I could not agree more. How irresponsible from these parents to travel like this with kids and no mo

In what can only be described as the biggest non-story of the week, a family of four was stranded in Salt Lake City for nearly a week while trying to get home on JetBlue buddy passes. Buddy passes are given to airline employees to give to friends/family, so they can fly for next to nothing on a standby basis.
I know plenty of folks in the airline industry that avoid giving vacation rentals oahu their friends and family buddy passes because they ve gotta have reasonable expectations going in. Flights are packed year round with capacity cuts, and especially this time of year.
Yet this family of four was stuck in Salt Lake City Airport for six nights, sleeping on metal benches and eating out of vending machines, since they couldn t afford to pay for a flight or pay for a hotel. Eventually a good Samaritan purchased them tickets, and United even paid for a hotel for them.
First of all let me say that I feel bad for the family s financial situation. That being said, as far as the story goes I feel a lot worse for JetBlue, as they re getting bad publicity over what s essentially a very generous benefit for employees. vacation rentals oahu The system worked the way it was supposed vacation rentals oahu to. It s not like they re going to kick off a paying passenger to accommodate those on space available vacation rentals oahu buddy passes.
The blame for this lies entirely with either the family traveling or their friend that gave them the passes (or more than likely both!). The friend should have looked up how full the flights were and warned them about the possibility of being stuck there for days, while the family traveling should have probably used that as a deterrent for traveling. While their financial situation is sad, at the end of the day we all have to make responsible decisions based on our means. And it sounds like they didn t.
Anyway, this is just a complete non-story. Which makes me wonder why I m bothering to share it here. On to more important news has everyone seen Miley Cyrus new hair and heard that the Jonas Brothers are getting back together?
I could not agree more. How irresponsible from these parents to travel like this with kids and no money! It makes me wonder what would they eat if they were home? One has to spend money on food no matter vacation rentals oahu where they are.
I agree that it was the irresponsible of the parents to fly without money and of the friend who didn t check whether there was enough availability. However, it is beyond me why JetBlue didn t at least offer a food voucher for those kids to eat a descent meal. They deserve the bad rep in my opinion.
Jeez Lucky. I agree entirely with you that JetBlue has no responsibility, but these people vacation rentals oahu are close to destitute. This is a web site where we all love to see first class food porn and see your interesting exploits in huge first class seats on your way to stay in big suites in fantastic places.
This does not look to be a family that dreams of things like caviar and Berchtesgaden, or driving in chauffer driven limos to first class terminals where they throw away more food in the buffet than they eat in a week. This is a family that wanted to visit some relatives that is what they aspire to one mile at a time, simply trying to get from point A to B. Did their desire to use a free ticket perhaps cloud their judgment and put them in a bad spot? Sure. Feeling anything but compassion for them, though, is troubling.
But at the same time I look at it in terms of the end result. In the end their visit to see family caused the kids to have to sleep in an airport for six nights (and the parents, though I assume the trip was their decision), and that s irresponsible.
If they weren t aware of how tough it would be to get on the flights (which I suspect may very well be the case) I fully blame the employee for not providing a warning about the possibility of being stranded for days and disclosing how full the flights are. Do we agree on that?
Interesting points, Lucky. I think it s very unlikely that a parent who understood that this situation was a risk would put their kids in that position. Sure, there are bad dads, but my hunch is they didn t understand. Maybe they did. We don t know. If they did, it s yet another bad parents story that my local news seems to run.
If I had to guess, the likelihood would be that these folks understood they were flying standby, really wanted to go and maybe let that desire cloud their judgment a bit, but are not savvy travelers and didn t really understand what it all meant.
I think my point is that it doesn t feel right to have it posted HERE with this particular angle. To me, it s a very sad story about the American underclass and reaffirmation how lucky I am to worry about whether by transferring my miles to IB I only have to pay $400 instead of $1000 to get my family to Spain where they will stay in a beautiful hotel. And that s all I see when I hear the story. I don t care whether JetBlu should take some heat.
