Frustrated travelers face thousands of delays, cancellations with little communication

After receiving multiple delayed flight and cancellations emails from JetBlue, Roslyn resident Jonathon Penn and his wife ended up renting a car from Florida to get back home to Long Island.

News 12 Staff

Apr 4, 2022, 9:11 AM

Updated 976 days ago

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Hundreds of frustrated families say they have had a hard time getting home over the weekend due to storms in Florida.
After receiving multiple delayed flight and cancellations emails from JetBlue, Roslyn resident Jonathon Penn and his wife ended up renting a car from Florida to get back home to Long Island.
He says the only time he received a call from JetBlue was early Monday to state that their flight from Sunday had been delayed.
"I think communication from the top down operationally was certainly a disappointment and one they're going to have to look at," Penn says. "And how they communicate out and how to do well by the customers."
Another couple had their honeymoon delayed due to JetBlue cancellations.
David and Molly Spilka's flight was scheduled for 4 a.m. Sunday, but then delayed until 11 a.m.
When they got to their terminal, they found out the flight was canceled without any notification.
"They just weren't telling us something and they weren't making any public announcements," Molly Spilka says. "So it was just total chaos."
They then found out that their new flight for Tuesday had also been canceled so they booked with a different airline.
The issues weren't just with JetBlue.
According to Flight Aware, more than 6,000 United States flights were delayed and nearly 2,000 were canceled on Saturday.
Airlines such as Southwest say they had backend system issues, which started Saturday. A spokesman says they will be waiving fare differences for affected customers so they can rebook themselves online without waiting on the phone.
Passengers are frustrated but say they don't think they'll get a refund.
"It would be nice, but yeah, no I'm not hoping," says Trish Peters. "I learned my lesson, I'm not hoping anything. I'm just glad to be here and I don't think I'll be flying that airline again."
News 12 reached out to JetBlue for comment but had not heard back as of 10 p.m. Monday.