The jilted bridesmaid

WASHINGTON, D.C. » The Twitter profile for jilted bridesmaid Courtney Duffy went dark for a while. It shifted from public to private after the Dartmouth MBA student posted a now-viral tweet asking JetBlue to refund an airline ticket she bought to attend her friend’s wedding.

School commitments were going to keep Duffy from attending the full run of events leading up to the wedding, including a bachelorette trip. If you’ve ever been in a wedding party, you know that being a bridesmaid is not a show-up-and-say-“hey” responsibility.

Duffy couldn’t make it across the country in time to participate in all the festivities. So the bride asked her to bow out, delivering the news by email. The bride also asked Duffy to return the bridesmaid “jumpsuit.”

Let’s quickly dispense with the issue of an email as a way to communicate a dismissal. Caring people do such things with their actual voices. You don’t fire people via email.

But let’s keep this in the personal-finance realm. Duffy — a student, after all — pleaded with JetBlue to refund the money for her airline ticket. She posted a screen shot of the email from the bride as proof of her dumping.

Her now-deleted tweet said: “I am laughing & crying & must avoid this wedding at all costs. Pls help?”

JetBlue did agree to refund the value of Duffy’s ticket, which she can now use for another trip. But by making her business public, Duffy invited people to

The Color Of Money