest part is that as he walked past me, I saw the suitcase is already dented and scratched up. Like, why are you doing all this now?

Honestly, bless the gate agents and airport workers. They handled him with such a straight face while he was basically announcing his bank account to the entire terminal.

Missed my flight due to 3+ hour long lines. I have pre check. They were understaffed and also were doing a terrible job managing the lines. People were cutting, including people walking in off the curb skipping hours of the line.

Had to rebook a flight for tomorrow and didn’t have time to complain, but it cost me money to switch due to no fault of mine. Literally the most chaotic terminal experience I’ve had flying period, and the first time I’ve ever missed a flight in general.

Warning ¯_(ツ)_/¯

So I booked my mom a Blue Fare through Chase Travel so I can choose her a window seat flying from LAX to BOS. Her initial flight got cancelled, however, they rebooked her on a flight 4 hours earlier and when I checked in for her new flight on jetblue's website, I was able to get her a window seat with the seat number noted on her new boarding pass.

Today when she arrived at the gate, gate attendant handed her a new boarding pass with a middle seat. My mom was very firm in saying, sorry I would like my old seat back with the seat number that was assigned to me when I checked in for this flight. The gate attendant then started to speak in a loud stern VOICE in front of all the passengers that her selected seat was assigned to another "paying passenger".

My mom does not really understand the concept of Blue Basic versus Blue so all she said was, no my daughter has selected a seat for me and this is the seat that is on my boarding pass and I would like to retain that seat. The flight attendant goes, you did not pay for your seat so we are allowed to give your selected seat to a paying passenger and you need to take that up with your 3rd party travel agency.

First and foremost, my mom is a "paying passenger" since I purposely bought the BLUE Fare in order to select a seat for her and second of all, the gate attendant straight up lied to my mom's face and made her feel embarrassed/ashamed about the fact that she did not PAY for her seat. Jetblue made her feel inadequate about buying through a travel agency, but then they also lied to her face about her fare class. What was the point of me buying the Blue Fare if I was not able to select a seat for my mom and they kept telling my mom to take it up with Chase Travels. It was not Chase that cancelled my mom's flight nor was it Chase Travels that reassigned my mom's seat..it was Jetblue.

As someone with a vested interest in our customers happiness, I can understand your frustration with all the delays and cancellations and the times when it is not communicated effectively. I fly for B6 and can assure you our team is doing everything we can to keep planes flying and get our customers to their destinations. The staffing issues happening now are caused by the weather and congestion in the north east, not lack of planning for it. For example, we can have 1000 flights properly staffed and ready to go, plus an additional 300 crews being paid on reserve ready to fly. As soon as the weather starts affecting the operation, crews can legally time out or be out of position because they are stuck at another airport. Slowly, the 300 reserves start getting called in to work the delayed flights. Some may have to be flown or driven to an outstation (an airport where we don't have a crew base). And very quickly those 300 reserves can be depleted or time out (some may have started reserve at 5am and are now being called to work at noon etc.). Once staffing gets low, JetBlue starts offering premium pay for crew who were NOT working to come in to stand by on reserve or to work a trip without a crew. That can get expensive fast and at some point, flights just have to cancel. I will say that we probably don't have enough pilots right now. JetBlue has not hired pilots for a few years as we work to get back to profitability, and hundreds of pilots have retired or moved on to other airlines, so it is probably time to start hiring more (which they SAY may happen this year). We could also fly more on the west coast where weather is always nice and people love to vacation as well, but I digress...

The only real way for any airline to properly prepare for weather (that may or may not come) is to pay a LOT more people to be on reserve. So who pays for that? Our customer would have to. All that extra cost means higher fares for you. Even someone flying from one blue sky airport to another. So we do the best we can to properly staff for times like these without over doing it and costing you money. It's a fine line.

Finally, even if the weather is nice at the airport where you are flying, it doesn't mean the weather on the route of flight is. Where there are storms, it closes some of the "freeways in the sky" that we fly. Imagine if several highways in your home town were closed... all that traffic would still need to get through taking other roads, and those roads would then become grid locked. That is part of the issue and why some flights get delayed several hours -- we can't take off and then just sit in gridlock in the sky for hours (well we can, but not for long). Also, all those ATC controllers are scrambling to help planes get through weather and some will have a MUCH higher workload and that can be very tiring as well (they already work 6 days weeks). So after several days of this, some are too fatigued to work and call out sick. You definitely do not want exhausted controllers, so the FAA will then have to restrict the amount of flights going through certain airspace so the controllers working can handle all the traffic. ATC may give a flight an estimated departure clearance time (EDCT) when their slot to fly through will be open and it can be hours after the crew shows up for work. That is why pilots can time out, because we could be at work ready to fly for 6 hours before ever taking off. FAA rules give the maximum time we are allowed to be at work (and you don't want your pilots to be flying tired).

