Why do they make things complicated?

@lovebuglena (45893)
Staten Island, New York
March 25, 2025 1:24pm CST
My mom is going to Florida in May. She already booked her flight there and back. She is flying there with my brother's in-laws. They called her to let her know that the flight there has been changed to a later time. They decided to change both of their flights and told my mom to do the same so they can travel together. I went to the Jet Blue website and was attempting to change her flights. After going through the entire process I was told the total is -$18. To issue the refund I had to create a Travel Bank account for her as that's where the refund would be deposited to be used for a future flight. Without that I was unable to complete the flight change. I clicked the button to create the Travel Bank account. It brought up the screen where the fields were already pre-filled. One of them was the phone number. The phone number was correct, however, instead of it being displayed in the format of (xxx) xxx-xxxx it was in a weird format. Because of that when I hit the button to create the Travel Bank account it told me the phone number was too short and the account could not be created. I opened a new tab and managed to find a way to see her passenger info. The phone number for her original flight was in the correct format of (xxx) xxx-xxxx but just to be safe I reentered it and clicked to submit the change. Then I went back to the tab where I was trying to create the Travel Bank account and the same issue remained. The phone number was displayed in a weird format and I kept getting an error message that the phone number is too short. I ended up closing the tab where I was trying to change flights and started from scratch. Re-selecting the new flights and seats I was now told the total was $8. What the heck? How in the world did the price of the tickets go up so quickly? I wasn't happy about that but my mom and I decided to just pay the $8. No Travel Bank account needed as now we owed them money. I just entered her credit card info and the flights were changed. The frustrating ordeal is over. However, I don't understand why it has to be complicated to change flights online. Why can't they just credit the credit card whatever money they owe? Why the need for creating a Travel Bank account? I also didn't know that they can just change your flight without asking you first. That is not right. I hope they won't decide to change or cancel her flight again. But in the event they do, my mom told me she will just go with what they give her.
12 people like this
12 responses
@kaylachan (76393)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
25 Mar
No one wants to give money back. By creating this so-callled bank account, they get around it, by creating credit to be used for the next flight. Probably to save the fee for the charge back. But, yeah they can. Especially if they over book, which happens more often then most people think because the site isn't updated in real time.
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
25 Mar
My mom was willing to create that account but it wouldn’t work because of the photo number field. I wonder if others trying to create the travel bank account had that same issue.
@celticeagle (172520)
• Boise, Idaho
26 Mar
They do change very quickly. I've heard some other stories. Glad I don't fly.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (172520)
• Boise, Idaho
26 Mar
@lovebuglena ........it is scary to even think about it for several reasons.
1 person likes this
@akalinus (44234)
• United States
26 Mar
@lovebuglena I do not want to fly anymore. It is unsafe, in my opinion. And it is too scary out there in the unfriendly skies.
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Mar
I hardly fly these days.
2 people like this
• Philippines
25 Mar
Wow! What a long post as well as what a long day changing flight. But I guess that's going to happen when they don't create a secured but user-friendly website type. I really hate creating or registering online specially those with long one.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
25 Mar
Whoever is in charge of creating the forms has to make sure that they work properly everywhere. And there should be an option to edit something if it is incorrect.
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
25 Mar
@luisadannointed Technically, programmers aren't the ones that test things but QA people do. Either way they have to be very thorough in their testing and catch every possible bug and fix it.
1 person likes this
@rakski (135147)
• Philippines
26 Mar
sounds an incredibly frustrating experience
1 person likes this
@rakski (135147)
• Philippines
27 Mar
@lovebuglena that is great
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Mar
It was. Took a while to do this. Thankfully, after the price changed and now she had to pay we didn’t need to deal with creating a Travel Bank account. Just gave them her card info and that’s it. Glad that she only had to pay $8 though.
1 person likes this
@akalinus (44234)
• United States
26 Mar
My opinion is that the airline industry does not like its passengers.
1 person likes this
@akalinus (44234)
• United States
26 Mar
@lovebuglena I wrote a long list of problems and then deleted it. I am convinced that they take us for granted and don't care. Will they tie us to the wing next?
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Mar
@akalinus I hope not.
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Mar
That may very well be true.
1 person likes this
25 Mar
The price of things are going up and we are being taken advantage of at every turn
1 person likes this
@akalinus (44234)
• United States
26 Mar
@lovebuglena I think it is common in a lot of places. I buy from XXXXXX and often find out the price is changed after t view some category and then it changes again after I get it in the cart.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Mar
@akalinus That is not right and should not be allowed.
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
25 Mar
It is weird that the price went up as I was trying to figure out how to get changing flights to work.
1 person likes this
@allknowing (142890)
• India
26 Mar
All matters now is that you have done it. Congratulations.
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Mar
Yes. Now fingers crossed they don’t change one of her flights again.
1 person likes this
@LeaPea2417 (37679)
• Toccoa, Georgia
25 Mar
That's way too complicated
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Mar
It wasn’t complicated to change flights but the Travel Bank account made things frustrating.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (83438)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
25 Mar
I hope that nothing changed again,
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
25 Mar
I hope it won’t.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123204)
• Gainesville, Florida
7h
The whole airline industry is messed up like that. They use such archaic systems (as evidenced by major worldwide flight interruptions over the past year due to computer issues), that it's a miracle that anything gets booked correctly. Did you buy your tickets straight from JetBlue, or did you go through a third party service?
@JudyEv (349286)
• Rockingham, Australia
26 Mar
What a rigmarole! I hope that's the last of it and you won't need to make any more changes.
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Mar
I was actually relieved they didn’t owe her money and that she had to pay. Only because we didn’t have to deal with the Travel Bank account anymore.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (185098)
• United States
26 Mar
That's all so ridiculous. I hate when it takes forever to get something confirmed.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (45893)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Mar
Me too. And when things don’t work as they should it’s even more frustrating.
1 person likes this