Help! JetBlue Stranded Our Boy Scout Troop in New York City

Dear Tripped Up,

I was one of three adults who led a backpacking trip to the Colorado Rockies this past June with six teenage Boy Scouts from Troop 876 of Savannah, Ga. After seven nights camping, our tenth night — June 26 — was to be aboard a redeye to Kennedy Airport, followed by a morning flight to Savannah, both on JetBlue Airways. But our Denver departure was delayed over two hours and we missed the connection. We waited for three hours in line, only to politely be told the next flight available was five days later, even after we offered to fly to Atlanta, Charleston, S.C., or Jacksonville, Fla., instead. JetBlue would not provide a hotel. So we opted for a refund (plus $12 meal vouchers), rented two cars and drove 14 hours home, racking up about $1,200 in travel expenses. But when our refunds from JetBlue came through, they totaled $261 for nine of us, only 18 percent of the original cost. A customer service representative later explained to me by phone that we had been reimbursed for only the New York to Savannah leg. We believe JetBlue should have gotten us on an earlier flight on a different airline or at least reimbursed us for the nine fares and fees totaling $1,458, and perhaps chipped in for the expenses to get home. Can you help? Spencer, Savannah, Ga.

Dear Spencer,

Phew! I thought you were going to ask me how to feed six growing Boy Scouts on $12 meal vouchers at an airport food court.

You had every right to receive a full flight refund from JetBlue Airways. The Transportation Department requires airlines to offer refunds if flights are “significantly delayed,” regardless of reason, and the federal policy contains no detectable clause allowing JetBlue to reimburse a laughably tiny percentage of the original cost. Derek Dombrowski, a spokesman for the airline, admitted that JetBlue erred here, and told me that someone would reach out to you. You reported back that a representative called and apologetically agreed to credit you the full $1,458, throwing in nine $100 vouchers for future travel.

As Mr. Dombrowski later explained to me in an email: “Our policy in this circumstance — where a customer is not rebooked after a canceled flight or due to a missed connection out of the customer’s control — is a full refund provided to the original form of payment for the entire one-way journey.”

“We apologize for this error,” he wrote.

But it sounds more like two errors to me. When you originally saw the paltry reimbursement, you…