Buddy Pass Saga
08-21-2012, 02:17 PM
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Buddy Pass Saga
Why do people do this to their "buddies"?
Family stuck at SLC Airport gets help from ABC 4 viewers - ABC4.com - Salt Lake City, Utah News
Reported by: Val Thompson
Contributor: Emily Clark
Contributor: Dan Metcalf Jr.
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Family stuck at SLC Airport gets help from ABC 4 viewers
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A family of four has been stranded in the Salt Lake City International Airport for the past five days.
Curtis Saxton, his wife, and his two children, ages 13 and 4, arrived at the airport on Wednesday night. They have been there ever since, waiting for a JetBlue flight that has enough room for them.
"We just sit and walk around and wait for our flights," said Saxton.
The family is flying with buddy passes, which they get at a huge discount. But the passes do not guarantee them seats. They are only allowed to fly if there is room after all passengers and standby passengers have boarded the plane.
"We've been here for every flight, rolled over for every flight," said Saxton. "We're still at the bottom of that list."
Their patience has run out and so has their money. Airport food is expensive, so they have been living on one meal a day.
"I have been hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry!" said Dominic, their four-year-old son. The lack of food is taking its toll on his system. He spent Sunday morning throwing up.
"It broke our heart when he was very sick this morning," said Saxton. "He is normally so bright and energetic."
All four of them are also exhausted. They are sleeping on short metal benches with very little padding. They are getting about two hours of sleep a night, and they say they have been denied pillows and blankets.
"There's a lot of people walking by and staring at you and kind of laughing at you," said Nicole Bennett, Saxton's wife. "It doesn't feel very good."
The family has also been unable to shower since Wednesday.
"You feel gross," said their 13-year-old daughter, Sadee. "It's embarrassing."
JetBlue told ABC4 that there is nothing they can do to get the family on a flight. The airline cannot give away seats that people have paid full price for, to accommodate the family.
Saxton says his relatives don't have enough money to buy full price tickets to get his family back to Virginia. So the family will continue to wait at the airport, until a flight is empty enough to squeeze them on.
A manager with JetBlue says most of their flights this coming week are already full.
Saxton requested donations or any other assistance to help his family get home.
UPDATE (Monday, August 20):
A team of paramedics was called in to examine 4-year-old Dominic. He was given a clean bill of health.
An ABC 4 viewer purchased tickets for the Saxton family, allowing them to leave on Tuesday. Other viewers have offered free lodging, food, and other assistance.
Meanwhile, a Salt Lake International Airport official told ABC 4 that Saxton has refused lodging and food assistance vouchers.
ABC 4 has contacted Saxton, who said he did not need the food vouchers due to generous donors, and that he did not want to leave the airport for fear of losing a chance at standby seats.
Saxton said he would take his family to a motel Monday night and return for their scheduled flight Tuesday morning. The motel stay was donated by United Airlines.
Stay tuned to ABC 4 News and ABC4.com for updates on this story.
Family stuck at SLC Airport gets help from ABC 4 viewers - ABC4.com - Salt Lake City, Utah News
Reported by: Val Thompson
Contributor: Emily Clark
Contributor: Dan Metcalf Jr.
Video
Images
Family stuck at SLC Airport gets help from ABC 4 viewers
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A family of four has been stranded in the Salt Lake City International Airport for the past five days.
Curtis Saxton, his wife, and his two children, ages 13 and 4, arrived at the airport on Wednesday night. They have been there ever since, waiting for a JetBlue flight that has enough room for them.
"We just sit and walk around and wait for our flights," said Saxton.
The family is flying with buddy passes, which they get at a huge discount. But the passes do not guarantee them seats. They are only allowed to fly if there is room after all passengers and standby passengers have boarded the plane.
"We've been here for every flight, rolled over for every flight," said Saxton. "We're still at the bottom of that list."
Their patience has run out and so has their money. Airport food is expensive, so they have been living on one meal a day.
"I have been hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry!" said Dominic, their four-year-old son. The lack of food is taking its toll on his system. He spent Sunday morning throwing up.
"It broke our heart when he was very sick this morning," said Saxton. "He is normally so bright and energetic."
All four of them are also exhausted. They are sleeping on short metal benches with very little padding. They are getting about two hours of sleep a night, and they say they have been denied pillows and blankets.
