Hi {{Name|Fellow Traveler}},

Thank you for being an avid reader. I appreciate it. Happy Christmas week and Merry Christmas, if you celebrate, when it arrives later next week. I’m a HUGE Christmas fan, so I loved seeing all the Christmas trees in the airports. Looks like Orlando Terminal C wins for the largest Christmas tree.

I’m sitting in JFK airport as I write today’s newsletter; sorry it's so late again. Traveling leaves little time to write during the week. I’m waiting for my last flight in the 25 for 25 challenge. It’s been a fun event and has given me a whole new insight into air travel :-). So much to unpack. Some airports are amazing (Orlando Terminal C), others are used a lot but neglected, like Aguadilla (BQN) and White Plains (HPN). The best thing about HPN is its Observation Gallery. When they rebuild it, and they should, it needs to be retained. It’s one of those airports where the parking facility is larger than the terminal area.

I met this lady in the TSA line, and she recounted her ordeal; I felt for her so badly. You know how good an airline is when you have to call customer service for help. She booked with Aer Lingus with a connecting flight at JFK on jetBlue; they are partners. When she got to JFK, jetBlue cancelled the connecting flight due to weather. She was rebooked via FLL, then to her final destination, with an 8-hour layover due to flight schedules; she was also charged for her two bags during the rebooking. Now today, she’s flying to another Florida airport more than 24 hours after she should have arrived.

While these things do happen, she mentions how awful the customer service was as the relationship with Aer Lingus seemed to mean nothing, and the agents she dealt with, both in person and on the phone, were just awful.

I felt her pain as I’ve had similar experiences with other airlines when things go wrong. She mentioned seat assignments. I recall booking a ticket on Saudia with a Delta connection, and had to call to book my seat on Delta. The reservations also had issues showing up in the Delta app.

On the other hand, I had three situations with jetBlue, and two agents went above and beyond to help me; the other sent me away to deal with another agent. So what’s the issue? Is it that some agents are having a bad day and forget how to be customer-friendly? Or are the policies so out of touch that the agents are afraid to put their humanity hat on and help the customers when things don’t work out? What do you think?

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Hurricane Melissa Relief Continues

Please continue to think of the people in Jamaica as they try to get back on their feet. This includes my own family members, who also had damage to their homes. They all survived, thankfully, but as you can imagine, it’s pretty hard on them and their neighbors.

I’m amazed at the number of organization that does the work of getting people back on their feet. Hats off to them.

This young man in Jamaica, Colaz Smith, has a YouTube channel and he’s taking donations, and then buying supplies for the affected people. These are the people in areas hard hit, but difficult to get to. Head over to https://colazsmithtvtours.com/helpjamaica to donate. You can see his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@Colazsmithtv.

These organizations need your financial support. TIME magazine has a great article with some helpful links; please check it out: https://time.com/7329186/hurricane-melissa-caribbean-impact-victims-how-to-help-relief-organizations/.

Jamaica is coordinating its efforts at https://supportjamaica.gov.jm/donate.

This is a good starting point. Monetary donations are preferable, allowing recipients to use the funds as needed.

UNICEF and the International Red Cross also have resources set up.

Another organization is Samaritans Purse. You can donate at https://samaritanspurse.org/ y clicking on the Give button.

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That’s all I got.