Hi, I read that JetBlue added a new temporary gate facility that is accessed by shuttle bus only. That seems like a schlep! Has anyone used it? How does it work? Do you clear security in the main terminal and then the bus boards after security? What kind of buses are there? Do you need to take the bus back to baggage claim? What's customer reaction like to the need to add an addition step to your travel -- a bus ride?

Pretty sure you're refering to this article here:

http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/news.html?d=100020

it's a big bus with many wheels a speedy engine that moves a good number of people. I've been bused to a plane many a times in the past, I've had to walk across the tarmac. Do you want someone to roll out the red carpet or something? OOoo, how about a moving walkway that takes you to the plane's doors?

The article says it's an extension of Terminal 6, where everything is handled so it'll be the same old security, unless they get special scanners installed on the bus doors

edited: to remove hotlink.

sulsk, you get worse each day - why don't you go find something better to do already!?

Seems like a schlep??? I'll tell you what IS, not just seems, a schlep: when I arrived JFK on AA the other day in the new terminal 9, the walk from my gate down to baggage claim...now that was a schlep! And a very long one, with bags and all might I add.

JetBlue's new 7-gate facility is TEMPORARY...just as you mentioned. It is being used only for 2 years max while the new terminal 5 (TWA landmark) is being constructed - which will be an awesome facility! It will serve mostly E190 flights, however it's capable of handling A320's as well.

If you think a 90-second shuttle bus is a schlep, you are mistaken...a very hard customer to please at the same time. PLEASE, sulsk, do not use the Yiddish language any more - for you to associate the word schlep in the same sentence of 90-seconds, you give people the false definition. A schlep is more like how far you need to walk in airports like DFW or ATL.

Oh, and from what I heard so far - customers love the new 7-gate temp. facility.

Geessh, people, I wasn't being antagonistic, I only was curious about it. I just love flying and airports, and I wanted to get a feel for having to take a bus to a temporary facility because it sounded cool. NYFL, you have a lot of chutzpah to tell me to not to use Yiddish. I'm not as much of a nudnik as you all think. Sure, I like to K'vetch, but I'm not meshugine, I just have high-expectations. In fact, I've been called a mentsch.

HAHA. Can we call a truce?

Justin, I don't thave a problem with you - I have a problem with your attitude on this forum. And, I think everyone else does as well. You come on the board of an airline you obviously dislike, which you are more than entitled to, and you bash that airline nonstop! JetBlue is not perfect; but they do, in my view and millions of others, do things much better than their competition. It's too bad you've only experienced them on JFK-BOS a few times...the point is that's why there is vanilla and chocolate...pick what you like. Fly Delta and I'll fly jetBlue.

You sure like to k'vetch an awful lot. I don't blame you for having high expectations - my view on business in general is when you're a customer, you should receive a quality product and service for the price you pay. And, when something goes wrong, the company should rectify the issue to the best of their ability. And that is just what you got from jetBlue - but you are still not satisfied with it.

Listen, like JBJFKFL said, I also have no problem with you, in fact, most of your other posts with other airlines are normal civilized ones. It's just that you come on here, and rant and rage on about JB in every post that you produce on this forum. It just seems that you have an everlasting grudge against them, becuase they refused to compensate you for more than you actually paid for the ticket, for a couple minor (in the long run of things) problems.

Yes, JetBlue has their problems, and yes I mainly fly Delta just so I can earn the status, however, JetBlue still treats me well with comp'ed flights (as an Incentive through CompanyBlue), and sometimes, when I am stuck on an old Delta jet, I yearn for one of JB's brand new planes, with their big leather seats and live TV. Main point is, that no airline is completely perfect, and they all have their problems.

Well... at least its a bus and not a walk to the plane... speaking of bus... sounds alot like IAD back in the days! I heard theres even some decent places to eat at the new temp terminal and jet bridges... alot better than parking planes on the tarmac and have you walk to it... ala lgb. (Not saying I dont like LGB, I love that airport, its soo retro! just I wouldn't want to be doing that in a NY winter)

I used the temporary gate facility on Friday 06/02. Very clean, very pleasant. Security is at the main terminal. The bus ride lasts about 30 seconds which takes you right to baggage claim.

Buses are essentially non-stop.

Is it ideal? No. But as other posters have said it's actually quite a bit more convenient than many other "permanent" airport terminals (DFW, IAH, and the outer gates of EWR Term C come to mind).

And it's actually less of a schlep thanks to the buses (some of you TWA old-timers might recall the old T-6 to T-5 connection routine which was only possible on the el cheapo walkway TWA built in the 80's)

It's also temporary until jetBlue's new T-5 opens in 2008.

I miss TWA.... good thing jetBlue was just getting started when TWA was bought out by American. Was going between TWA and jetBlue than pretty much jumped over to jetBlue after trying out American... they enlimited alot of what made TWA awesome... anyways... that was a bit off topic! haha.

When B6 opens the new T-5, will they operate out of both T-5 & T-6 or will everything be only out of the new terminal?

My understanding is that when the new terminal is complete, they will knock down T6 and either leave room to add gates or make hardstands.

To continue digressing for just a bit, yes TWA was great. And I agree with you that jetBlue has taken TWA's mantle as the true innovator in the airline business, as an airline committed to providing a better, more pleasant experience for the passenger.

It is indeed appropriate that Eero Saarinen's T-5 (originally the TWA Flight Center) should become jetBlue's home base terminal.

I love jetBlue and I hope they thrive. They have already had a huge effect on the airline business, as demonstrated by UA's introduction of E+ and now Delta's announcement that they will reconfigure their coach cabins to be more spacious in the vein of jetBlue.

I don't know about the new temporary gates being convenient or not but the construction going on that made us 1 hour delayed when the pilot took the wrong approach to the runway and got stuck in a dead end was definitely inconvenient.

The pilot announced that it was the tower that send us the wrong way, but you make your own judgements. Basically he explained that due to the fact that JFK is getting ready for the arrival of the new Airbus A380 some approaches are getting modified to accomodate it. Hense we spend an hour in a construction zone waiting for the Port Authority to escort the tow across an active runway to push us back to the gate so we can try taking off again.

--Russ

I dont know about you but if I was a pilot and the tower / atc tells me to do something, I'll do it. If all the pilots make their own judgements, we're all... umm, screwed? (in general, but there may be some exceptions... but I think the tower would know more about what runways are open and close better than a pilot, so I can see why they listened)