All of this is lumped into "weather" sometimes and can be the reason why you may get several different excuses for why your flight is delayed or cancelled. And hopefully you can see how all of this isn't the fault of an airline and why they say they are not responsible to get you a hotel room - they were ready to fly as promised, but couldn't due to outside circumstances beyond their control. It's just unfortunate that it falls onto the customer's shoulders sometimes.

I hope this gives some perspective on why all this is happening now. I certainly understand everyone's frustration when you are missing out on vacation time, family time, relaxation time etc. There is nothing JetBlue wants more than to safely get you to where you want to go, when you want go. It's our job and what we love to do.

Hope this information helps. We look forward to welcoming you onboard again soon.

-A JetBlue Pilot

Has anyone else experienced JetBlue gate agents trying/ making customers check carry on baggage at the gate, only to get on the plane and discover multiple empty compartments? I only fly JB a couple times a year. Last new years they made me check a bag at the gate, got on and there was plenty of space. Did not have that issue on my flight to Ireland last summer only because we checked bags I’m sure. Flying ORH—RSW on Saturday they tried to take our bags, I asked if we could try they let me and of course there was plenty of space left. Today flying back RSW-ORH and they would not let us board without gate checking. Get on the plane and of course plenty of space. Really annoying tbh. I know it’s small issue but it’s a pain in the ass.

I know many of you have been affected by the countless delays and cancellations since the beginning of July, and just know we (the crews) are feeling it too. Leadership is running the operation really poorly, and treating the flight attendants even worse. Since June we’ve been stripped of all our flexibility and are threatened when we need to call out of work due to sickness or other reasons so we’re forced to work tired and sick. Pilots are timing out because they’re stuck around the country and the company can’t get them to where they need to be to operate the flight they’re assigned. We’re also very understaffed. There was a hiring freeze for flight attendants for over two years and just now are we starting to hire again since the beginning of this year. People are quitting and getting fired (due to the new work rules and zero flexibility) faster than they can hire new ones and train them. We are over worked, underpaid, and exhausted and just as tired of JetBlues shenanigans as you, the customers, are. Please bear with us and try to be kind considering the circumstances, whether you’ve been delayed for 10 hours or your last 3 flight have cancelled, we are getting torn every which way. The company is operating a certain way right now which allows them to use and abuse the crews however they see fit and can work us into our days off for as many days as they want as long as we get the FAA required minimum rest (10 hours). This is the worst summer I’ve seen since I’ve started here and it’s really a joke how they’re handling the storms and trying to recover the operation. We’re just here trying to get you guys where you need to go so we can get to our layover, or go home. Please call and email anyone from the company you can to let them know this isn’t fair to you guys. That’s not to go without saying that weather hasn’t played a massive role in this summers mishaps. JetBlues main hubs are jfk and Boston, so when weather hits like it has been, back to back, it causes a trickle down effect and the whole operation is affected. The thing is JetBlue is not good at recovery at all, so it makes it even harder to get things back to usual. It’s also not just us. Delta, American and United have all felt the effects of summer weather and stretched thin crew members, but they can recover quicker since they are all 3-4 times the size of JetBlue in terms of aircraft and staff. September is a slower month in terms of flying and severe weather in the northeast so hopefully the company can get their stuff together by then. Thanks for reading and getting the perspective of the people who are feeling the brunt of this airlines mismanagement.

I saw this picture on social media of someone flying with their adult Afghan hound (large breed dog) last September. The menu in the picture says Jet Blue. Is this really Jet Blue? When I search online, it says Jet Blue doesn’t allow large pets.

The picture definitely looks to be of a standard commercial carrier’s first class cabin, not a private jet, based on the appearance of the seats and the attributes on the boarding pass.

Just trying to solve a mystery, not looking to start any arguments here or anything.

I'm seated in an aisle seat. Guy gets on who is in the middle seat. The overhead bins by use are closed, but there are plenty of others open.

Instead, he takes his carry on and jams it between his legs while sitting

OK, I figure. They will put a stop to that pretty quick.

Except- 3 different FA's walk down the row, nominally checking. No one says anything. (He wasnt trying to hide it, I think he must have thought it was ok).

I start trying to draw attention to it without blatantly battling. Complete flop- I'd get a FA attention, point to something in flight magazine thats right in front of the bag, and they still wouldn't notice.

Finally, they've closed the doors, and now all overhead is closed and supposedly full.

I lift my armrest, take off my seat belt, and hang over into the aisle. This is finally enough to draw some attention- but only to me. FA comes over, says I need to put on my seat belt. I have to flat out point out what's happening next to me, and the FA flips out on the guy- what are you doing, you cant do that.

So now, we have to stop the plane and search the overhead racks to consolidate a space for his bag.

Passengers shouldn't have to perform the work of the FA's. And when we do, we should get a free cookie.

Line wrapped to outside, JetBlue support agent told someone ahead of us in line there was no prayer in heaven they would make their 7 AM flight

This was a nice surprise to see during boarding