All JetBlue Flights Vanish For October 13–14—Passengers Report Total Cancellations, Forced Rebooking

JetBlue passengers are reporting that their trips for October 13 and 14 were completely cancelled, while an overnight review of the airline’s schedule data showed that those two entire days of JetBlue-operated flights were missing. Some travelers say they’ve already been moved to a different day. Others discovered their reservations had disappeared without notification. It looks to me like a systems error probably during a schedule change caused the airline to be unable to sell flights, completely removing the trips from the airline’s schedule, and with this change it triggered automatic rebookings of the two whole days of passengers. One passenger reports being told by JetBlue support: Chatted with JetBlue support now. They said that the cancellations are phantom and the IT team is working on fixing it ASAP All 550 of the airline’s routes were gone. Departure Date JetBlue Flights Found Same Weekday The Following Week Monday, October 12 921 915 Tuesday, October 13 0 803 Wednesday, October 14 0 815 Thursday, October 15 909 898 The following Tuesday and Wednesday still showed 1,618 flights between them. This was universal across Boston, New York, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, San Juan, the West Coast and transatlantic routes. It follows departure dates so an overnight flight leaving October 12 and arriving October 13 still appeared. Oddly, searching by route returned no flights for the affected dates. But searching by flight number still returned October 13 flights marked “On time,” with aircraft assigned. And JetBlue was still selling United flights. In a discussion of the missing flights, one customer says their 7 a.m. October 13 departure was moved to 8 p.m. October 12. Another reported losing October 13 flights from Los Angeles to New York and onward to Dublin. A schedule update error is my guess, with an automated process treating the missing flights as canceled, sending notifications, and moving passengers onto whatever alternatives it could find. An intentional two-day shutdown for a systems change would require a lot more planning and communication than customers have seen. JetBlue has already had serious technology-related operational problems this year. Its pilots’ union complained of repeated scheduling outages in July, with crews stranded and unable to reach scheduling. I covered their July performance: they completed just 91.7% of scheduled flights. The fix will involve more than just restoring the flights back into the schedule. With reservations actually been changed, JetBlue may need to restore original itineraries, reconnect tickets to flights, recover seat assignments, and reconcile bookings issued by partners. For an actual cancellation, passengers who decline alternative transportation and travel credits are entitled to a refund. Topics on this page