[JRay_02115]

Hi Everyone. Please take a minute to read this letter I wrote to JetBlue management (which, of course, they ignored). If you could avoid using JetBlue in the future, please do! But Orbitz was great through this whole ordeal. I highly recommend!

JetBlue Management:

My parents winter in Florida. Every year I take the family down, on jetBlue, to visit them. Unfortunately, my father was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. As a result, my parents have had to cancel their Florida plans so that my father can stay in New England to receive treatment at Mass General. I had previously booked flights for my family to visit in late February. Now that my parents won’t be there, we have no place to stay and no one to visit, so we must cancel our flights.

Having bought non-refundable tickets, I didn’t expect to have my money returned to me. It would have been very generous of you, and much appreciated during a very difficult time, but I did not expect it. I did expect to get full credit that I could use at a later date and maybe just a small bit of compassion and sympathy for our situation. I got neither. Instead I just got a rule book repeatedly quoted to me to justify a $500 “change fee” just to allow us the privilege of using our credit. A credit we can’t even use for a potential Florida visit next Winter because “the credit must be used within one year of PURCHASE, not travel dates”. I understand why you have these rules. You can’t just let everyone cancel tickets at will every time they find a slightly lower fare on another website. But I also think jetBlue should not use these rules as an excuse for not doing the right thing for their loyal customers. jetBlue was not going to take a loss because of this. These are tickets from Boston to ORLANDO during school break! You will sell those seats (at probably a much higher fare) ten minutes after I cancel them. It is not like I am sticking you with five tickets from Des Moines to Topeka! So I see no need for you to make my family’s situation any worse by trying to stick me with another $500 in expenses.

As an aside, I booked these tickets through Orbitz. So I called them first. They informed me that they had the “right” to charge me $150 in change fees just like you have the right to charge me $500. They waived that fee without me even having to ask. And they are just a cut-throat middleman that doesn’t know me from a hole in the wall! Now I used to use sites like Hotels.com, Priceline and Expedia as well. But I am going to use Orbitz whenever possible, simply because I appreciate the way they treated me.

[Notouchie123]

I am sorry to hear about your circumstances- however - it is important to read the fine print regarding your purchase. On the Jetblue website it says this regarding their fares:

JetBlue offers two types of fares: Nonrefundable and Refundable. For JetBlue Nonrefundable Fares, changes or cancellations can be made prior to scheduled departure for a fee of $100 per person on jetblue.com or by calling 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583), plus any applicable difference in airfare. Any remaining balance will be placed in a JetBlue air-only credit and may be applied toward future travel for one year from date of issuance. If a nonrefundable reservation is not changed or cancelled prior to scheduled departure, all money associated with the reservation is forfeited. For JetBlue Refundable Fares, changes and cancellations, for a full refund, are permitted prior to scheduled departure. Such changes are subject to availability and any applicable difference in airfare (if there is a change in city pairs). If a refundable reservation is not changed or cancelled prior to scheduled departure, all money associated with the reservation will be placed in a JetBlue air-only credit and may be applied toward future travel for one year from date of issuance. Refundable Fares may not be available on all flights.

Notice that it does state that a fee will be assessed if you cancel.