"There's a lot of people walking by and staring at you and kind of laughing at you," said Nicole Bennett, Saxton's wife. "It doesn't feel very good."
The family has also been unable to shower since Wednesday.
"You feel gross," said their 13-year-old daughter, Sadee. "It's embarrassing."
JetBlue told ABC4 that there is nothing they can do to get the family on a flight. The airline cannot give away seats that people have paid full price for, to accommodate the family.
Saxton says his relatives don't have enough money to buy full price tickets to get his family back to Virginia. So the family will continue to wait at the airport, until a flight is empty enough to squeeze them on.
A manager with JetBlue says most of their flights this coming week are already full.
Saxton requested donations or any other assistance to help his family get home.
UPDATE (Monday, August 20):
A team of paramedics was called in to examine 4-year-old Dominic. He was given a clean bill of health.
An ABC 4 viewer purchased tickets for the Saxton family, allowing them to leave on Tuesday. Other viewers have offered free lodging, food, and other assistance.
Meanwhile, a Salt Lake International Airport official told ABC 4 that Saxton has refused lodging and food assistance vouchers.
ABC 4 has contacted Saxton, who said he did not need the food vouchers due to generous donors, and that he did not want to leave the airport for fear of losing a chance at standby seats.
Saxton said he would take his family to a motel Monday night and return for their scheduled flight Tuesday morning. The motel stay was donated by United Airlines.
Stay tuned to ABC 4 News and ABC4.com for updates on this story.
08-21-2012, 02:25 PM
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So his handout doesn't work out for him and he complains to the media and gets... more handouts?
This guy is an idiot and the people who are giving him things are even bigger idiots. The employee who provided the passes is the biggest idiot of them all though.
This guy is an idiot and the people who are giving him things are even bigger idiots. The employee who provided the passes is the biggest idiot of them all though.
08-21-2012, 02:26 PM
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Position: Gear Slinger
Posts: 708
A perfect story of someone who was given buddy passes and did not full understand the process. They should have had a back up plan in case this sort of thing happened. I don't have any kids, but does anyone else think this is totally irresponsible parenting?!
08-21-2012, 03:32 PM
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Did the Jetblue buddy pass rider win his lawsuit against Jetblue for having to sit on the toilet?
JetBlue's Jet Blues
Buddy Pass Passenger Takes His Seat on the Toilet
From Arlene Fleming, former About.com Guide
The incident of a passenger who was allegedly forced to sit on a toilet for several hours on a cross-country JetBlue flight is an interesting one. It has had a lot of media play as the affected passenger has decided to sue the airline.
What doesn't seem to get as much play is the fact that the passenger was traveling on a buddy pass - essentially, a standby pass.
Most airlines have pass privileges for employees, and some sort of allotment of passes for non-airline personnel. An airline employee is able to give a pass then to a friend or family member to fly at a very reduced rate, on a standby basis. These standby passes are not always easy to use as seats are only allotted after every revenue passenger is put on the flight, and then the vast majority of airlines start doling out the remaining seats on a seniority basis.
The order is usually employee/partner/spouse, dependents, parents, and then buddy pass travel. So it seems in this incident an employee agreed to take a jump seat so that someone with a much lower priority made it on the flight. It appears too, that if the employee hadn't taken the jump seat, the passenger suing JetBlue would not have made it on the flight at all.
So who is to blame? There are a lot of parties involved.
Should the employee who took the jump seat have been allowed to rescind that offer during the flight because the jump seat wasn't comfortable? Probably not, what isn't as clear is if any laws were broken, or whether it violated JetBlue policy for staff travel.
Is the crew of the flight to blame? I would say the jury is out. In the airline industry in general, the captain often has the last word in scenarios that involve their flights, particularly once it is taken off the bridge and is now in active status. Their plane is is their jurisdiction. This doesn't always mean they'll make the "right" decision, but they have to consider safety standards and make a choice. In this situation, it would be interesting to know whether the captain was clearly aware that said passenger would be relegated to the lavatory for a good portion of the flight.
Should the employee who gave the buddy pass be blamed? It is hard to know whether the employee clearly made the rules of standby travel known to the passenger who used a pass, but certainly an incident of sitting on a toilet for part of a flight was not a possibility that an airline employee would think was even possible.
