fireman0174

How 2 pilots put silver lining in jetBlue clouds
NY Daily News, Sunday Feb 18, 2007

As jetBlue was preparing to cancel 23% of its weekend flights, a pilot and co-pilot hopped a taxi from New York to upstate Newburgh, where one of the company's airliners was sitting unused.

With the spirit that until last week seemed to make jetBlue unique, the pair flew to Kennedy Airport and continued on to Sarasota, Fla., with a load of passengers who otherwise would have been stranded. The passengers came off the plane cursing the airline but marveling at the flight crew.

"I've never experienced a pilot and a co-pilot getting in a taxi cab and finding a plane," said passenger Joanne Golden.

The senior flight attendant confirmed the Newburgh adventure and called aloud the taxi fare.

"$360!"

The special jetBlue airfare between Sarasota and New York was about a fifth of that, but such discounts were only part of what had caused so many of us to fall in love with an airline that treated us like actual people and never like cattle.

The love affair ended after an ice storm on Valentine's Day, when a high-level miscall caused people to be trapped on the tarmac at Kennedy Airport for about 10 hours. The whole airline was still suffering a kind of meltdown on Friday, when yours truly called to check if Flight 346 from Sarasota to New York would be departing as scheduled at 1:15 p.m.

"We are experiencing extremely high call volume," said a recorded voice. "We are unable to take your call."

Callers were directed to check the jetBlue Web site, which reported that the flight was on time. Ma and Pa Daly along with their 13-year-old, Bronagh, and her friend, Anna, thereupon departed from the waterfront paradise where they had stayed three days thanks to a gracious grandparent and jetBlue's low fare.

Only at the airport did we learn Flight 346 was now scheduled to depart at 6:30 p.m. despite the online assurances. A jetBlue counter clerk shrugged.

"That's online," he said. "This is here."

The new departure time was more than seven hours away on a day of near record cold in Sarasota. We joked about stopping into a local tattoo parlor.

"'I hate jetBlue' in script on my butt!" Anna said.

That brought a big laugh, though there was nothing funny about having a small but precious part of your life robbed from you. The departure time had been put off to 7:20 p.m. when we arrived at the gate.

"We're trying to get out for two days!" another passenger exclaimed.

Nobody took an easy breath until the plane from New York landed, ready to make the return flight. The arriving passengers brought word of the taxi ride that prevented both flights from being canceled altogether.

In an announcement, a flight attendant identified the pilot and co-pilot as Stephan Charles and Nancy Fine. The passengers cheered when Charles came on to announce the imminent departure.

All seemed well until the plane was forced to circle Kennedy for a half hour. "Unfortunately, all our gates are full," the pilot announced. "We're told it'll be about 30 minutes."

At 10:40 p.m., the plane finally reached the gate, almost seven hours after the company's Web site projected it would arrive. The passengers were tired and angry, but those who knew about the taxi ride managed a bleary smile for the pilot and co-pilot.

"Did you really take a cab to Newburgh?" a passenger asked.

"We did," the pilot replied.

"Thank you s-o-o-o much!" Anna said.

But, that moment of gratitude was followed by the sight of hundreds of less lucky souls stranded at Kennedy. Too many would be spending the weekend there as the airline yesterday cut almost a quarter of its weekend flights.

JetBlue said this was part of an effort to get back on schedule. The much harder task will be to regain the affection of those of us who loved the airline for a spirit measured less by a $69 fare to Florida than by the $360 cab ride a flight crew took to get a plane upstate.

Originally published on February 18, 2007

727C47

Good on the crew,I for one won't jump all over B6 for the ice/snow delay debacle, to many glass houses....

fireman0174

Isn't that the truth! Seen my ex-airline do as bad as what happened to JB, and more than once.

SNAFU

What is the duty rig on that cab ride?

Velocipede

They don't have duty rigs at B6. They had to get there to get paid.

A330Checkairman

i would like to debate a couple points with you,, but on a professional level and without the personal jabs...

i see that you flew for the service...hats off to ya.
i see that you fly at a legacy...hats off again...i was one of the jr birdmen laid off...not asking for sympathy, but tried to get there with ya...

i want to know if you think that the upstarts B6, skudbus, vx have a greater impact on your/our industry than the regionals flying RJ's all over the place?

with respect,
a330

Short Bus Drive

IS Alaska considered a "Legacy"?
Serious question, no bait. I looked at the listings here, and it seems to fall under the "Major" cat..

mike734

Hard to say. Alaska is 75 years old this year. I think only Northwest is older. KLM is the oldest but we're talking US airlines here. We seem to fly under the radar and are hardly mentioned when listing major airlines. That is good I guess.

Alaska has been ALPA since the beginning of ALPA. Although we are small Alaska has had a national presence in ALPA for at least the last ten years or so. One of ours, Captain John Sluys, is a EVP at the moment.

Short Bus Drive

75 years to me would seem to be "legacy".

MEMA300

Because of the upstarts you have RJs. You have upstarts because of deregulation.