I know that I have not been as active as normal on here...been extremely busy, but there are still no excuses!

Now that 10/22 is finally here (^^), I figured I would star a thread for FTers to post their experiences traveling to/from/through the brand new T5 at JFK. This thread can serve as a collection of DOs, DON'Ts, tips, observations, etc...especially over the first few weeks of operations.

My parents are jetting out on 10/23 (day 2), and I will try to get some feedback...

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I'm on the AirTrain now headed in to the terminal. The PANYNJ passes the first test - the signs in the AirTrain cars are updated to reflect the T5 opening. ^

Congrats! Let us know how it is!

Freaking awesome! ^^

First off, I have to say a huge thanks to the JetBlue crewmembers that I got to meet with today. In addition to our formal meet this morning, I talked with a guy on the AirTrain and also happened upon the area where the corporate communications group was camped out. A couple of them remembered me from the tour and we chatted a bit. I even made the live blog that they are running for the opening. I also got to meet Barger.

I'll put more about that in another thread where it is more appropriate, but I do have a couple tips that I picked up wandering around this morning.

There are a bunch of outlets in the central marketplace area, but not at the tables on the ground level. There are a couple elevated stations in the space and that's where to go if you want power. The one towards gates 1-7 has about 10 outlet locations on top of the platform at the tables and there are a bunch more on the steps for folks who want to sit there. The other raised platform has way fewer outlets, though there are a few.

If you are departing from gates 1-4 or 24-27 there doesn't seem to be a lot of seating available. This was a big worry of mine and it seems that in some cases it is a problem. There is a pic in my blog post that shows how crowded that gate area was, and that was without all the gates being actively used.

Apparently the food court is having a couple small problems today with their systems. A couple just sat down next to me and said that it was a pain with a line to order, a line to pick up, a line to get drinks and a line to pay. The computers being messed up probably didn't help. It does remind me of a mid-town Manhattan deli for lunch, with a hot/cold bar, pizza, grill, pasta, etc. Hopefully they'll get the kinks worked out.

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll have more later as I continue to walk around.

One thing we complained about during the Trial was the lack of Power Outlets... It sounds like that was addressed in numbers, and thats very good to hear!

OMG it was awesome!!!!! First I got to meet in person SMB12 and JAX2BOS. What a hoot that was. Yeppers we even took pictures. I spent a good deal of my morning pointing and pointing and pointing some more. I learned where the public phones are (near gate 21, and not in operation at this moment.) My cell phone got a work out from the customers.

Roma pizza's heat of the ovens either set off the sprinkler system above their area or a sprinkle head malfuncationed. In either case JB and their crews were very quick to respond and the excitment was over before most of the customers were even aware of it.

The main thing I noticed was the length of walk from the Airtran. Please leave yourself extra timne if your coming in through the tran.

I'm currently in Washington Dc with my grandaughter, have a mini break. I'll post more after I get back to work.

Questions anyone?

Cheers

There are a lot of outlets on the raised areas in the marketplace/food court. There are zero outside of those in that area. At the gate areas there are rows of high tables where the food ordering terminals are. Those also have a ton of outlets, as shown in the picture from the T5blog crew's post. The only place there really aren't outlets is at the seats in the gate areas. The bar counters are at just about every gate, so that covers them for the most part, but you have to be willing to sit at the high tables to use them and the stools don't have backs. There are also some Samsung power stations scattered throughout the gate areas. Overall I think that there are enough outlets for people who need them, and that was one of my biggest concerns during our June walk-through.

I have been in Terminal 5 (Day after the opening) since I arrived at 7:30am on a flight in.

I will be here until I board at 11:30am and will give some updates thoughout my morning

First impression:
^ You don't have to pack! The selection of stores is completely perfect. Seriously, why pack? Everyone looks good in Lacoste, Ron Jon, and cute Muji t-shirts And a pharmacy on site. A terrific Borders.
Next impression:

^ I get it. I get the concept. I get the design. I feel functional I am eating real food, with silverware (well a fork at least), and someone just came over and took away my plate because I was done. The staff is trying. (Well at least the ones in the blue t-shirts). I truly now see the idea of trying to make this a "hometown" airport. This really suits B6, and suits New York. If more tourists arrived here, they would immediately be excited to be here.


Next impression:
^ Natural light.

Next impression:
Not enough gate seating. I share the sentiment as I wandered in the gate areas. Lots of crowds and standing around, especially near gates 1-5. More reports on gate areas later when I actually camp out near one.

Next impression:
Adventures in trying to have a cool breakfast.

Breakfast Food selection is absolutely problematic and this is NOT going to get better unless some rethinking is done, designwise and selectionwise. So B6 is clearly an operation that gets people up early to fly...(I mean jet. ) None of the sitdown places are open right now, so the marketplace area is a zoo. And for all of the research done about the psychology of passengers....wouldn't you know that the line for Dunkin' Donuts is insane? Now, granted, its not the only place serving breakfast fare, but you wouldn't know it unless the menus and stuff clearly reflected the day-part. Lots of flatscreen monitors around....they really should changed based on what is actually being served. Additionally, the sit-down places really need to be open and serving something. Even Deep Blue could do some japanese inspired miso breakfast or something. Anything to balance out the morning rush. As a mostly early morning customer, this is important to me.

