SkiAdcock
Feb 6, 08, 12:45 pm
Last week I received a call from the LA Clippers that I won their JetBlue sweepstakes. Grand prize was 2 tickets from Long Beach to JFK, 2-night stay at the Roger Smith hotel, and 2 tickets to the Knicks/Clippers game.
So I called a fellow FTer, and she & I were off for a quick 48-hour stay in the Big Apple. Bonus was being there during the Super Bowl game & watching it in an Irish sports bar w/ a bunch of Giants fans. Next day at the Knicks/Clippers game (Clippers won), some of the Giants players were there during halftime; they came straight from the airport. The local crowd went wild. Ok, back to my impressions of JB.
I'm 1K MM on UA, and she flies UA a lot as her boyfriend is UGS w/ UA. Not to sound snobbish about it, but other than 1 trip/year on TED to LAS, I can count on 2 fingers the times I've flown in E in the last 10 years, thanks to my status on UA.
So - while I was looking forward to the trip I was apprehensive about E for that length of time. But I had heard about DirecTV & more leg room. Was pleasantly surprised to find out that JB has lot of room, especially in exit row (which alas we didn't get).
Called JB to inquire about aisle seats & told only middle both directions. It might have been due to the tickets being free, but I was not able to change seat assignment online. Ok, now I'm really dreading the flights. 5 hours in E in the middle; ugh. Was told to ask at airport if any available. Got to LB quite early in torrential downpour. Noah's Ark went floating by the JB planes!
Check in counter service line went quite quickly. Didn't get aisle but at least we were close to the front. 2A/B. Not much to do at LB airport as most probably know (btw, off-site parking is a breeze there). TSA surprisingly enough seemed to take longer/more complicated than at LAX or JFK. Walked up the covered gangplank (my phrase) to the plane. They were boarding from front & rear door, but I think most people used the front door because of the covered gangplank - the back didn't have it. And it was really raining hard.
On the outbound they just had general boarding, although they said rows xx-xx use the front door & xx-xx use the rear door. On the return they boarded by rows, starting back-front.
Get on-board & settle in. I was pleasantly surprised at amount of room we had! I don't know how the seat pitch compares to UA's E+, but I was perfectly fine.
They did make announcements re: buying pillow/blanket for $5. In reading another thread on this forum, guess it's a trial. Didn't Air Canada go that route a couple of years ago?
They also announced about the various snacks, soft drinks, and booze charge (w/ cc). UA has BOB, but if you don't do that then you've got a bag of pretzels or something. I thought the varied snack options on JB beat the pretzels on UA, although UA does offer BOB meal. Never had one, so can't comment on that comparison. But I liked the dif JB snack options.
The FAs, especially on the outbound, were fabulous, friendly, and went up & down the aisle several times offering soft drinks & snacks. Wouldn't get that on UA! On the return they were fine, but not as great as the outbound crew.
Ok - let's get to the #1 reason to fly JB - DirecTV! THIS TOTALLY ROCKS!!!!!!!!!! I watched The Closer marathon episodes on the way to JFK, and on the return I kept flipping through the channels catching election coverage, and also got in an episode of NCIS & HGTV.
On the return (we did Airtrain/subway combo to/from JFK-city; quite easy), we again checked in quickly at the service counter. This time we were farther back: 17B & 17E. I'm not as thrilled about being toward the back of the plane cuz you feel the turbulance more (IMO), and we had some big bumps while heading over the storms in the midwest. But - it seemed like the seat was a bit narrower in width. For some reason it didn't seem like I could rest my elbow as comfortably as I did on the outbound when I was further near the front. Is it me, or is there a dif? Leg room was still great, but the elbow thing was really a pain.
Also, dumb us. As soon as we checked in we went upstairs & wingless got a sandwich at a small kiosk. I tried accessing JetBlue wifi while she ate, but without success. We went through TSA (very efficient) & then discovered all the eating places in the actual terminal & the middle section of wifi (which worked). Heck if we'd known all that was there we wouldn't have dwadled landside.
Because my personal headphones hadn't worked on the way out & I had used JB's regular ones, I anted up the $1 at JFK for the 'enhanced' ones for the return, which did work better than the regular ones on the outbound.
BTW - the FA when we landed at LB said feel free to take the headphones with you, as we won't be offering headphones in the future. You'll need to bring your own from home. Woah! If that's true, it better be plastered all over the reservation & a gazillion announcements made before take-off. I mean - how many folk who don't travel a lot think to bring headphones w/ them on a plane? I'd be quite cranky if I got on expecting 5 hours of DirecTV and unable to listen to it. That would make flying JB more like the legacy carriers.
Summary:
* GREAT DirecTV
* Great seat space
* Great FAs (friendly, service)
Not sure I'll be flying JetBlue in the future or much, as I'm working on my 2MM status w/ UA (and lifetime RCC membership, bennies, etc). But --- I will be singing JB's praises and recommending it to others, especially if they're not tied into one of the legacy carriers.
