Politics & Government

Greenburgh's Feiner Takes on the Airlines Over Poor Service

The following is an account from Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner of a recent problem-plagued airline trip he took with his wife. He is looking to hear of other, similar "horror stories" from residents:

SHOULD THE FAA IMPROVE PASSENGER BILL OF RIGHTS PROTECTIONS? WHAT ARE YOUR HORROR STORIES?

I will be reaching out to the FAA and Congressional representatives... Greenburgh residents deserve reliability when booking flights on airlines. Please e mail me experiences you have had with airlines. I plan to contact the FAA and our Congressional representatives and will ask that they increase passenger protections. I will share your experiences with officials and hope to motivate them to take action so others can avoid the experience I just had.  I believe that if an airline cancels a flight and is unable to provide passengers with a flight to a destination close to where they were planning to travel to within a reasonable amount of time - that the airline should be required to reimburse the passenger if the passenger is able to find another airline that is flying to the destination within the time period. 

My wife and I had tickets for a flight from LaGuardia to Ft Lauderdale Florida on Wednesday at 11 AM on Jet Blue. We're visiting my in laws this holiday week (Wed-Sat). On Wednesday morning shortly aftermidnight we received an automated call indicated that the flight was cancelled. My wife immediately called JetBlue and was on hold 2.5 hours. No one picked up --my wife was up trying to connect to Jet Blue till after 2:30 AM on Wed. They indicated that they had no flights from the NY area to southern Florida. They also indicated that Jetblue would not pay for booking on American Airlines which is the only airline that had seats which was double in price due to holiday travel. No supervisor was available after my wife spoke with agent. While my wife was waiting for the JetBlue person to talk to her - she was looking for other options and found 3 available seats on American. Because this is a very busy travel day we couldn't find any other options. American Airlines left LaGuardia 45 minutes after JetBlue was supposed to leave NY. The weather was great and the airport was busy.  JetBlue might want to claim weather caused cancellation but the everyone else was flying. They should not get away with cancellations that are unjustified. We were luckier than others because we found a flight. JetBlue made no effort to help us get to our destination within a reasonable time. This is a terrible way to treat customers. JetBlue was not interested in helping solve a problem or provide options. Their Website had no notifications about the cancellations. Other airlines were flying to and from LaGuardia on Wednesday morning.

We booked a flight on American Airlines - the extra costs for us: over $700 (for three of us). I  believe that the FAA should look into this matter and determine if this is common. That's why I'm reaching out asking for your experiences. My wife and I had planned a short trip to visit my in laws in Florida. We left on Wednesday and will be home on Saturday. JetBlue told us that the first flight they could have booked us on was Thursday late in the afternoon--which would have been unacceptable.

Paul Feiner


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