Any experiences with jetBlue at IAD?
 

I'm trying to book a New Year's trip to Ft. Lauderdale and was disappointed to find out all award travel on American is booked during that weekend. I noticed jetBlue has recently launched non-stop service to FLL and I'm now considering them as an alternative. I've heard many positive things about jetBlue but still a little apprehensive since they are new to IAD. Has anyone flown with them out of IAD yet? Do they have their own check-in post or do they share with another airline? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

This doesn't address your question, but just so you know how award travel works, depending on your travel dates, it's possible that award seats were never available since the holidays are high season for cruises out of FLL and most of the low fares go to the cruise operators on certain days of the week. Add to that schedule reductions post-9/11 and that doesn't leave any seats for non-rev due to capacity controls.

Sheryl, award tickets are not non-rev. They're revenue at a 100% discount.

Thanks for once again correcting my semantics, JS. Why don't you try adding something that has value? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I'm not trying to be petty but isn't non-rev pretty self-explanatory. Non revenue is just that, not generating revenue. A free ticket of any type would fall into that category. One wouldn't refer to a free award ticket user, though, as a "non-rev" traveler. They are not subject to being bumped as a non-rev, nor do they travel stand by. Is that what you mean by an award ticket not being non-rev?

There are two reasons. One is that non-rev is usually standby (except company directors on official business or something like that), and of course there is a difference between having a confirmed seat and flying standby, as we all know.

Secondly, an award ticket is a product of the frequent flyer program, which exists solely as a marketing tool, not an entitlement program. Employee travel is an entitlement, in exchange for lower wages. An employee who flies for free does not help the airline in any way. A customer who flies for free does help the airline, because that person must buy airline tickets first.

The FF deal is: you fly our airline, we'll give you free tickets. With no FF program, the airline sells fewer tickets. Even WN, the famous no-frills airline, offers what is definitely a "frill", namely free tickets (and a lot more of them than on the other airlines). The free ticket is paid for by prior purchases that wouldn't have been made were it not for the FF program.


Sheryl, there's nothing wrong with admitting you've made a mistake. I've admitted to making mistakes myself; try it, it's not so bad.

Using that logic one could say that an employee does actually help the airline. Let's face it, the lure of free airline travel is what gets people to take these jobs in many cases. Without that they would have far fewer people willing to work for "lower wages". Without employees willing to work for these wages they wouldn't be able to afford to operate the way they do currently, offering the low rates that many people enjoy. So, in effect the employees do provide something very valuable in that they are willing to work for next to nothing in exchange for the promise of free airline tickets. True, customers are the bottom line and without them we wouldn't exist but to say that employees don't provide help in any way is wrong at best.

Well, it would be nice to actually answer the original question rather than getting off course.

Unfortunately, I haven't flown JetBlue yet, but I've heard nothing but good things.

The IAD-FLL roundtrip fares are as low as $99.

My boss is flying IAD-TPA, TPA-PBI, and FLL-IAD in a couple of weeks. The IAD-PBI is easy and flexible. The TPA-PBI is on a Southwest non-stop. It's the only flight that lets her transit between meetings in time. The real kicker was how to get back from a late morning meeting in FLL in time for her to attend a concert that evening. Non-stops from PBI/FLL-DCA or IAD used to be easy on US and DL... Anyway, JetBlue has a 2:20pm $44 one-way FLL-IAD that fits the bill just perfectly. If it's anything less than perfect I'll know soon enough...

I couldn't agree more! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
It amazes me how many times people get off on their own little tangents, completely ignoring the original question.

Anyways, I just got back from a JetBlue trip for Thanksgiving (PBI-JFK). I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable flights I have ever been on.

The 1 year old A320s in their fleet are very quiet...even sitting in exit row over the engine. Much better than some of the Delta flights I've been on recently.

The flight crew was top-notch...they actually made you feel that they were glad you were flying with them. Service was 100% better than anything I've experienced from DL or US in the last few years.

Each seat is leather and slightly wider than a standard coach seat...very comfy! Also, each seat has a 5x7 LCD TV screen with 22 channels of DirectTV, not the standard pre-programmed crap. Sunday night I watched The Naked Chef's Christmas in NY Special on FoodTV and watched the Dolphins highlights on ESPN (great game, btw)!

Word from the flight crew is that they are working on a FF program! And I wouldn't be suprised to see them open a hub in the SE in the near future.

And as the previous poster noted, how can you pass up the $88 RT fare?!

I give JetBlue top marks! They are quietly becoming one of the better "value" carriers, and I will be flying with them again.

I agree with you completely. What I should have said is that employee travel at the margin provides no additional benefit. Employee travel overall (versus no employee travel) definitely benefits the airline. Employee travel is worth much more to the employee (the fare) than its cost to the airline (a little more fuel, a beverage and maybe a meal).

The distinction between employee travel and FF award travel is this -- an employee can fly for free as many times as he/she wishes. If an employee decides to make one additional free trip (i.e., marginal employee travel), the employee's wages are not reduced. Wages are reduced for everyone whether you use the travel priveleges every day you have off or you never use it.

FF award travel, on the other hand, is not unlimited. A FF who decides to make one additional free trip must have purchased additional tickets in the past in order to qualify for the free trip. The WN companion pass usage is unlimited, but it still requires the purchase of a ticket for the same flight.

The marginal benefit to the airline of a FF award seat is the same as its average. The marginal benefit to the airline of employee travel is zero, whereas its average is worth quite a lot. I'm emphasizing marginal over average because airlines have high fixed costs.


OK, back on topic http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif -- JetBlue's coach seats are not wider just because it's JetBlue. It's because they fly A320's, which are a little wider than a 737. Any A320 operator has the same width coach seats (assuming constant aisle width).

[This message has been edited by JS (edited 11-27-2001).]

Can't speak about IAD, but I can speak about the jetBlue product (BUF to JFK in April):

Checkin in BUF was dedicated and very quick.

Seats were cramped - typical coach. Plenty of overhead space

The onboard direct TV was cool, we were joking about what would happen if, as we were watching CNN, they interrupted with a report of a jetblue plane in trouble over new york.

Service was friendly, the blue potato chips they served were great.

I'd definately do it again.

After getting shocked by the $600+ roundtrip fare of UA for IAD-MIA, and $300+ for IAD-FLL(one stop), I was more than glad to book JetBlue for $129 (IAD-FLL NON STOP!). Looking forward to the flight over 7 days before Christmas. Pretty excited about the brand new A320s, leather seats and DirectTV. We need more JetBlues in this country.