Back in September, the K. family were planning their end-of-year getaway from New York to Florida. But only days before they were set to travel to warmer climes, the Ks realized they had made a huge goof that could cost them a lot of money.

“Instead of selecting December 22nd I had picked September 22nd,” the Ks tells Consumerist.

They didn’t notice the error until going online the other day to figure out when they should plan for to be picked up at the airport. That’s when they realized their actual flight had departed three months earlier — obviously without them.

Prepared for a variety of unpleasant options ranging from buying a whole new slate of tickets to renting a car to calling off the trip altogether, the Ks called JetBlue to admit their error and hope for mercy.

The rep they talked to explained that the usual situation would be to charge the difference between the original tickets and the new airfare — around $1,100 in this case.

But rather than just charge them the extra, the CSR put the Ks on hold so she could talk to her supervisor.

“[The rep] came back from her conversations with her supervisor several times over the next 10 minutes and then she asked for my credit card number,” write the Ks. “I was hesitant to give her my information because I did not want to spend $1,100. [She] then said we will fix everything for you and we will just charge you the $20 per ticket phone reservation fee.”

So the Ks’ vacation has been saved, even though the JetBlue rep was not obligated to fix what the customers admit was their own error.

Just a reminder that we’re still accepting your stories of above-and-beyond customer service. Just send them to tips@consumerist.com with “ABOVE BEYOND 2012” in the subject line.

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