@ Larry All valid points, and in a way I didn t feel entirely comfortable posting about it since I generally focus on first world problems on the blog. I do think it s a valuable lesson for those considering buddy passes in the future, though.
I agree that it was irresponsible of the parents to fly without money and of the friend who didn t check whether there was enough availability. However, it is beyond me why JetBlue didn t at least offer a food voucher for those kids to eat a descent meal. They deserve the bad rep in my opinion.
Do we know for sure that they were giving the pass by a friend? When I worked for an airline, we used to trade buddy passes for free hotel nights for Christmas giveaways. Kind of like hey, here is something you can have a raffle for your employees with and we can trade for something . This family may have unknowingly gotten something they didn t really understand. In this day and age, people scrap together every last penny to take a trip like this, not allowing any leeway for hiccups that might happen. It is a tragedy to see kids having to sleep in an airport simply b/c their parents might have been ignorant. Honestly, if I had been on one of those flights and this situation has been presented to me, I would have gladly given up my seat for nothing to help them out. I m guessing there would be plenty others out there that would do the same.
Do you really think the family knew the dangers of a buddy pass? I travel constantly, am barely aware of family/friend passes but had no idea they were restricted to standby only. How do you possibly assume the family had any clue? Jetblue should have made it right the second night they were stranded in the airport.
I agree, but for a non-travel savvy family, the jargon assault vacation rentals oahu is unreasonable vacation rentals oahu to expect them to understand anything about traveling. Terms like ticket, e-ticket, reservation, PNR, VDB, IVDB, standby, boarding pass, voucher, etc, etc, etc, etc are completely foreign to many folks.
They can cry me a river, the family flew on free tickets from an airline employee and go crying to the media that they aren t accommodated on their chosen vacation rentals oahu flights? Seriously? Travel is a privilege, not a right especially in the case of non-rev benefits. While it is unfortunate they are stranded and can t afford airport hotels or meals they should considered that possibility before vacation rentals oahu deciding to take the trip. Why not return home and stay with their relatives until seats are available?
vacation rentals oahu @ purplnurpl But there s no jargon they needed to know. All that s important is that they understand they only get on if there are empty seats and they re at the bottom of the totem pole for getting aboard. That s not rocket science.
I don t know about JetBlue, but back in May I flew on buddy passes for Alaska. My pilot friend that gave them to me explained how they work, I researched it online before the trip, and upon check-in the Alaska counter agent explained the situation and what I could expect. Maybe doing research before you go is too much to ask, but the parents made some poor decisions.
I used to work for AA, and we were told that you never fuss or create any type of scene; never draw attention to yourself as a non-rev traveller. It s hard enough to travel non-rev by yourself, let alone getting 4 people travelling together on the same flight. The employee that provided the passes should be disciplined for bringing such negative attention to the airline. JetBlue was under no obligation to provide anything to the non-rev travellers, even though it was a family with kids. Flying cheap or free as a non-rev is a valuable benefit that the employee in question doesn t value.
Agreed, it is a non-story. Passes of this nature are a BENEFIT. Users have a responsibility to understand how passes work and that they may-well get left behind. Using then for a group family of four with kids is just plane (sic) stupid, especiallt with today s load factors and on a LCC. Just nuts! I used a few buddy passes about 30 years ago, courtesy of a relative in the biz. I understood the rules and got left behind a few times; no harm done. In fairness, when I did get onto a flight, I usually turned left to first class and was treated exceptionally well. WOuld I h ave done it with a family of four? Hell No!
Because JetBlue doesn t owe them squat. Sorry if that sounds mean, but as others have said, these people too a free ride and then expected to be compensated for it when things went badly? Talk about a sense of entitlement.
The parents are fools. I saw another interview with them and they are entirely to blame for this situation. They admit that they were warned that this was a possibility but figured that they would take their chances . They also were offered accommodation and food at a motel near the airport during the days that they chose to sleep on the bench but the father chose not to accept them because I thought we would lose our place on the standby list if we left the airport .
So basically, despite warnings of the risks, they chose to assume the risks anyway. Despite being offere