So the Asian place is serving omelettes in cute plates. Well, sort of. Don't bother using their computer screen ordering system. Because they don't have all of the things on it yet (i.e. goat cheese). And even if they did, they wouldn't serve it to you (i.e. don't try ordering the asian salad as a side to your omelette, because salads won't be served with breakfast.) I also don't think they know what an omlette is. They made a veggie omlette, but then threw the uncooked but now melting cheese on top. (Its a technique I guess in some asian countries Then as I was leaving to pay (or rather dodging around the Dunkin' Donuts line people looking at my cute plate with an omlette on it wondering where I got it), I dared to see some breakfast potatoes on an open buffet station. So I arrive at the register with a receipt printed out from the Asian Food area saying I got an omlette for 3 bucks and an asian salad, but clearly I don't have the salad, and I have an item not on my receipt. This resulted in the cashier calling management trying to figure out how to even BEGIN to deal with my transaction. (I'm not complaining, I actually found the whole thing funny.) So I arbitrarily got charged about 9 bucks for the omlette, potatoes, and an OJ. I got charged 7 for the omlette (because apparently the 3 buck omelette is the one with no toppings at all), and 2 for the OJ and nothing for the potatoes which not even the manager was sure how to deal with.

More later....going to shop now ^

Retail outing successsful. I am set with reading material, and skincare

I've wandered down to the concource ending in gates 14/15. Plenty 'o stools with powerports. (I haven't ordered food from here, but am curious. But I am not hungry, and have my illy americano in hand. (Yay! Another brand I like.)

^ Powerports

Not enough comfy chairs by the big windows facing the runway

^ More food options on this hall

(at least initially). To the automated announcements for flights. There was a huge line of people waiting to get on the plane to Oakland and the announcment was "All customers should be on board at this time" in that annoying TSA lady-with-the-southern-accent voice. Announcments you can hear are good, and automation CAN be good when it comes to video screens, etc. But I just don't know...given how complicated travel can be, and how boarding is often unique to the location , load, experience of the travelers given the destination.....I just don't know if this is the right move.

Next update is at 10:30, and one final one at 11:30. If anyone is on and has questions, I am happy to do some exploration research.

I agree about not enough seats facing the view at the end of the central pier; I have a picture I need to post later today of that. I am curious if they have worked out the kinks of the food ordering tool. They were functioning yesterday but the bars didn't have all the supplies necessary to actually prep the orders.

Also, at one point while I was at that end of the terminal yesterday we had overlapping announcements for gates 14 and 16. Out of one ear I was listening to a final boarding call for MCO and out of the other ear we were starting boarding for OAK. I can see how that has some potential for confusion. And I'd imagine that the 1-4 area and 24-27 area have potential for similar problems.

Gates 1-5 look less crowded now.

^ The gateside touchscreen order food thing works ^ ^ My drink and panini sandwich are packed for my transcon flight. In fact, I tried to just order at the counter, but the counterperson told me to use the screen, because I wanted to order a bottled drink, which she wasn't actually selling at her station. So, assuming full functionality, you might actually be better off using the screens. Deliveriy time: About 10 minutes.

^ The pharmacy. So right now the pharmacy seems to be able to accept insurance from B6 crewmembers. Interestingly, 2 wandered in while I was there and didn't even know they were getting a pharmacy. This seems like a great workplace efficiency benefit for them. As for the rest of us: For now, the pharmacy register worker explained that they are working on accepting all major insurance plans. In the short term, since they expect no problem, she said they would fill scripts and charge the customer the going co-pay rate, effectively taking the risk for the time being that the insurance might be denied. (I have my doubts, but if this is what they are doing, this is excellent and a good way to start a positive relationship with customers.) Try the samples while you are there of the homeopathic lozenges and stuff.

Another automated gate tidbit. So the flight to Houston was boarding, but the screens said Ft. Lauderdale, and to top it off, it was hard to hear any announcements near gate 15. Aside from the technical issues, I continue to think it would be nice to hear friendly happy voices over PAs near gates. I don't think that minimizes the sense of automated technology funness that this terminal nurtures.

All-in-all: ^ Its been a great morning. I am sure Day 1 was fun, but it was kind of neat to spend some extended time here on the first-sort-of-regular day. I hope things continue in a positive direction.

I flew JFK-RDU on 10/20 out of T6 and PANYNJ had already updated the road signs to say that B6 was out of T5, so those are up-to-date now too.

Review of my second experience with the new terminal. My first encounter was as a connecting passenger. This next experience was as an originating customer.

Specifically, my concerns that T5 is not friendly to those flying out early morning holds true. I arrived at the terminal exactly 2 hours prior to take-off in the early AM.

Walk from AirTrain: I am physically fit, and able to walk, but even so it struck me as just a bit too long. I acknowledge that those who use the AirTrain have been shown by B6 to be a minority. I wouldn't be surprised if we also are the crowd more likely to pay less per ticket. Nevertheless, I do wonder what the cost of some faster type of people mover system might have been.

