Some thoughts about JetBlue and I-78......

1) JetBlue's decision this weekend to cancel a bunch of flights (including here in Richmond) to, I guess, regroup after their problems with the weather, cancelled flights, and the PR nightmare of New York City a few days ago, leaves me bewildered. Why try to "fix" a problem by inconveniencing MORE people with more cancellations?

2) But, I DO know these thoughts without a doubt. Regarding the transportation nightmares resulting from the huge snow/ice storm in the Northeast......

----I have tremendous amounts of sorrow for all the stranded travelers on I-78 in Pennsylvania, who are stuck, totally stuck in miles and miles of traffic, for up to 24 hours. Issues such as food and especially warmth become life-threatening issues. That must have been a nightmare for all drivers and passengers involved.

----With the exception of children, I have NO sympathy for the people I saw interviewed the other night on TV who had to "endure" waits of up to 11 hours on a JetBlue airplane. Was JetBlue apparently completely clueless and negligent to their customers? ABSOLUTELY.

BUT.....BUT......if I am stuck somewhere, I would MUCH rather it be in an airplane safely on the tarmac on the ground as opposed to, say, I-78 in Pennsylvania. Some people interviewed made it sound like the airplane became a war zone and they were furious at the horrific experience they had just lived through.

I'm sorry....no sympathy. If I were there, would I be disappointed and frustrated? Yes. Mad that JetBlue apparently never provided passengers information updates? Yes.

Act on television as if you just survived some sort of military battle?? Forget it.

If the maturity portion of my brain was working in conjunction with my reality portion, I would realize I was inside, warm, and inconvenienced by lack of food, bathroom facilities and patience, but I COULD BE IN MUCH, MUCH MORE DESPERATE STRAITS.

Had I been one of the passengers who went on TV and acted so "in the moment emotional" about my day, then went home or to a hotel and see the I-78 story on the air.......

.....I would have found myself relatively embarrassed. The people that went through hell were in cold cars in the middle of an "asphalt-nowhere", thinking they might not get out of what started as "just as a traffic jam" alive, not in JetBlue airplanes.

Sorry-----this has just eaten at me since I saw it on TV. There is desperate, and then there is "desperate".

I pray no one who reads this will end up in something like an "I-78 experience".

And when I want to get mad during an airplane delay, someone remind me my kids used to cry alot, too.