JetBlue cancels more flights

(New York - WABC, February 17, 2007) (WABC) -- The escalating troubles at JetBlue have left its passengers seeing red.

The airline has yet to recover from that snowstorm four days ago that forced hundreds of delayed and canceled flights. And the bad news keeps coming: JetBlue has canceled a fourth of its flights this weekend.

Eyewitness News reporter Stacey Sager has the latest from JFK airport.

Plenty of angry passengers are still at JFK airport Saturday. They say their holiday weekend has been ruined and they have been trying to get on planes days and days but now many are giving up.

It's official. The vacation is over for one family we met before it even started. They wanted to fly on JetBlue to California but their flight was canceled. Then it took more than a day to get their bags back and now mom is sick.

"It was total chaos. People were asking 'can you give us any answers,'" one of the JetBlue passengers, Lisa Confessore, said. "There was a poor baby sleeping on the luggage."

And, so they gave up but clearly not everyone has. On Saturday, the JetBlue terminal at JFK was still crowded with many crabby passengers who have been trying since Wednesday to get some sort of a vacation.

It was during Wednesday's storm that some passengers actually were stranded on JetBlue planes on the tarmac for hours and hours. They say the airline is still moving at a snail's pace to get things back to normal.

"We stood on a line for five hours with no food, no chair, no anything," a JetBlue passenger, Arlene Klein, said. "And in the end they sent us home."

It is because JetBlue had to cancel 133 more flights today. Planes going to ten different cities and Bermuda were all canceled. At JFK's Delta terminal, it wasn't that much better.

A Delta passenger, Martha Wood, was trying to reach Chicago.

"It was canceled with no option until Monday or Tuesday to get out of JFK," she said.

The hardest part for some was customer service or lack of it on both airlines. For example, many people tell Eyewitness News that there were no JetBlue baggage handlers to help them.

"From behinds the doors, we did see them laughing at us. The crew members and the help they had with the baggage," a JetBlue passenger, Joy D'atri, said. "They weren't working."

This is another hurdle for this bargain airline in the future -- the struggle to gain back the customer faith.

The airline has expanded its rebooking policy. If you are scheduled to fly JetBlue through Monday, you can voluntarily rebook your trip without penalty. You'll have until May 22nd to do it. That's the only good news.

To rebook, customers are asked to call JetBlue at 800-JETBLUE (800-538-2583). JetBlue Reservations is experiencing enormous call volume, and customers may not be able to get through today.

If customers prefer, JetBlue will convert the full value of their travel into a JetBlue credit good for future JetBlue travel. Customers may convert the value of their travel into a JetBlue credit online by clicking here.

Customers whose JetBlue flight has been cancelled may opt for a full refund by clicking here.

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