Jessica Chastain slammed for tone-deaf complaint about JetBlue fight

Jessica Chastain found herself in hot water after making a complaint about a flight that some fans thought was tone deaf for someone of her wealth and stature.

The 47-year-old Oscar winner lashed out on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday after receiving a refund for a malfunctioning ‘flight entertainment system,’ though she quickly deleted the posts after they began to spread across social media.

‘Thanks you @JetBlue for your $15.00 credit. My flight was $1,500 and the credit is 1/100 of the money I paid you,’ she began the passive-aggressive post. ‘Strange that I paid that for your flight entertainment system that didn’t work for the duration of my 6hr flight, but I guess it was worth it for this $15 credit.’

The post included a screenshot confirming she had received the credit, but a follow-up post — which particularly incensed some fans — showed Chastain complaining that she should have received a larger credit than other customers who paid for cheaper tickets on the same flight.

In response to a post from JetBlue’s X account, Chastain — who has recently been trying to protect Hollywood artists from being replaced by AI — shared what appeared to be a screenshot of a chat she had with a customer service representative.

Jessica Chastain was blasted by social media users on Wednesday for complaining about a paltry JetBlue refund in since-deleted posts on X (formerly Twitter); seen in February in LA

She complained that her $15 refund for a malfunctioning TV set on a six-hour flight; an Airbus A320 for JetBlue is pictured over New York City in 2013

After they informed the Tree Of Life star that every person on the flight whose seat-back television set didn’t work was given a $15 refund, she pleaded for a higher payout.

‘I understand but I spent $1500 on the flight and so did my husband,’ she wrote. ‘There should be some flight credit or something since I have a TrueBlue account and have been a loyal customer.’

But the customer service representative reiterated that the airline would only be paying $15 per person, regardless of flight loyalty status or the price of their ticket.

Chastain’s social media complaints got negative reviews from other X users, with some saying her concerns were petty when many Americans had lost everything in last month’s Hurricane Helene and the ongoing Hurricane Milton, which was downgraded to a post-tropical storm on Thursday.

‘Read the room,’ wrote an unmoved user.

But many others took more mocking, belittling tones.

‘jessica chastain is so embarrassing,’ groused one poster, while another jokingly asked why an Oscar winner like Chastain was flying JetBlue, as it originated as a budget airline. 

Another person joked that ‘being upset with an airline and blasting them on social media’ made Chastain ‘our modern day Princess Di.’

Several of the comment poking fun at the Zero Dark Thirty actress noted that she was one of the rare celebrities who still used the site formerly known as Twitter to complain about brands, as many stars had departed the social media platform after Elon Musk acquired it, and his efforts to turn blue check marks into a money-making operation have made them largely useless to celebrity users.

Some posters attributed the complaints to Chastain’s age.

‘jessica chastain beefing with an airline publicly on twitter shows that no matter how much money you have you’ll never stop being a millennial,’ read one complaint.

The writer Carrie Wittmer wondered if ‘early 2010s Twitter [was] back or is that just Jessica Chastain.’

Chastain complained that the refund was only ‘1/100’ of her $1,500 ticket

A screenshot of a customer service chat showed Chastain apparently asking for more money because she was a rewards member with the airline

Some users blasted Chastain for not ‘read[ing] the room’ and complaining about airline refunds when people had been made homeless by recent hurricans; seen in April in LA

But other critics took a more mocking tone, like one person who wondered why she was flying on JetBlue, which originated as a budget airline

Another person joked that ‘being upset with an airline and blasting them on social media’ made Chastain ‘our modern day Princess Di’

 

Several of the comment poking fun at the Zero Dark Thirty actress noted that she was one of the rare celebrities who still used the site formerly known as Twitter to complain about brands after Elon Musk acquired it and made verification essentially meaningless

One fan wrote that it was ‘so incredibly funny and weird for someone on her level of fame to be tweeting like this, in 2024 no less,’ while another wrote that Chastain was ‘keeping th[e] art form alive’ when it came to complaining to brands on social media

 

 Some posters attributed the complaints to Chastain’s age, citing it as a symptom of being a millennial or joking that ‘2010s Twitter’ was back

Louis Peitzman joked that ‘So many of you would tweet exactly like Jessica Chastain if you were her level of famous. I know that in my soul’

One X user joked that the controversy was a low priority by posting, ‘Have we gotten any update on the Jessica Chastain/Jet Blue situation’

But some users defended Chastain and supported her for trying to hold airlines accountable, as she is more likely to be listened to than the average flyer

Louis Peitzman joked that ‘So many of you would tweet exactly like Jessica Chastain if you were her level of famous. I know that in my soul.’ 

But some users defended Chastain and supported her for trying to hold airlines accountable, as she is more likely to be listened to than the average flyer. 

‘I think it’s good that a celebrity is complaining publicly,’ wrote one poster. ‘Airlines have absolutely no accountability when it comes to customer service, experience, or even the basics like BEING ON TIME.’ 

Since deleting her posts, Chastain hasn’t addressed the uproar they inspired.