JetBlue canceled our flight. Why do we have to pay $589 extra to take our trip?

30.09.2024 - 14:13 / thepointsguy.com / Brian Kelly

Lisa Logan had always dreamed of visiting Paris. So when her adult son, Bennett, recommended that his parents meet him in the City of Light this Christmas, she eagerly agreed. Bennett helped his mom and dad book round-trip business-class flights on JetBlue from Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) via Boston Logan International Airport (BOS). With that part of the trip confirmed, the family happily began planning how they would celebrate a "joyeux noel" in France.

However, four months later, JetBlue jeopardized the Logans' plans when it announced that it would no longer operate out of Charlotte after Oct. 26, 2024. That left the Logans without a leg of their bucket-list trip to Paris.

Lisa panicked when she received the news and quickly researched alternative flight plans. She and her husband could change their JetBlue ticket's departure city to Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), two hours from their home. From there, they could fly to Boston to connect with their international flight as planned, all on JetBlue.

Problem averted! Or so she thought.

But when Lisa called the airline to make the itinerary change, an agent gave her some bad news. JetBlue had already canceled and refunded the couple's entire round-trip flight to Europe, so a no-fee switch was not possible.

The representative explained that the itinerary Lisa had found could be rebooked as a new reservation for $589 more than the original two tickets had cost. After a supervisor reiterated that her only option was to pay the new fare, Lisa reluctantly agreed.

The Logans' trip was back on, yet that $589 upcharge didn't sit right with Bennett Logan or his parents. After all, they had booked their flights well in advance to avoid holiday surges in airfares. The additional expense was only the result of JetBlue's unexpected cancellation of all flights out of Charlotte. For that reason, the family was convinced JetBlue should cover the fare difference.

After additional JetBlue agents and supervisors rejected the Logans' request to refund what they believed to be an unfair upcharge, Bennett decided to reach out to The Points Guy himself, Brian Kelly, to see what he thought. Not surprisingly, TPG's founder agreed with Bennett that waiving that $589 fare increase would be the customer-friendly thing to do given the circumstances.

With his family's opinion validated, Bennett hoped we could convince JetBlue to do the right thing. But with no regulations in place that would require JetBlue to do anything but refund the original ticket and rebook at the current fare, would this be a mission impossible?

Back in March, Bennett first proposed the idea of his mother and father meeting him in Paris