jetblue
Having taken JetBlue for the first time last week, I must say I throughly enjoy their services. First, I got a round-trip non-stop flight to Seattle for only $279.20, tax included. Awesome.
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making them comfortable
So, we've recently noticed that the
new cool thing for airlines to say when they mess up is some variation of, "We tried to make them comfortable," as if they were escorting you to meet your maker instead of transporting you to Minnesota to see your grandmother and eat
"bars." We think this is creepy. We think they should stop saying this.
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honeymoons
[Note: Sandals has already responded to the post, expressed sympathy, and reached out to Autumn. We've removed their name from the headline to more accurately focus the blame on Delta, which is the company really behind the problems.] We get that Delta employees just flat out hate their jobs at this point—that would explain the surly flight attendants on my last Delta flight, at any rate—but why would you take that out on newlyweds, who have their whole lives to be disappointed and deserve that one week of happiness at the start? The least you could do, angry Delta employees, is try to help out after your employer utterly fails to deliver the passengers anywhere near their destination. No, a dingy one-night stay in a hotel room in NYC is not the same as a week in Antigua.
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travel
Canine companions now have a place to do their business before boarding
American Airlines flights at JFK. We think the fire hydrant was a nice touch, don't you?
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it's a trap
Two workers at JFK airport fell into a trap set by Delta Airlines and the
TSA, says the
Daily News. The two men are accused of stealing a Macbook Air and a T-Mobile Sidekick from decoy luggage. The first man, a TSA officer, was videotaped rummaging through a Miami-bound suitcase in an airport screening room while a baggage handler watched.
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delays
78
turtles ambled out of Jamaica Bay on Wednesday to make sweet, sweet love all over one New York City's busiest runways. It took Port Authority workers 35 minutes to shut down the impromptu nightclub, but the damage was done and travelers at J.F.K. experienced delays of up to an hour and a half.
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freebies
A
Jet Blue employee hitched a free flight from JFK Airport in NYC to Logan Airport in Boston this past weekend, after
getting trapped in the cargo hold before takeoff. Police aren't charging him with a crime, but they told the Boston Globe that, "Even after talking to him, we were a little uncertain as to how it happened." He apparently called the company from the cargo hold once the plane was in the air—which is exactly what we would do to deflect suspicion in a scheme like this. Tokyo, here we come via new part-time job as a baggage handler!
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jetblue
JetBlue appreciates your cooperation in this matter. [
Newsday]
virgin america
Adam is writing in to say that in the year that Virgin America has been operating, he feels that they've forgotten how to run their airline. The first time he flew with them, his flight was delayed and his laptop adapter melted. He got a free flight. The second time he flew, about a year later, his flight was delayed, the airline ran out of food, his luggage was ripped open and his valuables disappeared, and the baggage claim rep laughed at his misfortune.
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scams
Reader Andy decided to check his bag curb-side at JFK, that
wretched hive of scum and villainy, and the curb-side check-in attendant scammed him out of $15 by promising to sneak his "overweight" bag onto the flight for a "big tip." Naturally, after the deal was done, Andy realized that his bag probably wasn't overweight and he'd just been scammed. Now he's writing in to tell his story so that other consumers can avoid a similar fate.
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whoops
Praying is nice but you should try not to disrupt the entire flight with your holiness. WNBC says an Orthodox Jewish man got up from his seat while passengers were still boarding, and walked to the back of the United Airlines flight where he began praying. His friend said the prayers lasted approximately 2 minutes. When flight attendants asked the man to return to his seat so the plane could take off, he ignored them.
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travel
An argument can be made that the irresponsibly overworked New York City airports are causing a bottleneck in air travel that can be felt system-wide. The blame for the area's poor performance gets passed around between the FAA, the
airlines, the airports themselves, the weather and God.
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crime
We sort of suspect that the 10 American
Airlines and Delta employees busted for running a drug smuggling ring at New York's JFK airport didn't really have their heart into the customer service aspect of the job. Probably distracted by the whole "life of crime" thing.
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airlines
Here are the results of those
secret meetings we told you about last week:
flight delays may be cut by as much as 25% by next summer, but the consequence will be fewer flight times to choose from, and higher ticket prices. The airlines are suggesting cutting the number of flights out of the three hubs most responsible for the nation's delays—JFK, La Guardia, and Newark. "About three-fourths of chronic delays around the country can be traced back to congestion at these three airports," reports Kiplinger's.
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congestion
A so-called "federal task force" comprised of airline executives, government officials and aviation industry groups has been assembled.
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