JetBlue Airways Reviews | Opinions of JetBlue Airways shared by travelers

My sister and I traveled round trip from Seattle to New York in September 2011 via JetBlue. This was our first experience with this airline. It will also be the last.

Our return trip was scheduled for 10:50 AM on the 18th. We missed our flight literally by only a couple of minutes due to being held up in a restaurant about 200 feet away, waiting to pay our bill - in fact, JetBlue hadn't even closed the door yet, but refused us admittance because my sister hadn't yet arrived, even though I told the attendant she was only a little way behind me.

But that is not actually the cause of my complaint - we were late for our flight and we accepted responsibility for it. However, the way we were treated by the staff was absolutely unacceptable.

The JetBlue attendant was quite rude to me, even before I'd had a chance to finish my first sentence! When I arrived at the gate, I tried to inquire about the flight status (“closed”) that I was not expecting to see on the display screen, but before I had even finished my question, she interrupted me. In a very rude tone she said “Where have you been? Everyone’s already boarded and I’m closing the doors now.” She went on to say that she had paged us several times and we didn’t respond.

This cannot be true. We had been just across the walkway for several hours before I went over to the gate. We should certainly have heard the page over the intercom, but we heard no such thing. And in fact, we heard JetBlue page someone else in both English and Spanish – loud and clear, several times for about 15 minutes. If we had been paged we would certainly have heard it. I honestly do not believe anyone at JetBlue made any such effort on our behalf. Since doing so would perhaps be only a courtesy on their part, and not a requirement, why did the attendant feel it necessary to lie about it? Even so, I refrained from pointing this out to her and I merely said that we heard no page.

She then gave a very rude smile, which of course was not really a smile, and said she would not wait; there was nothing for us to do but make arrangements for the next flight to Seattle.

As soon as my sister arrived a couple of minutes later, she walked up to the JetBlue attendant and asked her if it was indeed too late to board the plane. She said it was not possible and then pointed across the aisle to another JetBlue attendant who was sitting at a desk. She told us to talk to her about getting the next flight which was not until about 7:00 that evening.

The other attendant was not as rude to us in her tone, but things still got worse. She put us on standby for the next flight, and emphatically made a point to tell us more than once that since it was already full we probably would not get on it. No one could guarantee we’d be able to get on the flight and so we'd have to wait for another one after that.

As it turns out, this was a deliberate lie! About an hour later we each learned from different JetBlue employees that the flight was nowhere near to being full!

Perhaps this might be a small thing to some people – staff lying to a customer like that. Maybe you think “no harm, no foul.” After all, we would have been able to get on the flight anyway, so who cares if we were told that the flight was full or not? But my sister and I were clearly distressed. I was quite obviously in tears. Tell me – how is it acceptable for a person in her position to lie like that to a customer who is already clearly upset and worried about getting home on time? Rather than aggravating the situation and making us even more worried, she should have been assuring us that there was plenty of room on the flight and our chances of getting on it were very high (which is what my sister and I were each told later, in separate conversations with the JetBlue call center).

Now here is where the greatest insult comes. After all that, as we were walking away we happened to look back toward the first extremely rude JetBlue attendant who was still standing by the gate – and she was clearly making eye contact with the desk attendant and they were laughing! So, what kind of person laughs at another’s distress like that? That would not be acceptable behavior from anyone, but the fact that they were JetBlue employees who are in the customer service industry makes it even more offensive.

I sincerely wish I’d had the presence of mind to get these ladies’ names. However, I was so upset that it was the last thing on my mind at the time. I did try later to discover the ladies' names, both in person that day while waiting for the next flight, and by phone after I arrived back home.

No one would provide that information.

So people, be aware that the sort of employees JetBlue hires are rude liars who take pleasure in their customers’ distress.

JetBlue makes a point to advertise that their customer service goes above and beyond that of the average airline. Well, that is simply not true in my experience. From now on, I will stick with my usual "average airline," whose employees have never treated me unkindly.