Devastated Florida Family Kicked Off JetBlue Flight After Airline Reportedly Sells Their Seat After Boarding: ‘I’d Be Writing a Letter to the CEO Already’
Image Source: davidbluver TikTok via The Nerd Stash
Traveling anywhere is already an incredibly stressful activity and when paired with toddlers and babies, the stress can be kicked up a few notches. However, people with families should still be treated with the same respect as any other customer aboard a flight. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for a Florida family when they boarded their JetBlue flight to New York.
Sure, cancellations happen at airlines and most people will just be a little disappointed and move on. Now, what would you do if you were kicked off the plane after you had already boarded because the airline accidentally sold your ticket to someone else?
This is what 14 hours in an airport looks like. Here’s why. I’m not someone who usually posts about airline issues. Everyone knows travel is chaotic. Delays happen. Cancellations happen. You deal with it and move on. But what happened to my family yesterday was different — and it needs to be called out. Yesterday, my family of four — my wife, myself, our almost-two-year-old son, and our daughter (four months corrected age, born prematurely) — were scheduled to fly @JetBlue Fort Lauderdale to JFK at 9:15am. I checked us in the day before. Paid for our checked bags. Got boarding passes. We arrived at the airport at 7am, checked our bags, cleared security, boarded the plane around 8:30am, and sat down in our assigned seats. No issues. Then — five minutes before departure — three standby passengers appeared in our aisle saying we were in their seats. After confusion with the flight crew, we were told that JetBlue had somehow canceled our reservation AFTER we boarded and reassigned our seats. To this day, no one can explain how that even happened. Instead of admitting the mistake and fixing it, JetBlue told us — a family already seated with two very small children — that we had to get off the plane. We were told if we didn’t comply, we would be escorted off. So we got off. We were brought to customer service where we were basically told: “Yeah… our mistake. We don’t know how this happened.” Meanwhile, our checked bags — which included important medication for our kids — were already en route to JFK and couldn’t be retrieved. At that point, we were stranded in the airport with: • a toddler • a premature infant • limited formula • limited diapers • no access to essential medication The first solution offered? Wait until Monday to fly home. When we said that wasn’t possible, we were told the only way to get home that day was to PAY for four new tickets on a later flight to LaGuardia — even though this entire situation was caused by JetBlue. That flight was supposed to leave at 2:30pm. We didn’t take off until close to 7pm. We finally got home after 10pm — almost 14 hours after we should have been home. This isn’t about being inconvenienced. JetBlue kicked a young family off a plane they were already seated on because of their mistake, separated us from essential items, stranded us in an airport all day, and then charged us a significant amount of money just to get home. Mistakes happen. How you handle them matters. Stranding a family with an infant and asking them to pay for your error is not okay. @JetBlue_Airlines — do better. JJetBlueJJetBlueAirwaysAAirlineAccountabilityAAirlineFailA#AirlineMistake
The above video was posted to the TikTok account @davidbluver, belonging to a man named David. There really aren’t many videos on the account, with the few that there are being primarily about his children. This video was totally, different, with a very detailed account of what had happened in the comments.
According to David, him, his wife, and his two young children had boarded a JetBlue flight in Fort Lauderdale that was headed for JFK in New York City. After having their tickets scanned and boarding the aircraft, the family was allegedly approached by passengers who had been on standby because they were apparently in their seats.
Apparently, the airline had reportedly cancelled their reservation and sold the same seats that the family were sitting in after they had already boarded. Instead of rectifying their mistake, JetBlue decided to kick the family off the plane so that the other passengers could board instead. Unfortunately, this meant that the luggage they had checked onto the plane had to be sent without them.
Florida Family Trapped in Airport for 14 Hours After JetBlue Sells Seats
Unfortunately, the luggage that they had checked in had essential items for both their children, including baby needs and medication. Now, they were stranded at the airport with nothing to do until a JetBlue agent could help them.
Tons of people rushed to the comments to share their own stories of airlines doing the same thing to them. Many others were also focused on this, with one person even saying, “Are people forgetting Jetblue double booked their seats and kicked them off instead of making the standby passengers wait?“
More shocked viewers took things a step further and showed David how to go about checking who even cancelled the flight in the first place, saying, “The can track who canceled your reservation and why they did it to let their friends get on the flight as standby passengers. I’d be writing a letter to the CEO already.” I really hope the family is compensated in some way because this is ridiculous.
I am a game journalist and guide writer with ten years of experience as well as the CEO/ Founder of Frowns Marketing, a marketing company that caters to indie games, tabletop games, and board games to help developers get more wishlists, backers, and players!