Check-In: ^ I liked that there was a kiosk right at the top of the escalator/stairs before going down to the ground floor.

Elevator/Escalator from the Airtrain level to the check-in level: The morning I was there the escalator(s) was running up only, now down, forcing me to wait for a very slow elevator. Stupid planning.

Security: The line was longer than in the old terminal. While this would be expected (with only one line rather than two entryways into the security area), the problem was that the set-up was even slower than before. Finally when I got to the front of the line, on the left side, I was told I should work myself (and my luggage) all the way over to the right side, because the lines were shorter there to get through an x-ray machine. The process was clumsy, and I felt that the process was more stressful than before. They advertise all of the security lines in the new terminal, but TSA has decided not to use most of them.

I think I might suggest that they have a dedicated line for people who did self-check in of some kind. I got stuck behind way too many people who did bizzare novice things like try to walk through an x-ray machine carrying items in their bin All-in-all, by the time I got through security, I had lost a good 45 minutes I normally would have had to spend in the new terminal

Food court: The Dunkin' Donuts line continues to be long and silly. Once again, nothing about the other vendors signals "we have breakfast food". Maybe they could set up a moble coffee stand somewhere in the center of the terminal? Another thing: Now that the items on the breakfast buffet have been priced (as opposed to the arbitrary but reasonable pricing from the days after the opening) , I can officially say they are a rip-off. A breakfast sandwhich and an orange juice bottle were run up for 11 bucks. Since the sit-down places are closed, and the food court isn't set up for early-morning travelers, its something to just avoid altogether the next time.

Gate area experience: Loud. There are TVs blasting, gate announcements from every direction, and clearly the decision is not to have human voices and stick with the automated announcements. It got me thinking: Couldn't they have maybe a different automated voice for different gates? Thats part of the problem. When the TSA-lady voice is coming from different directions, they all tend to sound like one announcement. Also strange: The day after election day and the TV at my gate is not on CNN, FOX, or MSNBC, but an episode of the silly teen-sitcom "Saved By The Bell".

Overall: Very sadly underwhelmed. Its a nice terminal, but who has time or the quiet needed to enjoy some of it? A connecting passenger with a long layover who doesn't need to go through security might enjoy it, but definitely not the early-morning NYC traveler.

I will not be back in T5 until February. Hopefully it gets better, but I am not going to count on it.

I have only been through T-5 for departure not for arrival since my latest B6 trip was to SXM and we returned to T-4.

My initial impression is that it is new, bigger and generally much more pleasant than T-6. The one true plus is no temporary terminal requiring the world's shortest bus ride.

But it is, surprisingly, not a home run.

My biggest gripe is security which, amazingly, seemed slower than at T-6. Again, I have only been through security at T-5 once but I always marveled at the speed and efficiency of security at T-6 which does not seem to have carried over at T-5.

I am not an airport shopper so while airport shopping selection appears substantial that is a non-issue for me.

Food court selection appears more limited than T-6. Lines were long and it was very crowded with confusing and tight spaces. Not an improvement in my book.

Gate areas are far nicer, of course, although the one significant improvement is wider hallways, not more gate seating.

Architecturally I was frankly expecting more. I was not really wowed and felt as if I was in a 90's terminal.

When I used the W/C it also seemed that many of the implements were not new. Were any items purchased used or brought over from T-6?

Overall it was fine but I was not blown away.

P.S.: Upon return at T-4, we experienced horrid delays, from a blocked gate to waiting half an hour to be towed into the gate then for the jetway operator to show up. Finally, baggage was delivered with at a glacial pace. I realize that T-4 is not operated by B6, and I overheard the fa/s complain about the chronic problems arriving as T-4.

My quick rundown (for the most part, echoes what other FTer are saying):

^ Departures roadway...you can actually see open spaces around the curve, just as promised! Most definitely helps with the flow of traffic.

Revolving doors...I don't know if it's just me, but they are slow and they stop randomly.

^ Restrooms

^ Announcements are now very clear - I like the computerized voice for boarding
Sometimes announcements at a nearby gate blend in with one at your gate...still overall, a MAJOR improvement from the old terminal

^ Lighting

^ Space

^ Aircraft activity at the end!!!

Seating...I knew this would be a problem from the beginning. 100 seats/gate is not ideal when a good number of flights operate on 150-seat aircraft. Sure, not every flight is full, but it would still be nice to have ample seating

^ Flight info screens

^ Security...yes, I give this a thumbs up. The TSA personnel actually seem HAPPY! Maybe it's the natural lighting or something. Also, I talked to one of the screeners who said that they will be introducing the color-coded lanes soon over there. That should definitely help out.

^ Variety of food/retail options

Service at 'fast food' locations...TOO slow for an airport where people are in a hurry! I hope to experience the nice, full-service restaurants soon, but most of the time, I am in and out...and my experience, at least over at Boars Head, was subpar.

Overall, T5 is an awesome building...just needs a few minor tweaks here and there.