geckoflyer
Jan 16, 03, 11:38 am
Instead of just the flight info, I decided to write more detail about my entire experience flying JetBlue. I figure this might be helpful for those people who are considering giving JetBlue a try. For those of you who fly JetBlue often, this might get annoying...
JetBlue Airways Flt # 41
JFK-MCO 9:00am-11:45am
Airport
JetBlue flies from Terminal 6 out of JFK. Terminal 6 is a worn and obviously aged building. JetBlue is the only carrier out of this terminal. Currently, American Airlines is totally redoing Terminal 5 and no flights use those gates. This made the traffic a little more bearable directly around the JetBlue terminal entrance road - but for those of you who fly out of JFK - it was its usual mess.
Check-In
The check-in line at the terminal was rather long, but moved very quickly. One of the things that keeps the line moving is an automated system to inform the person in the front of the line when an agent becomes available. It chirps away "The next person see position number XX" or something similar. Small signs over each position mark the position number.
I was originally scheduled to fly later in the day but JetBlue has a free sameday stand-by policy so I decided to use it. Upon checking in I was informed that I (and my travel partner) were #3 & #4 on the list and that eight seats remained open. No problems.
One interesting thing to note is that JetBlue gave us little slips of paper (like cash register receipt paper almost) as boarding passes instead of the normal paper boarding passes used by most airlines.
Security
Upon check-in we were asked to follow a JetBlue employee to the TSA screeners so they could go through our bags. They only ended up going through one of our bags and then the screener said "that's good enough". Off we ran to the security checkpoint. (20 minutes to flight time and ticking)
The security checkpoint is rather small and dirty looking. There's two screening stations and about five or six people in each. We jumped in the left lane and waited about ten minutes to get through. (The right lane went a lot faster.) Next it was off to the gate...
Gate
We waited at the counter while everyone boarded knowing they wouldn't put standy-by passengers on until the end. Just like any other airline they board by row number. After everyone that was confirmed boarded, we were told that everyone cleared the stand-by list and picked up our new seat assignments. Second Row middle & aisle seats... sounds great.
Boarding
Boarding was done much faster than other flights on A320's I've been on. The FA's stand in different parts of the plane to assist people in stowing luggage and getting seated ASAP. It reminds me of boarding a Southwest plane without the cattle-call - it goes by really quickly. We boarded an almost packed flight in less than 20 minutes (about 17).
No sooner did we sit down and get our seatbelts fasted and the door was shut. The FA's then give the typical pre-flight announcements. One thing that I noticed was that they included a line about the cockpit door being reinforced and locked and that only the pilots could open it. I've heard this on other airlines - but they emphasized it.
At this point, we're already being pushed back - and then we hear we're number two for takeoff (not bad).
In-Flight
The in-flight atmosphere on a JetBlue flight is unlike any other airline I've flown. Granted, we were flying to Disney - the family vacation headquarters...but I'm not talking about children screaming. It's more like a relaxed social party. People talk back and forth (not loudly) and converse about what's on TV. Every seat has a small DirecTV unit with controls on the armrest for channel, volume, and brightness. The system was activated as we were still on the ground.
What is nice about this IFE system is that there's no big box coming out of the floor at your feet. Other systems require a small box that sometimes gets in the way of feet & carry-ons. The only annoyance with the IFE is that every time the plane banks more than about 20-25 degrees the signal is lost. A nice little message about "nomal plane movement" disrupting the signal appears during these times (maybe 3 or 4 times throughout the flight).
There's no food service - but every flight has a beverage and snack service. Beverages were the average - nothing special. Coke, sprite, the diets, Orange, Tomato, "Spicey Tomato", Coffee, Tea and Water (I may have missed a couple). Snacks were great though. No little mini-packages. They had Blue Chips (they didn't taste as good as regular chips), Chocolate Cookies, Chocolate Biscotti, Bagel Mix (highly recommended), Cheese Fish things (just like Goldfish), and I'm thinking one more that I left out. They had no problem with giving out more than one to a person as well (including the drinks).
Baggage
Considering we went stand-by and got to the counter a bit late - JetBlue did a great job with our bags. They came just as expected! (My last non-JetBlue flight landed me with no bag at all)
Having just purchased new luggage - it would have been easy to tell if they were damaged. Not even a scratch.
FF Program
JetBlue doesn't use a standard miles-based FF system. They use points which add up to a free flight (called TrueBlue Flight Gratitude). A free flight is 100 points. For this flight, I received the base 4 points plus double points b/c I booked on the web - for a total of 8 points. Instead of boring you with this same mess for the return flight - I got another 8 there landing me 16 for the r/t.
JetBlue Airways Flt # 48
MCO-JFK 12:25pm-2:45pm
Instead of going through the same things step-by-step I'll just highlight some of the differences.
First, we received paper boarding cards this time instead of the receipt-paper kind.
On the way to the airport we called the res. line to see what other flights out there were before ours. When we told her we were about 15 minutes outside of the airport she called the airport manager directly and informed them we would be coming and to expect us a little bit late. This allowed us to forego the 2 1/2 hour wait in MCO. Because they were expecting us they rushed us to the front of the line, gave us our boarding passes, and sent us on our way in no time flat.
This flight was significantly quieter than the last flight. I am not sure why as JetBlue only flies A320's - but the first flight had a loud ringing noise coming from the engines the entire flight. The FAs didn't bat a wink at all - so I wasn't concerned.
On this second flight, we were given exit row seats with plenty of legroom. For the first time ever, the FA came over to each one of us and made us give her a verbal "yes" to accepting the "responsibility of sitting in those seats". She even asked each person to review the safety card.