Cheers.
So I called a fellow FTer, and she & I were off for a quick 48-hour stay in the Big Apple. Bonus was being there during the Super Bowl game & watching it in an Irish sports bar w/ a bunch of Giants fans. Next day at the Knicks/Clippers game (Clippers won), some of the Giants players were there during halftime; they came straight from the airport. The local crowd went wild. Ok, back to my impressions of JB.
I'm 1K MM on UA, and she flies UA a lot as her boyfriend is UGS w/ UA. Not to sound snobbish about it, but other than 1 trip/year on TED to LAS, I can count on 2 fingers the times I've flown in E in the last 10 years, thanks to my status on UA.
So - while I was looking forward to the trip I was apprehensive about E for that length of time. But I had heard about DirecTV & more leg room. Was pleasantly surprised to find out that JB has lot of room, especially in exit row (which alas we didn't get).
Called JB to inquire about aisle seats & told only middle both directions. It might have been due to the tickets being free, but I was not able to change seat assignment online. Ok, now I'm really dreading the flights. 5 hours in E in the middle; ugh. Was told to ask at airport if any available. Got to LB quite early in torrential downpour. Noah's Ark went floating by the JB planes!
Check in counter service line went quite quickly. Didn't get aisle but at least we were close to the front. 2A/B. Not much to do at LB airport as most probably know (btw, off-site parking is a breeze there). TSA surprisingly enough seemed to take longer/more complicated than at LAX or JFK. Walked up the covered gangplank (my phrase) to the plane. They were boarding from front & rear door, but I think most people used the front door because of the covered gangplank - the back didn't have it. And it was really raining hard.
On the outbound they just had general boarding, although they said rows xx-xx use the front door & xx-xx use the rear door. On the return they boarded by rows, starting back-front.
Get on-board & settle in. I was pleasantly surprised at amount of room we had! I don't know how the seat pitch compares to UA's E+, but I was perfectly fine.
They did make announcements re: buying pillow/blanket for $5. In reading another thread on this forum, guess it's a trial. Didn't Air Canada go that route a couple of years ago?
They also announced about the various snacks, soft drinks, and booze charge (w/ cc). UA has BOB, but if you don't do that then you've got a bag of pretzels or something. I thought the varied snack options on JB beat the pretzels on UA, although UA does offer BOB meal. Never had one, so can't comment on that comparison. But I liked the dif JB snack options.
The FAs, especially on the outbound, were fabulous, friendly, and went up & down the aisle several times offering soft drinks & snacks. Wouldn't get that on UA! On the return they were fine, but not as great as the outbound crew.
Ok - let's get to the #1 reason to fly JB - DirecTV! THIS TOTALLY ROCKS!!!!!!!!!! I watched The Closer marathon episodes on the way to JFK, and on the return I kept flipping through the channels catching election coverage, and also got in an episode of NCIS & HGTV.
On the return (we did Airtrain/subway combo to/from JFK-city; quite easy), we again checked in quickly at the service counter. This time we were farther back: 17B & 17E. I'm not as thrilled about being toward the back of the plane cuz you feel the turbulance more (IMO), and we had some big bumps while heading over the storms in the midwest. But - it seemed like the seat was a bit narrower in width. For some reason it didn't seem like I could rest my elbow as comfortably as I did on the outbound when I was further near the front. Is it me, or is there a dif? Leg room was still great, but the elbow thing was really a pain.
Also, dumb us. As soon as we checked in we went upstairs & wingless got a sandwich at a small kiosk. I tried accessing JetBlue wifi while she ate, but without success. We went through TSA (very efficient) & then discovered all the eating places in the actual terminal & the middle section of wifi (which worked). Heck if we'd known all that was there we wouldn't have dwadled landside.
Because my personal headphones hadn't worked on the way out & I had used JB's regular ones, I anted up the $1 at JFK for the 'enhanced' ones for the return, which did work better than the regular ones on the outbound.
BTW - the FA when we landed at LB said feel free to take the headphones with you, as we won't be offering headphones in the future. You'll need to bring your own from home. Woah! If that's true, it better be plastered all over the reservation & a gazillion announcements made before take-off. I mean - how many folk who don't travel a lot think to bring headphones w/ them on a plane? I'd be quite cranky if I got on expecting 5 hours of DirecTV and unable to listen to it. That would make flying JB more like the legacy carriers.
Summary:
* GREAT DirecTV
* Great seat space
* Great FAs (friendly, service)
Not sure I'll be flying JetBlue in the future or much, as I'm working on my 2MM status w/ UA (and lifetime RCC membership, bennies, etc). But --- I will be singing JB's praises and recommending it to others, especially if they're not tied into one of the legacy carriers.
Cheers.