After searching online for hours, and checking all the sites like Expedia and Travelocity, we still couldn't find tickets for under $350 a person. We were quite depressed and not at all ready to spend another $1400 . We decided to call some airlines directly to see if they had any kind of special deals for people in our situation, especially since we read an article about some airlines doing that for ATA customers who were in a similar situation earlier this week. The first two airlines we called were absolutely no help at all. After putting Chad on hold for half an hour each, they offered him fares for $600 and $900 per person. We passed.
I saw that JetBlue had a redeye Monday evening for $199 each, which would stink because Chad really really needs to be at work on Monday, but we decided to call and see if maybe we could get that deal for an earlier day. Chad called with our sob story and the representative was extremely helpful. She had just received a memo about a special deal they were offering jilted Skybus customers - $50 each!!!!!!!!!!! She booked us standby tickets for tonight at 10:30 pm. It isn't a pretty flight - we have to fly to JFK and then down to Charlotte, arriving at 9:15 am, but we don't mind one bit. We are thrilled. She was quite positive that even though we are on standby we will have no problem getting on the flight because they are nowhere near full - the standby status was the only way she could book it through this deal. I sure hope she is right or we might be calling Chad's aunt in Phoenix tonight.
I still can't believe that we are getting four cross-country flights for a total of $200 and I don't think I will be able to really breathe until we catch that second flight. If all of this works out, I will dedicate the rest of my life to praising Jetblue.
In addition to that good luck, we called Priceline, who our hotel tonight was booked through, and explained what happened and they gave us a full refund!!!! We were shocked and so thrilled! Hurray for Priceline!
