The filthy, lying, money-grubbing whores we call... the airline industry.
On Sunday, June 20, I had to fly from New York to Portland, OR, to attend the OSCON open source conference. My JetBlue flight was scheduled to board at 7:05 pm and depart at 7:35 pm. We boarded at 8:30. After we backed away from the gate the pilot came on and informed us that it would be at least two hours before we took off. It was actually three hours. As I see it, I was basically kidnapped. I was being held in a confined space, against my will, with absolutely no recourse whatsoever, other than risking arrest by federal authorities if I wanted to get off that plane. I did not consent to being detained, because I was not informed of the pending detainment until after it was too late for me to do anything about it.
Right now, as I write this, I am sitting at the Portland airport, trying to get home. My midnight red-eye flight was due to board at 11:35 PM.
It is now 12:45 AM PDT and my flight is scheduled to depart at 5:00 AM. Apparently, this is due to severe thunderstorms on the east coast, so the plane from New York departed five hours late.
If JetBlue was anything other than a third-rate bunch of liars, they would have found a plane from, say, Salt Lake or Los Angeles and made it available.
No way. The airline industry is running so lean and so bankrupt, that they honestly feel that they can rationalize a five hour delay on a red-eye flight because of thunderstorms.
They'll never acknowledge that they don't have enough planes. Nor will they admit that their route planners are morons. It's certainly not because they are trying really, really hard, but sometimes circumstances are beyond their control.
It is because they are thieves and liars. I do not know how JetBlue CEO David Barger looks himself in the mirror every day, but I am sure, deep down, he must be disgusted with himself, his crap airline and the decision he made to get into an industry that is, above all, morally bankrupt.
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2 comments:
Yeah, why didn't they just bring a plane from Seattle, or Cali?
JetBlue used to be much better ...
In 2000, we booked a flight on JetBlue from New York City. The flight was delayed for six hours due a snow storm. While we waited in the terminal, they brought out all the food and beverage they had available. And a couple of weeks later, we got an e-mail from the CEO apologizing for the delay and a full refund to all passengers, even though the delay wasn't their fault. That earned my respect and my business.
I guess it all went downhill since then.
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