Should the airline be blamed? If the toilet seating option is one that is not clearly banned by the airline regarding employee standby travel, then perhaps they will need to clarify contingent travel rules for their employees, and their respective buddies.
Should the passenger share in the blame? It's difficult to know exactly what happened. Whether a jump seat might have been offered, or whether a seat was secured for the essential take-off and landing periods.
I do think that suing for a huge amount of money is a bit off base when traveling on a buddy pass. I am not condoning the treatment of the passenger, but honestly when I travel on an employee pass I usually feel grateful to get a seat. I know that until the door of that aircraft closes, we've pushed from the gate, and are airborne, that my seat could be taken away for a revenue passenger, or someone with a higher staff travel priority than me.
Those on buddy passes don't often understand this part of pass travel - that your seat is not guaranteed, that you simply are not always afforded the same treatment of a paying passenger. Granted, it being a seat on the toilet is shocking, and the safety issue of it is what needs to be the focus.
I suppose I would feel the multimillion dollar suit would be justified if this was a regular, revenue passenger, but having used employee travel passes for well over a dozen years, I don't know if that kind of monetary compensation is warranted.
JetBlue's Jet Blues
Buddy Pass Passenger Takes His Seat on the Toilet
From Arlene Fleming, former About.com Guide
The incident of a passenger who was allegedly forced to sit on a toilet for several hours on a cross-country JetBlue flight is an interesting one. It has had a lot of media play as the affected passenger has decided to sue the airline.
What doesn't seem to get as much play is the fact that the passenger was traveling on a buddy pass - essentially, a standby pass.
Most airlines have pass privileges for employees, and some sort of allotment of passes for non-airline personnel. An airline employee is able to give a pass then to a friend or family member to fly at a very reduced rate, on a standby basis. These standby passes are not always easy to use as seats are only allotted after every revenue passenger is put on the flight, and then the vast majority of airlines start doling out the remaining seats on a seniority basis.
The order is usually employee/partner/spouse, dependents, parents, and then buddy pass travel. So it seems in this incident an employee agreed to take a jump seat so that someone with a much lower priority made it on the flight. It appears too, that if the employee hadn't taken the jump seat, the passenger suing JetBlue would not have made it on the flight at all.
So who is to blame? There are a lot of parties involved.
Should the employee who took the jump seat have been allowed to rescind that offer during the flight because the jump seat wasn't comfortable? Probably not, what isn't as clear is if any laws were broken, or whether it violated JetBlue policy for staff travel.
Is the crew of the flight to blame? I would say the jury is out. In the airline industry in general, the captain often has the last word in scenarios that involve their flights, particularly once it is taken off the bridge and is now in active status. Their plane is is their jurisdiction. This doesn't always mean they'll make the "right" decision, but they have to consider safety standards and make a choice. In this situation, it would be interesting to know whether the captain was clearly aware that said passenger would be relegated to the lavatory for a good portion of the flight.
Should the employee who gave the buddy pass be blamed? It is hard to know whether the employee clearly made the rules of standby travel known to the passenger who used a pass, but certainly an incident of sitting on a toilet for part of a flight was not a possibility that an airline employee would think was even possible.
Should the airline be blamed? If the toilet seating option is one that is not clearly banned by the airline regarding employee standby travel, then perhaps they will need to clarify contingent travel rules for their employees, and their respective buddies.
Should the passenger share in the blame? It's difficult to know exactly what happened. Whether a jump seat might have been offered, or whether a seat was secured for the essential take-off and landing periods.
I do think that suing for a huge amount of money is a bit off base when traveling on a buddy pass. I am not condoning the treatment of the passenger, but honestly when I travel on an employee pass I usually feel grateful to get a seat. I know that until the door of that aircraft closes, we've pushed from the gate, and are airborne, that my seat could be taken away for a revenue passenger, or someone with a higher staff travel priority than me.
Those on buddy passes don't often understand this part of pass travel - that your seat is not guaranteed, that you simply are not always afforded the same treatment of a paying passenger. Granted, it being a seat on the toilet is shocking, and the safety issue of it is what needs to be the focus.
I suppose I would feel the multimillion dollar suit would be justified if this was a regular, revenue passenger, but having used employee travel passes for well over a dozen years, I don't know if that kind of monetary compensation is warranted.
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