What boarding process does JetBlue use?
 

How does the boarding procecss on JetBlue work? Is it by row number from back to front in small groups, a free for all, etc.? Did a search, but couldn't find an answer. Thank you.

Normal boarding from back to front , usually in groups of 6-8 rows at a time. The FA's will help you move luggage up to the bins usually and boarding is usually a bit faster than my flights on UA/CO where the FA's sit and watch you struggle with luggage.

They actually will board from the center out if using rear boarding also (stairs), otherwise from back to front, with pre boards first.

Recently, I was sitting in an overwing row (11) but boarded near the end of the boarding process. I was going to put my bag over row 5, but the FA assured me that "there was lots more space toward the back." I believed her (instead of my own eyes) and ended up having to inconvenice some people by rearranging their luggage over my row. Even though these people had daftly (and selfishly) placed coats and awkwardly shaped items in the overhead bin instead of under the seats in front of them, I felt bad having to rearrange this stuff so that my regular sized rollaboard would fit.

Moral of the story: don't believe the FA when told "lots more room" at the back, if your eyes tell you something to the contrary.

I recently flew jetBlue BOS-LAS r/t. On both trips, they boarded the place in two groups, starting with the rear half of the plane. I forget where the cutoff was but I was in Row 19, which was in the first group and my friend in Row 15 had to wait for the second group to be called.

My experience has also been back to front.

Mark one more for back to front. In my experience, boarding with them has gone well with FA's actually being helpful.

I think boarding has now changed. On JFK-SEA and SEA-JFK last weekend, boarding was done all-at-once, right after special-needs boarding.

It will really depends which airport you're flying from....long beach for example is much more likely to board from the front and rear of the plane whereas if you're using a jetbridge, you're more likely to only board from the front of the plane.

Yeah it was pretty weird, they did preboarding then they just did a general boarding call both on my recent ROC-JFK and JFK-ROC flights. They actually did front and back boarding in ROC which was pretty unusual. I liked it better when they did the back to front when there's only one jetway... but whatever works :)

In FLL and PBI, I have experienced boarding AND deplaning thorugh the front and rear...rows 1-13, front / rows 14-26, rear. In SEA they deplaned through both doors but only boarded through the front on the jetbridge. JFK usually boards from the back to front however 2 weeks ago they boarded all rows at once. I'm flying to FLL tomorrow morning and I'll post what type of boarding they do in JFK.

We only board by groups in cities that we dual board (board from the front and back). Every other time we board all rows at once. It's part of the new system, instead of boarding be sections or rows we just announce all rows. In all actuallity, boarding does seem to go quicker this way and our planes are usually ready to depart 10 minutes early when we board 30 minutes prio to departure.

At RSW: First they call for anyone in a wheelchair, then those with small children or those who want extra time to get situated on the plane, then they take the last rows downstairs to the tarmac and up into the rear of the plane while boarding the front of the plane using the jetway.

At EWR: Same as RSW except they board the rear and front of the plane using the jetway at the same time.

Jetblue is boarding all row's at one time. First come, first serve!!! They're finding this works efficiently and faster then boarding from Rows 26 to 1. They started this about 2months ago & finding it to be a success.

This change has been extremely annoying. Boarding an E190 is now like Southwest, only less organized and more unpleasant. Anyone who wants overhead space has to start crowding the gate as soon as they call pre-boarding, which prompts rude and ineffective announcements from the GA telling people to sit back down. (At least this is how it works at IAD. Maybe it's great at other airports.)