NEW YORK (NewsNation Now) — Thousands of passengers suffered from the fallout from the weekend nor’easter which left them stranded at airports across the nation.

Jacki Cole knew it would be tough to go back to frigid Buffalo, New York, after a tropical escape in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; however, she never anticipated how much of a headache was waiting for her at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

“This is the most inhumane treatment I’ve seen in the United States in my entire life,” Cole said.

Cole’s five-hour JetBlue Airlines flight turned into more than 30 hours of travel time on Sunday. She said when the plane returned to New York, she sat on the tarmac for four hours without any food, water or updates from the airlines.

Complaints against the airline began to pile up on Twitter Sunday night but continued into Monday morning. Passengers reported long delays that turned into cancellations, rebooked flights scheduled to take off at different airports, were forced to stay in the airport overnight, waited on the tarmac for hours, and were not allowed to deplane. 

“Instead of canceling our flights, they held us hostage and kept delaying it hour after hour after hour,” Cole said.

JetBlue delayed more than 400 flights Sunday, nearly half its schedule, and canceled 174.

“We slept with children on the floor for one hour in JFK, and it was to avoid paying hotels and whatever it may be.”

JetBlue issued an apology stating Saturday’s massive snowstorm, which affected much of the Northeast, was to blame. The National Weather Service confirmed more than a foot of snow fell at JFK airport.

“At JFK, we started operations on Saturday as planned but faced a number of conditions that have slowed the operation down. We have combined some flights today to ease those constraints and are working to rebook customers. It normally takes a few days to fully recover when a storm of this size significantly impacts our two largest markets of New York and Boston, and our first priority continues to be restarting safely. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and we are working to get them on their way as quickly as possible.”

Despite their apology, Cole wishes JetBlue would have seen the trouble coming, canceled her flight sooner and accommodated her and her fellow passengers.

“There are some things that are out of your control, but what you can control they didn’t do anything about. you can control how you treat people, and you can control compassion, and there was none.”

Cole said JetBlue wouldn’t be able to get her home to Buffalo until Tuesday morning, so she booked a flight to Rochester Monday afternoon. Then, her husband drove 90 minutes to pick her up.

NewsNation affiliate WPIX contributed to this report.