Passengers say they were dumped on the street ‘like animals’ after JetBlue flight to Boston was delayed – Boston 25 News

BOSTON – A travel nightmare for some JetBlue passengers looking to return to Boston after a vacation to the Turks and Caicos Islands.

In total, their flight was delayed about 24 hours and they had nowhere to go.

They say they were even evicted from the island’s airport.

“Sending people out onto the streets like animals was definitely something I will never forget for the rest of my life,” said Marty, who was on the flight from Turks and Caicos to Boston.

Marty says hundreds of JetBlue passengers like him were told they couldn’t stay at the airport in Turks and Caicos when their flight home to Boston was delayed until the next day.

His children were exhausted after their flight was already delayed for several hours on Saturday, and he says there were no available hotel rooms on the island that night.

“Just a very disturbing, traumatizing experience: three young children, all looking for an answer, a woman looking for an answer, for the first time as a husband and as a father, and as a man I had no idea how to do it “I wanted to host my family for one night,” Marty said.

Brett was also on that flight and says JetBlue employees at the airport forced her to leave when her flight was delayed.

“We kept saying, where should we go? What should we do? “How do you throw us out on the street like dogs in a foreign land?” said Brett.

Eventually, Marty’s travel agent found a small hotel room for his family.

Brett found an Airbnb for about a thousand dollars to accommodate ten people.

“It was in a horrible, gloomy area, the actual Airbnb itself was fine, but the area was like something out of a horror movie, wild dogs chasing the taxi as we drove past, like a very gloomy area, and the kids are freaking out ‘What are we doing?’” Brett said.

When they returned to the airport the next morning, they saw that dozens of cots had been set aside for passengers who had no place to stay.

Her new flight was also delayed by another four hours.

Jet Blue sent Boston 25 News the following statement:

“On Saturday, December 28, JetBlue Flight 754, scheduled to fly from Turks and Caicos Islands to Boston, experienced a significant delay after the inbound aircraft was forced to divert to Fort Lauderdale due to severe air traffic control (ATC) congestion and extended wait times the area. The flight was delayed until the next day and arrived safely in Turks and Caicos to pick up our customers before completing its flight to Boston.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this delay has caused and understand that this has been a frustrating situation. Although the delay was caused by circumstances beyond JetBlue’s control, we recognize the impact of this disruption on our customers’ plans. In light of this, we have directed affected customers to submit reimbursement requests for eligible out-of-pocket expenses consistent with our customer service plan. Additionally, as a goodwill gesture, we have provided a $200 travel credit toward future JetBlue flights.”

“This was much more than just a delay. People were sent out into the streets in the early hours of the night and told to fend for themselves with no solutions,” Marty said.

Many of these passengers hope that airlines will find a better solution to accommodate their customers during significant overnight delays.

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