my dad and i heading to daytona beach back in the day.we left snowy new jersey

Reminds me of about 15 or more years ago, driving through a snow storm up the turnpike to get to Newark Airport for an afternoon flight to Florida (Orlando) on the Tuesday of that year's Speedweeks.  Eventually, the snow stopped, but due to weather delay, everything was backed up which was understandable.  However... once flights began resuming, it sure looked to me like only Continental (now United) flights were getting the green light to take off, but our lowly JetBlue flight was delayed with no revised departure time provided.  We were eventually told that it probably would be cancelled, and the next available JetBlue flight to Orlando wasn't until the Tuesday of the following week, which would have been 2 days after the completion of the Daytona 500! 

Nothing else was available, so I was beginning to make arrangements to rent a car, and finally about 7pm, they made the boarding announcement for our flight and eventually, we got out of Newark, and arrived  in Orlando later that night.

I've got friends that swear by JetBlue, but I would never book them out of Newark after that.  Wasn't really their fault, it's just that at that time, Continental ruled the roost around that place and everybody else was left fighting for the scraps.