Same great service on the way back. All in all, given the money savings and the direct flight - we made out great.
[edited to add]
[This message has been edited by chrislacey (edited 01-16-2003).]
JetBlue Airways Flt # 41
JFK-MCO 9:00am-11:45am
Airport
JetBlue flies from Terminal 6 out of JFK. Terminal 6 is a worn and obviously aged building. JetBlue is the only carrier out of this terminal. Currently, American Airlines is totally redoing Terminal 5 and no flights use those gates. This made the traffic a little more bearable directly around the JetBlue terminal entrance road - but for those of you who fly out of JFK - it was its usual mess.
Check-In
The check-in line at the terminal was rather long, but moved very quickly. One of the things that keeps the line moving is an automated system to inform the person in the front of the line when an agent becomes available. It chirps away "The next person see position number XX" or something similar. Small signs over each position mark the position number.
I was originally scheduled to fly later in the day but JetBlue has a free sameday stand-by policy so I decided to use it. Upon checking in I was informed that I (and my travel partner) were #3 & #4 on the list and that eight seats remained open. No problems.
One interesting thing to note is that JetBlue gave us little slips of paper (like cash register receipt paper almost) as boarding passes instead of the normal paper boarding passes used by most airlines.
Security
Upon check-in we were asked to follow a JetBlue employee to the TSA screeners so they could go through our bags. They only ended up going through one of our bags and then the screener said "that's good enough". Off we ran to the security checkpoint. (20 minutes to flight time and ticking)
The security checkpoint is rather small and dirty looking. There's two screening stations and about five or six people in each. We jumped in the left lane and waited about ten minutes to get through. (The right lane went a lot faster.) Next it was off to the gate...
Gate
We waited at the counter while everyone boarded knowing they wouldn't put standy-by passengers on until the end. Just like any other airline they board by row number. After everyone that was confirmed boarded, we were told that everyone cleared the stand-by list and picked up our new seat assignments. Second Row middle & aisle seats... sounds great.
Boarding
Boarding was done much faster than other flights on A320's I've been on. The FA's stand in different parts of the plane to assist people in stowing luggage and getting seated ASAP. It reminds me of boarding a Southwest plane without the cattle-call - it goes by really quickly. We boarded an almost packed flight in less than 20 minutes (about 17).
No sooner did we sit down and get our seatbelts fasted and the door was shut. The FA's then give the typical pre-flight announcements. One thing that I noticed was that they included a line about the cockpit door being reinforced and locked and that only the pilots could open it. I've heard this on other airlines - but they emphasized it.
At this point, we're already being pushed back - and then we hear we're number two for takeoff (not bad).
In-Flight
The in-flight atmosphere on a JetBlue flight is unlike any other airline I've flown. Granted, we were flying to Disney - the family vacation headquarters...but I'm not talking about children screaming. It's more like a relaxed social party. People talk back and forth (not loudly) and converse about what's on TV. Every seat has a small DirecTV unit with controls on the armrest for channel, volume, and brightness. The system was activated as we were still on the ground.
What is nice about this IFE system is that there's no big box coming out of the floor at your feet. Other systems require a small box that sometimes gets in the way of feet & carry-ons. The only annoyance with the IFE is that every time the plane banks more than about 20-25 degrees the signal is lost. A nice little message about "nomal plane movement" disrupting the signal appears during these times (maybe 3 or 4 times throughout the flight).
There's no food service - but every flight has a beverage and snack service. Beverages were the average - nothing special. Coke, sprite, the diets, Orange, Tomato, "Spicey Tomato", Coffee, Tea and Water (I may have missed a couple). Snacks were great though. No little mini-packages. They had Blue Chips (they didn't taste as good as regular chips), Chocolate Cookies, Chocolate Biscotti, Bagel Mix (highly recommended), Cheese Fish things (just like Goldfish), and I'm thinking one more that I left out. They had no problem with giving out more than one to a person as well (including the drinks).
Baggage
Considering we went stand-by and got to the counter a bit late - JetBlue did a great job with our bags. They came just as expected! (My last non-JetBlue flight landed me with no bag at all)
Having just purchased new luggage - it would have been easy to tell if they were damaged. Not even a scratch.
FF Program
JetBlue doesn't use a standard miles-based FF system. They use points which add up to a free flight (called TrueBlue Flight Gratitude). A free flight is 100 points. For this flight, I received the base 4 points plus double points b/c I booked on the web - for a total of 8 points. Instead of boring you with this same mess for the return flight - I got another 8 there landing me 16 for the r/t.
JetBlue Airways Flt # 48
MCO-JFK 12:25pm-2:45pm
Instead of going through the same things step-by-step I'll just highlight some of the differences.
First, we received paper boarding cards this time instead of the receipt-paper kind.
On the way to the airport we called the res. line to see what other flights out there were before ours. When we told her we were about 15 minutes outside of the airport she called the airport manager directly and informed them we would be coming and to expect us a little bit late. This allowed us to forego the 2 1/2 hour wait in MCO. Because they were expecting us they rushed us to the front of the line, gave us our boarding passes, and sent us on our way in no time flat.
This flight was significantly quieter than the last flight. I am not sure why as JetBlue only flies A320's - but the first flight had a loud ringing noise coming from the engines the entire flight. The FAs didn't bat a wink at all - so I wasn't concerned.
On this second flight, we were given exit row seats with plenty of legroom. For the first time ever, the FA came over to each one of us and made us give her a verbal "yes" to accepting the "responsibility of sitting in those seats". She even asked each person to review the safety card.
Same great service on the way back. All in all, given the money savings and the direct flight - we made out great.
[edited to add]
[This message has been edited by chrislacey (edited 01-16-2003).]