I will say this one more thing for people really concerned about IRROPS for B6. There have now been a couple of data points out there that B6 passengers can get rebooked on AA flight (maybe 1-stop option) in the event of a cancellation. That was always the biggest knock against JetBlue. If the flight cancels, they can't get you there until the next stay. Now that they have this partnership with AA, this looks to be something they have finally implemented after a year.
With free SDC now also available on AA flights for mosaic members, there are more options for same day changes in the even there is a long delay for your flight.
lat41 wrote:B6BOSfan wrote:
I've heard similar things from a friend who works in ground operations in Boston. I've had too many examples of friends flying B6 recently (BOS-DCA, BOS-LAX, BOS-NAS) who have experienced severe delays, poor communication and, eventually cancelled flights).
I think frequent fliers know issues can happen, but some of the things happening with B6 ops are insane. Early morning DCA-BOS flights should NOT start out with 2 - 4 hour delays. It shouldn't be standard operating procedure to just depart 30 minutes late for a flight and then sit on the ground for 30 minutes after landing because of ground ops issues. That's not even getting into late-evening flights -- which end up being severely delayed due to the issues earlier in the day -- and the redeyes that come back hours late from the west coast back east.
It's not like JetBlue is cheap anymore, either. Most times, I've found DL flights cheaper, with more departure time options. Sure, there's a connection, but I know the on-time performance will be better.
I've switched all of my flying out of BOS from B6 to DL and UA. They have just been far more reliable this winter and schedules more consistent. I'm about to have hundreds of dollars of JetBlue credits just disappear, because each time i tried using, my flights were cancelled, or consolidated into one flight 12 hours later.
Their onboard product is great, but it isn't worth the aggravation of dealing with the madness leading up to the flights.
Severe delays, poor communications and eventually cancelled flights indeed! I have experienced all three to the South at PVD, though a small station, Please JetBlue don't string people along, knowing the flight likely won't operate and spring it on passengers that have been hanging around for hours as has happened to me more than once. B6 must keep a laminated card with a list of excuses. B6 did not make many friends this past Winter.
I think in this case, JetBlue was probably hit harder by Omicron than any other airline and that really affected their operations in January and February.
Are they short staffed? Sounds like it. But it sounds like they are trying to hire a lot more and really cut back an overly ambitious schedule for summer time (I have documented earlier this thread on how much they cut back last week). Their OTP today at BOS is 83%. Not great for a Tuesday, but not that bad either. And we know that they are looking to aggressively bring back their BOS schedule this summer (sacrificing FLL/LAX/EWR along the way). So there will be a lot more options they can rebook or change your flight to in the even of a long delay or cancellation. And AA is a rebooking option now.
