I just returned on the 9th of March from a 5 day trip to SXM on Jet Blue. Since Jet Blue will no longer be flying from SJU soon, I doubt I would fly on them to SXM again anyway, but even were they still to be flying from SJU, it will be a LONG time, if ever, before I fly with them again.

I booked my trip back in July for a March trip. At that time, the website was very messed up and it was a tribulation to get the trip even booked, involving a few hours on the phone and having a Jet Blue agent issue me a Jet Blue credit to even be able to book the price for the flight I wanted to go on, at the price listed on the website. It turns out that sometimes you have to talk to a supervisor's supervisor to get Jet Blue to match their own price shown on their website.

I booked two separate reservations, one with points and one with cash. Around this time was when they instituted Blue Plus fares, where you pay for one checked bag. I paid more money to check a bag one way and I also paid more miles to check a bag on the return.

Fast forward to check in, at which time I decided to pay $10 for 'even more speed', which was supposed to provide expedited security at Orlando. Anyone who travels out of Orlando knows what a zoo it is, all the time. Things were fine until I approached the security line, at which point I asked where the 'even more speed line' was. She said "we don't have that here". I said that I had paid $10 to Jet Blue for the even more speed and they repeated there was no such line in Orlando. I asked a second security person, who repeated the same thing. Again, I had only paid the extra $10 the day before, when I checked in.

As I was standing in the HUGE security line, I spoke to a lady just behind me, who had also paid $10 for the expedited security. She probably was going to miss her plane because she was running very tight on time. Fortunately, I had arrived in plenty of time, so I was not close to missing my flight. After roughly 35 minutes in the security line, I finally reached the area of my gate. There was a lady set up at a kind of ‘help’ desk off to the side. I approached her and said that I had a complaint, that I did not get the expedited security. Basically the first words out of her mouth were “Call 1800JetBlue and tell them you didn’t get expedited security and they will give you your money back”. I told her, well that’s not really good enough, it sounds like you know this is a problem and yet your company is selling this service that you CANNOT provide. She said nothing, did not apologize, just said there was nothing she could or would do for me.

I then approached the gate agent for the plane that was to be traveling on to San Juan. I said the same thing as I had said to the first lady. Again, I received the absolutely pre-programmed rote response, call 1800JetBlue and get your $10 back. I again stated that wasn’t really an answer and suggested that she could give me some kind of consideration on the flight down, such as an extra space seat, etc., and she responded that she could and would do absolutely nothing for me and said my only recourse was to call and get my $10 back.

As I was sitting there waiting to board, they made at least two announcements at the gate, stating that there were even more space seats available for PURCHASE and tried to get people to pay for them. In the meantime, they looked to be adding 15 to 20 either non-revenue flyers or stand-by passengers to the flight. Eventually the plane was boarded and it seemed that virtually every seat was full and they stated that in fact the plane was full. I was concerned about my carry on bag, but I was able to take it onboard with me on the flight to SJU from Orlando.

Fast forward to the flight home. As I checked in, in SXM, the check in agent told me that I needed to pay $25 to check my bag. I said, "no, I paid with more miles when I booked my ticket". He said, "no, I don't see that here, you will have to pay".

When I got home, I responded to the airline survey questionaires sent to me by Jet Blue, outlining both of the above issues. To date, I have had no response to that survey.

So today I called 1800JetBlue to get my money back. The telephone agent asked me why I did not complain to a gate agent about the lack of 'even more speed'. I responded that I had in fact complained to TWO different agents, neither one of which gave me any response, other than to call 1800JetBlue. She then said I would be getting a $10 credit in around 7 days.

I then brought up the other issue. She said that she did not see where I paid for the upgraded service with miles. She put me on hold for 10 minutes while she supposedly talked to True Blue, and then disconnected me. 10 minutes later I called them back, spent another half hour on the phone, in which she basically said she couldn't help me, and that I had to send an email to a generic email address, with a scanned copy of my ticket, showing I had booked a Blue Plus fare.

So, the moral of the story is 1) apparently 'even more speed' in Orlando is a scam, so don't waste your money and 2) make sure that the confirmation that you bring with you to the airport has the fact that you paid to check a bag on it, and make a fuss if they say that you still have to pay.

I am so looking forward to hearing back from them...