Any way to force a connection?
 

JetBlue's new 38" pitch has me interested in flying SEA to SYR on May 9. However, the online reservations (and on the phone too, at least at this late hour) will not allow me to book anything other than a red eye. I can't take a red eye, as I'm traveling with my kids. There is a 9am flight to JFK, which lands at 5:15pm. The next flight to SYR isn't until 10:55pm. I'm fine with waiting until then, but at first attempt it seems like will not allow this long connection, and want me to pay for the legs separately (which adds lots of money). I was surprised that they couldn't force a connection on the phone, and were willing to lose the business rather than do it. Has anyone had any success in doing this, or other suggestions?

Thanks.

Not really, no. Crewmembers can build connections that don't already exist, but they can't sell them as a connection. This is mostly used for IROP situations. You may have luck if you book the red-eye connection as is, and go standby.

But outright forcing a new connection to purchase, you can't. :(

Strangely, JetBlue is very strict in enforcing the 4 hour connection rule for flights. Most other carriers do 4 hours or the next available flight. JetBlue seems to just do 4 hours. It is interesting that they'd give up the revenue, but at least they're consistent in the way they do it. ;)

Depends on who you talk to... 1800JETBLUE people are pretty strict with the connection rules. But, if you go to the airport, buy it from the ticket counter, not only would an airport agent be more than happy to build a connection, but you could probably talk your way out of the booking fee due to the impossibility to book it online.

If anything else, PM me with details and I'll see what I can do.

(Just a warning though: JFK T6 isn't a very fun place to spend 5 or so hours... especially with kids)

Thanks for the help. My fault I couldn't take advantage, because I was impatient :-)
I booked the SEA-JFK and am driving from there.

I definitely would not have spent the 5 hours in T6 (although my son would have been happy to watch sports the whole time). I think I would have left the airport and come back. I have a couple of restaurants on Long Island for which I am compelled to review their French Onion Soup for my blog. (http://www.theonionsoup.com)

You know that it is a ~5 hour drive, right???

I don't have the flights in front of me but what about ROC or even BUF? That drive would be ALOT shorter than driving from JFK to SYR

Yeah, that daytime flight from SEA can be connected to a ROC flight (~3:30 hr layover) arriving at 10:24pm for $204 pp (as opposed to the $149pp to JFK), or to a BUF flight (~1:20 hr layover) arriving at 8.23pm for $344pp.

Driving distances (from google maps):
JFK-SYR - 277 miles (4:44)
ROC-SYR - 93.6 miles (1:35)
BUF-SYR - 144 miles (2:21)

Arrival times in SYR (assuming on time flights):
JFK - 5:15pm + 4:44 = 9:59PM
ROC - 10:24pm + 1:35 = 11:59PM
BUF - 8:23pm + 2:21 = 10:44PM

Remember to add in time for getting your baggage, getting out of the airport, getting a rental car, etc (which would be more in JFK also due to it's size and traffic in NYC).

Also, don't forget to add the costs of gas driving up to SYR from JFK (183.4 more miles than from ROC), and I would think the ROC flight would be the best option for you - you'd get into Syracuse about the same time you were willing to when trying to force the connection, it's cheaper than the red-eye connection to SYR that day (by $60pp), and only $55pp more than the JFK flight, some of which you'll make up by driving less.

Of course, now that you've already booked it, it'll be $105pp more (with a change fee of $40), so that might discourage you from changing.

*I'm also partial to ROC because that's my home airport for the time being...and if you're looking for some good french onion soup, The Distillery in Rochester, according to my GF, is pretty damn good.

The OP is looking at trying to do the Whitestone and GW bridges at 6:30pm by the time they get their bags, monorail to the rental car and get the car. Traffic at that point has the potential to be pretty bad. I would add an hour to the Google drive times for the traffic to get over to I-80 in NJ.

Oh, gosh. Rush hour traffic in going away from JFK!?! That is a nightmare in itself. You can catch it with zero delays on a really good day or two and half hours on a really bad day, not to mention that its as predictable as when then time I'm going to sneeze is. Also, if the traffic is bad enough going over the GWB, you also take the Grand Central to the Triboro and head up the Major Degan (aka Rt 87 North) up through Yonkers and White Plains and go over the Tappan Zee Bridge which leaves you on the NY State Thruway.

This routing leaves you pretty far north, and then you're stuck taking the Thruway around the long way to SYR or going via Rte. 17, which is not an interstate and will slow things down. Either of those options will add an hour or two onto the drive time.

I drive NYC to ITH every now and then, and the drive isn't bad, but I'd hate doing it after flying a transcon.

Rt. 17 isn't officially an interstate, but it's still a 2 or 3 lane highway with speed limits of 65, and is currently being updated to interstate standards to become I-86. This is the routing I take when I drive up to ROC (GWB to Palisades to Rt. 6 to Rt 17 to I-81) and seems to be much less variability with traffic than I-80 would be.

And yes - leaving JFK at 6ish on a Friday night is just asking for trouble, and sbm12 is right to add another hour or so onto the google driving times for this.

Not all crewmembers can "build" connections. The only one's that CAN are supervisors. Crewmembers during IROPs can move people to newly built connections, but only after a supervisor, system operations, or crew support has built them. Additionally, it would be very difficult for a supervisor to create a reservation with a forced connection as they would have to appropriate assign fare classes which is something that would most likely have to go through Salt Lake...

Very good points. I've decided to stay in White Plains for the night and leave late morning for Syracuse. I'll drive into the city for dinner Thursday night (mostly against traffic) and up to Westchester after rush hour is over.

Btw, Route 17 does move very quickly. I went to graduate school at Syracuse.

Any changes in policy on this? Now I'm trying to book SEA-BGI, so driving won't be an option ;-)