I am and have been Executive Platinum at American Airlines for the past three years as I travel for work from DFW to pretty much everywhere, especially the east coast. Last week my wife and I took a cruise out of NYC to Canada but first had to stop off in South Carolina to drop off our daughter our parent's house. We flew AA from DFW-GSP.

To get up to the NYC area, we decided to take JetBlue as they had a nice early morning flight out of Charlotte, a 90 minute drive from the Greenville, SC area. We checked in at the JetBlue counter in Charlotte and then headed through security to our gate. JetBlue only has one gate at CLT so it was a piece of cake compared to those poor folks flying US Airways. Checkin was very simple and I like the kiosk as much or even better than American's. I didn't see an option to standby for another flight so I'm not sure if this feature is available at this time or not. It didn't make a difference on the outbound side of the trip anyway.

We boarded a few minutes early. The process was very smooth onto the E190. To cut to the chase, from a fellow super long time AA flyer, here are my observations:

PROS vs. AA:

• New aircraft
• Very friendly flight attendants who really look like they love their jobs, similar to Southwest.
• Free snack
• The DirecTV and XM are simply wonderful. Enough said. Just fantastic!!!!
• More leg room. Brings back memories of AA MRTC.
• Free headsets
• Hot tub in bathroom

Where AA is better (especially for business travelers):

• First class seat upgrades
• DC Powerports
• Priority boarding for elites
• First class line to check bags

I'll tell you what, for leisure travel and for carryon only business travel under two hours each way, I am very impressed with JetBlue. They have an outstanding product in my opinion.

By the way, am I crazy to be disappointed once we landed as the live TV was fantastic?

GREAT JOB JETBLUE!!!!!

Mike