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It's not like she's suing a small mom-and-pop. We don't know how much she's suing for, but the purpose of a lawsuit is to shine a light if the airline is negligent in their procedures and correct that, not just collect money. I'm sorry but if any offense is sue-worthy it's freaking swapping human beings. If you offer this service you accept the risk, you can't just say oops mistakes happen. Yes they do but you took on the burden and the airline got lucky that they didn't deliver a 5 year-old child to a maniac. If I was the mom and they sent me someone's else's kid while my own was God knows where, I'm supposed to be happy with a "hey sorry about that"? Get real!
I flew by myself at five and six years old also. Every summer my parents would put my on a plane and fly me to see my cousins and then my aunt and uncle would stick me back on the plane.
The mother is an idiot for suing, it was a mistake.
A "mistake" would be a piece of luggage ... however, a child hardly constitutes a mere "mistake".
Martinez claims she suffered “emotional distress, extreme fear, horror, mental shock, mental anguish and psychological trauma,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The News.
Martinez’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. She has already rejected an offer of a $10,000 gift from JetBlue, and the company did also refund her $475 for the plane ticket.
JetBlue flies 40,000 unaccompanied minors per year. I would hardly say there is little financial gain there.
At $100 extra it is $4 million per year. For 2015, Its annual income is $6.42 Billion and after expenses the gross income is $1.6B and net income is $677 million.
In the big scheme of things $4M is not a lot of money especially if it will use up flight attendant time ( I saw 2 flight attendants accompanying one boy in Atlanta airport train, taking him from one terminal to another. That is a lot of time and money expended for the $100 reward).
Add to it the risk of lawsuit and a large payout / hush money the airlines would have to increase the amount significantly from $100 to 500K or even cancel it altogether. Let the guardian come himself or employ a courier, like a FedEx for unaccompanied minors.
Martinez claims she suffered “emotional distress, extreme fear, horror, mental shock, mental anguish and psychological trauma,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The News.
Martinez’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. She has already rejected an offer of a $10,000 gift from JetBlue, and the company did also refund her $475 for the plane ticket.
Well, you know she is suing for more than 10K.
Please, I would have taken the $10K and been happy my kid got back to me in less than 6 hours. I've heard of kids being put on the wrong school bus who were away from their parents for longer than this kid was gone! I doubt I would have suffered "emotional distress, extreme fear, horror, mental shock, mental anguish and psychological trauma" because my kid ended up in Boston and not NYC. Some people really think suing is like winning the lottery. I personally wouldn't want to go through the hassle of a lawsuit (and JetBlue has the money to draw it out to discourage the other party); you can take a lot of trips with $10K.
Read the above post from kamban and I agree, if this suit forces a huge payout, JetBlue would be smart to just cancel the whole program. Let all the Caribbean families get pissed off at her. FYI, it's not uncommon for children to fly back and forth solo from the US to some island in the Caribbean, like the D.R. or Haiti. It's not uncommon for one parent to be in the US and one parent (most often the father) to be back home. I almost got sent on a plane solo when I was 5 to go visit my older siblings, but my mom got some last minute PTO and was able to go with me (this was WAY back in the late 80's). If JetBlue cancels this service because of this woman's lawsuit, I guarantee it, women will be cursing her name at the Dominican blow-out hair salon.
Who in their right mind puts a 5 year old on an international flight??? That just doesn't make any sense in this day and age. Flying today is NOTHING like flying 15 years ago! No way I would EVER put a child on plane by themselves. That is asking for a disaster.
Flying today is exactly like flying 15 years ago, which was October 2001. Maybe you are thinking of 50 years ago when only rich people could fly and airlines were guaranteed a profit so they had to compete on service, which was excellent.
Id sue! 3 hours without knowing where your 5 year old is...if they are ok or alive or lost or alone! Sue the pants off of them!
3 hours!
Airlines need to be held accountable. I have flown 5/6/7 year olds out to me alone and it is part of the airline's job to keep them safe and not freaking LOSE THEM! They offer this service to sell the tickets...they need to follow through.
And it isn't asking the airline to parent. This is a service they offer. That is like saying you hired a babysitter to parent. No, you hire a baby sitter to fill in for a short time while you are not able to.
This is a tough one. JetBlue obviously was in the wrong! Not to mention this is not a free service. I myself as a parent would never send my 5 year old on a plane by themselves; however, even as traumatic it was for the parent I doubt they'll get millions from it. The child was not harmed in any way. They may have also been upset, but they weren't hurt. Does the airline owe them anything? Maybe a few free round trips, but monetary? Not sure.
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