Dear JetBlue:

I am writing to you to describe my family's experience with Jet Blue. I sincerely hope that you take the time to consider the events that occurred to us and take steps that they never happen again.

My wife, myself and our 17-month-old son needed to fly to Fargo, North Dakota to attend the wedding of my wife's brother. We booked a leg of our flight with Jet Blue. We purchased two tickets from Portland, Maine to John F. Kennedy airport in New York, scheduled to take off on June 17, 2008 at

11:25 AM, Flight Number: 603. From there, we would catch a connecting flight to Minneapolis. On our return voyage, JetBlue was scheduled to take us all home on June 23, 2008 on a flight from JFK back to Portland.

Although the June 17th flight took off on time, we were delivered 45 minutes late to JFK. No reason was offered by the JetBlue crew. Although we raced to try to catch our connecting flight, because JetBlue does not work with other carriers, by the time we had retrieved our luggage, it was too late to board our next flight. Our connecting carrier was unable to fit us on any flights out of JFK for the remainder of the day. My wife made a call to JetBlue. The JetBlue representatives, who did not identify themselves, denied any responsibility for stranding my family in New York City and left us to fend for ourselves. They offered no help of any kind. They did not assist us with finding another flight, they did not offer to assist us with a room if, in fact, we could not locate a flight. In fact, they did not even offer any advice as to what avenues we could try. We were absolutely deserted by your airline. I should note that we had very limited supplies for our toddler as we never expected to be stranded.

We were forced to race around JFK with a tired and hungry child in tow desperately seeking some other way to get to the North Dakota area. We were finally able to book a flight on American Airlines to take us to Chicago that evening; from there American booked us a flight with United Express to Fargo, North Dakota. The tickets cost us an additional $1,980.00, but as JetBlue had unceremoniously dumped us in New York City, we had no choice.

JetBlue's unexplained delay then directly led us into a series of calamities. The American flight sat on the runway with passengers for three (3) hours before finally taking off. I hope you can appreciate how difficult this was for my family, especially my son. As a result, of course, we missed the connecting flight to Fargo. American, however, demonstrated the kind of customer service that JetBlue so obviously lacked. They immediately booked us a flight with United Express the next morning and put my very tired family up in an area hotel. We took off the next morning and arrived in Fargo at 11:00 AM Central Time, nearly exactly twenty-four (24) hours after we had left home.

If JetBlue's treatment of us on our flight out were an isolated incident, perhaps we could have chalked it up to bad luck and timing. However, our return flight would demonstrate that it was not and that JetBlue's business practices were simply deficient in every regard.

On Monday June 23, 2009, we left Fargo at 10:30 AM. Both United and American delivered us on time to O'Hare and JFK airports, respectively. Upon our arrival at the JetBlue terminal at 8:30 PM, we learned for the first time that JetBlue had cancelled our flight to Portland; Flight Number : 608.

The JetBlue representative who we first spoke with wore name tag Louise. We were told by Louiseon the JetBlue check-in line that our flight was cancelled and we needed to speak to her supervisor, and his name was Alex. Alex represented to us that JetBlue would not have another flight to Portland until June 25, 2008, two days away!

Needless to say, we were stunned. Again, JetBlue had stranded my family in New York, this time late at night. Alex did not wish to wait on us; he was very eager for us to leave the counter.

Alex offered no alternatives, no courses of action, and no assistance whatsoever. I asked to speak to his supervisor. Although he first represented that he was the ultimate supervisor, upon questioning he relented and informed me that he was the night supervisor and that his superior was not available.

I asked Alex if there were any other flights. He replied in the negative and again refused to provide any guidance. It was clear that he did not want to speak to us. My wife was in tears. Our child was crying. I simply could not believe that we, paying customers, were being treated so deplorably. It was left to us to try to find flights somewhere in New England. We were told there were no flights to Manchester, New Hampshire at all. We were finally told that there was a flight to Boston, Massachusetts the next morning at 7:20 AM. Begrudgingly, Alex booked us on the flight.

We had no means of getting to Portland from Boston, but we were desperate to finally get home.

At this point, I asked Alex if JetBlue would be able to set my exhausted and despondent family up

in a hotel room. He refused. I asked him repeatedly if there was some way my family would be able

to rest, he would not assist us. I asked if JetBlue would at least offer us a discount. He refused. I asked if he could provide a list of area hotels since we did not know the area at all.

