JetBlue Flier Says Twitter Posts Got Her Booted From Trip

By Jennifer Kaplan

A JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU) passenger says her comments and pictures about the carrier on Twitter got her booted from a flight. JetBlue disagrees.
The dispute unfolded as a she-said, airline-said scenario after the traveler, Lisa Carter-Knight of Exeter, New Hampshire, posted messages on Twitter Inc. (TWTR) saying crew members barred her entry to the plane based on her 140-character comments and photos. JetBlue says she was kicked off for “unruly conduct.”
Airlines routinely use social media to keep tabs on their public image and soothe angry fliers. When Carter-Wright chose social media to remark on a four-hour delay yesterday at Philadelphia International Airport -- and her
subsequent ejection -- she thrust a customer-service dispute in front of a broad Internet audience.
“I was told that the pilot didn’t want me on the flight,” Carter-Knight said by telephone today. “I was told that my posting images was inappropriate and was not liked by the staff” at the gate.
She said she began her journey with JetBlue at 6 p.m. local time yesterday when she checked in for a flight to Boston. By the time the plane took off, she had been left behind. JetBlue isn’t releasing details on why Carter-Knight was kept off, said Morgan Johnston, a spokesman.

Risk Cited

“The crew made the decision based on her demeanor in the terminal that she was a risk in escalation and removed her,” Johnston said in an interview. Travelers distracting crew members or otherwise preventing them from performing their jobs pose a safety risk, he said.
The carrier doesn’t bar customers for expressing criticism in any medium, Johnston said. Travelers are going to share their feelings, and removing them for doing so would be bad business, he said by phone.
Other passengers posted negative comments about Flight 760 and were allowed onboard, Johnston said. Carter-Knight said travelers were displeased by the flight’s tardiness, which included a late arrival of the plane in Philadelphia and then a delay for maintenance.
The takeoff was pushed back again when a passenger commented while boarding that the pilot may have been drinking, Johnston said. Per airline policy, that remark forced the pilot to take a sobriety test, which he passed, Johnston said.
Carter-Knight chose to accept a refund and fly on another airline rather than take a different JetBlue flight, Johnston said. Carter-Knight said she tried to book a later JetBlue flight and was told she would be refused service.