JetBlue offered Cancun passengers flight credit in viral TikTok video

The airline struggled to convince people to give up their seats for crew members. Photo / Johnnyw3

JetBlue Offered $10,000 to Customers to Take a Later Flight, and No One Would

How much money would it take for you to delay a holiday? $200? How about $2000?

According to one viral Tiktok video by @riesjess, it would take more than $10,000 (NZ$15,000).

The video, which has more than 10.3 million views, shows her and an unhappy person beside her sitting on a JetBlue plane that is supposed to be flying to Cancun but has instead been sitting on the runway for 45 minutes.

Why? Because the JetBlue employees could not convince any passengers to give up their seats for additional crew members.

Not even, apparently, for $10,000 worth of flight credit.

In a further post, she explained JetBlue needed to get crew members to Cancun after their flight had been cancelled.

"They needed to transport crew members in order to be crew on other flights," she explained. "The flights they were supposed to be on were cancelled because of a snowstorm."

Desperate, the crew began offering "a ton of money" in the form of flight credit but no one would budge.

The bidding went up to $15,000, according to the TikToker.

After users asked why she didn't take it, she said she wasn't willing to be split apart from her 30 other friends for their Spring Break trip.

Flights to Cancun that week were fully booked and JetBlue didn't fly to enough destinations she was interested in to be able to use so much credit.

"It just didn't seem worth it," she said.

JetBlue isn't the only airline struggling with cancelled flights, staff shortages and significant delays.

However, given that the airline flies to 180 American and international destinations, and the rising cost of flights, it is surprising that the offer was tough to sell.

Eventually, according to @riesjess, nine people accepted the offer, while she continued on her vacation.