[vaporguy75]

Jet Blue cancelled my flight (#56) on May 4th 2014 from Washington DC (IAD) to Boston (BOS) in the morning without notifying me. When I went to the departure flight board, the flight showed as cancelled. They said the pilot was sick. Even if the pilot was sick, I find it hard to imagine during these days, there is no standby pilot to fly a plane full of passengers, especially out of Washington DC. Very disappointed with Jet Blue. I couldn't get another flight until 6 hours later. I asked if they worked with any other airline, and they said, not out of this airport. Unacceptable!

[alwaysflyin]

It is a pain, no doubt, but Jet Blue does not have a crew base in IAD, so they wouldn't have extra pilots available at every airport. Unfortunately sometimes people do get sick, food poising etc, and should not be in the cockpit. I'm sure you wouldn't want a sick pilot attempting to get you to Boston safely while ill. As far as not being notified, that is indeed wrong, and you should have been contacted.

[stonecold_1981]

alwaysflyin - It should not be the passenger's problem that the pilot was sick.

Compare that situation with a hypothetical example - Say if the passenger was sick and had to rebook the flight. Obviously, the airline doesn't want a sick passenger in the flight potentially infecting other passengers and flight crew, right?

Well, why is it that in the latter case, the passenger has to bear the monetary consequences? If a likely solution in this latter case was that the passenger should have bought insurance to protect him/her against such an eventuality, why shouldn't the airline have insurance against such situations? Then when an event occurs, it should put the passenger on ANY available flight to the final destination (irrespective of the airline) and claim against insurance.

Obviously it is unfair treatment.

[alwaysflyin]

In a perfect world there would be a complete spare Crew at every airport. This of course world double the crew costs for the airline. Are you willing to pay substantially higher fares for every flight to cover the rare flight that delays or cancels for a last minute sick crew member?

[vaporguy75]

stonecold_1981 - I agree with you 100%. Well said!

Of course we don't want sick pilots flying hundred's of people around. And when I mention standby pilots - in the service industry I'm in, we always have a backup driver because people depend on us. If someone runs out of fuel at their house, do we say too bad we can't deliver because our driver is sick. Of course not - we have a backup driver on the schedule.

[Burgers]

Here is the difference... your backup driver can drive any truck and gets paid 30K Pilots are rated for the type of aircraft - a Airbus pilot can't just jump in an Embraer and fly it. Further, a Airbus pilot depending on what is on his epaulets is earning about 6 times more than your delivery driver.

[azstar]

Originally Posted by stonecold_1981

Then when an event occurs, it should put the passenger on ANY available flight to the final destination (irrespective of the airline) and claim against insurance.

Obviously it is unfair treatment.

Unfortunately, airlines can only accommodate passengers on other airlines that they have ticketing agreements with. Jetblue, like Southwest, does not have agreements with any other airlines.

[stonecold_1981]

azstar -Why can airline not buy a ticket on another airline in that case? Surely they can buy insurance to protect them against paying a higher fare.

alwaysflyin - I did not say the airline should employ a complete spare crew at every airport. That would obviously be stupid. My point is there should be consequences for the airline not delivering per timeframe (obviously with some buffer, say 2 hours). This was the airline's fault, just like it would have been the passenger's fault had s/he reached late.