I made a flight reservation for a Jet Blue flight from JFK airport to Tampa, FL on a Friday evening. My ticket wa sfully paidd for and I checked in at the kiosk about an hour before the flight and received a boarding pass. The boarding pass had a Gate number and flight number but for some reason that JET BLUE cannot explain I was not assigned a seat. When I tried to board the plane with more than ten minutes prior to departure time they advised me that the flight was fully booked and I could not board. They offered to bait and switch me onto a flight to Orlando which I had to take to get to my ultimate destination of Tampa, FL. Three and half hours and over $100 cab ride later I made it to Tampa, FL and the evening I was supposed to be spending with friends was ruined. JET BLUE has not satisfactorily resolved this issue to date and they are claiming this was my fault because I should've checked in with their agents as soon as I arrived at the gate to get my seat assignment because even though I had a boarding pass it was not valid with a seat asignment.
I was not the only person who was provided a seat assignment on their boarding pass received from the kiosk. I believe JET BLUE is issuing boarding passes without seta assignments to avoid the embarassment and compensation to customers for overbooked flights under their Customer Bill of Rights. This is a way for them to fill up their flights more and have an excuse when they bounce someone from a flight. The bait and switch move onto another flight not heavily booked is as old as the skies themselves.
This is only my second time flying JET BLUE so I am not sure how often they pull this scam. I will not fly with them unless they resolve this issue but right now customer service has been unhelpful and acting like insurance claims adjustors.
Please let me know if you've experienced this issue with JET BLUE because I am looking to find a consumer advocate who can research this further.
Jet Blue victim
Paul
Gulfport,#2Consumer Comment
Wed, December 23, 2009
Why did you not pay the difference and do the online seat assignment? I am tall so It does matter where I sit, so I will always make sure I get the seats I want out of what is available. What about doing to 24-hour online check-in? You might have noticed then, that you did not have assigned seats, and you then could have handled it at the counter before going through security.
Paul