He refused. My wife asked him if there is a way for us to get milk and diapers for our son. He simply refused to help us in any way as if it wasn't his concern and he wished we would leave. I could not believe what was happening. It was now close to 11 PM. I asked again to speak to his supervisor. I was told that his supervisor was not available.

Seeing that JetBlue would not assist us, I gave up and resigned myself to the fact that my family, along with our entire luggage, was going to have to spend the night in the terminal. Then, JetBlue's representative inflicted the final insult: he told us that we could not go through security. Since we had our luggage with us, he explained, we could not go through security until we checked our bags and that could not occur until four (4) hours before our flight or 3:30 AM. We were directly informed that we would not be able to go into the terminal area proper; we would have to spend the night in the ticket area.

What followed was one of the more hellish experiences my family and I have had to endure. It was particularly trying for my son. Under the bright fluorescent lights and with all the noise, he could not sleep. My wife repeatedly called the JetBlue helpline which she found in our itinerary paperwork (1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583)). The representative she spoke to identified the night supervisor as Alex and told her that he did, in fact, have the ability and authority to assist us with lodgings. She affirmatively represented to my wife that she would connect her with the floor manager on duty, who would take care of us by speaking to Alex. She further provided my wife with a number for the Travel Aid, who, she assured my wife, would assist us with milk and diapers for my son. My wife promptly called the number and learned that that service was only available until 6 PM. Calling back, she repeated her story and situation on at least five more occasions and was hung up on by JetBlue agents five times. Each time, the agent would offer to connect her to the floor manager, or supervisor and each time the call would become disconnected. At approximately 1 AM, my wife gave up her efforts.

We desperately tried to obtain milk for our son, since we had no food left of any kind (the only restaurant at that part of the airport was closed and we were told we couldn't access the terminal restaurants until we checked in with the airline). My wife, desperate and crying approached a TSA officer leaving for the night with an empty bottle begging for help. He said he would help find some milk for our baby. I was forced to leave my family and walk to another terminal to try to find milk, which I eventually did. The TSA officer showed me that there was a Dunkin Donuts kiosk in another terminal that was opened late. When I returned we huddled together as best as we could with our luggage and our son's stroller. By 2 AM we ran out of clean diapers for my son. His dirty diaper leaked all over my wife's shirt when she tried to calm him. He finally passed out from crying at around 2 AM. My wife and I attempted to sleep, but after we witnessed a rat patrolling the area, we stayed awake all night.

Alex had affirmatively represented to me that the ticket counter opened at 3:30 AM and that I could check my luggage and pass security at that time. I soon learned that that was yet another falsehood offered by JetBlue's representatives. At 3:30 AM, I stood in line. Other JetBlue customers began to line up behind me. At 3:50 AM, the first JetBlue employees began to appear behind the counter.

They laughed and chatted with each other as the line continued to form behind me. By 4:00 AM, they still had not assisted any customers. A gentleman behind me, obviously frustrated, complained to the employees that he had been informed that the check-in opened at 3:30 AM. Your employees pointedly ignored him.

At 4:05 AM, I was finally allowed to check our luggage. I also learned at that time that my family and I could have gone through security the night before, rather than attempting to sleep on a linoleum floor in the ticket area. As you can probably understand, I was and am extremely upset that your night supervisor, having been asked point-blank on that issue, had not offered that information. By 5 AM my family passed through security and waited on chairs the remaining few hours until our flight.

I sincerely hope that you can appreciate the overwhelming and substantial hardship your employees and business practices imposed on my family. We travel frequently. My wife has traveled throughout Russia and Western and Eastern Europe. Yet we have never encountered anything like what we experienced with JetBlue. JetBlue consistently failed to meet its objectives and failed to provide us with any modicum of customer service whatsoever. Your representatives knew that we were in desperate straits, with a small baby, but failed and refused to provide any assistance. More troubling, however, is that the night supervisor of your JFK facility, Alex, not only refused to help us, he actually provided us with false information that he had to have known was untrue. As a result of his actions, the situation was made even worse. Lastly, JetBlue's own helpline repeatedly and intentionally hung up on a desperate paying customer seeking assistance.

JetBlue has failed, and lost, my family and myself as customers. We will never do business with your company again, nor will we ever recommend your services. We have already told all of our friends and family our JetBlue's lack of care and commitment for us. We certainly didn't get our  money's worth. I sincerely hope that affirmative steps are taken to improve your services so that  no other family will have to endure what we went through when we made the mistake of patronizing your company.