jetBlue!

[Stephen Toernblom]

Great work Justin! Glad to hear you like our airline!

[screaming_emu]

Justin, you're an exact clone of my frient Tom. Kinda freaky how much you look like him.

[ATrude777]

Haha they beat the hell out of a lot of airlines.

cept Southwest email me you idiot
Alex

[NOTAR520AC]

I'll tell you one thing ... they sure beat the hell out of Spirit!
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Haha they beat the hell out of a lot of airlines.

[matt1168]

Awesome report and great pics man!

jetBlue is definately an awesome airline, and while I've only had the pleasure of flying them once (JFK-PBI), I really hope I can fly them again soon.

I'll tell you one thing ... they sure beat the hell out of Spirit!

[electrogeek77]

I flew jetBlue BOS-LGB-BOS last March, and it was AMAZING! Best flight I have ever been on! The F/As were awesome, and the IFEs helped relax my nerves (that was my first flight in over a year, so I was a little tense, having forgotten the flight experience) - we even had Fox InFlight for free on the BOS-LGB leg, since the credit card swipers wern't working. If it wern't for Cranky Lady (I mentioned her in another thread), I would have sworn that it was literally a perfect flight.

[NOTAR520AC]

Thanks for the kind words all... just got back from Seattle an hour ago on HP... will have another report up by the end of the week.

Cheers,
Justin

[PHF2ATL]

Great report! I really like that picture that got accepted to the database. Jetblue sounds awesome, can't wait to try them out sometime!

[DeltaRules]

Nice job & nice pics...I just tried Song & enjoyed flying with them. jetBlue's the next airline I want to try & from what I saw here, they look to be pretty good.

DeltaRules

[babypurin]

Great Report. I've yet to fly Jetblue and you have convinced me further to fly them, even if they dont serve LAX and end up having to go to LGB.

[ASpilot2be]

Simply awesome report I really want to try jetBlue sometime.

[ATrude777]

Good report Justin, I REALLY want to fly Jetblue sometimes....come on STL!! Anyway, Last time I boarded by airstairs was at MWA on TWA 727 and it was behind the plane, that totally kicked ass. it was awesome. It is no fun flying back home knowng you have school the next day. i absolutely hate it. Anyway ill talk to ya around.

Alex

[herpa2003]

Great report and excellent pictures! I'm glad that you found flying on jetBlue enjoyable. I have flown on them before and the short 47-minute SYR-JFK flights always left me craving for more. A trans-con with them would be pure heaven.

[NOTAR520AC]

Hey guys-
Well, my mom woke up one morning a few months ago & said "why don't we go to NY over break?" So we did. Instead of using our stockpiled SkyMiles, we opted to take jetBlue's red-eye flight from PHX that takes off a little after midnight and puts us into NY around 7:30am because my dad has limitted vacation time.

This trip report begins with booking on JB's website- I really like how they have it set up- I found it very easy and simple to book the tickets, select seats, etc. Kudos to JB!


I got out of school for spring break on Friday, March 18th & enjoyed four days of relaxation before flying out Wednesday night (really Thursday morning). Flight info is as follows:

jetBlue Airways #180
PHX-JFK
Thurs, March 24, 2005
ETD: 0115 local
ETA: 0730 local
Airbus A320-232 (N528JB "Mi Corazon Azul")

After a day of packing and relaxing (haha- oxymoron, at least at my house) the sun went down & it was time for us to leave for Sky Harbor. We hopped on the 101 south & 'connected' with the 202 west, which brought us into the airport from the west side so we could park in the Terminal 4 lot. Nice thing was there was no traffic.

After hopping on the bus to the terminal, we headed to jetBlue's checkin. It was very easy- they have the electronic kiosks. Checkin took maybe four minutes from starting with the kiosk to tags on the bags- it was great. It was during checkin that we received the news that our inbound flight from JFK had hit weather delays (which was expected- checked the weather before we left) and would be taking off around 2:45am instead of 1:15am. No big though.

So we waited in the terminal for a few hours. Unfortunately, pretty much everything was closed down, so there was no way for us to get food other than Starbucks. And nobody felt like going through security again & having them make everyone take off their shoes again, so we all just starved. The flight pulled up to the gate probably around 0230, which gave us a departure time of a little before 3am. The neat thing about this flight out of PHX is that they use the jetway AND airstairs on the rear door to get everyone onboard faster (I guess since it's a redeye & everyone wants to get to sleep)- I saw the airstairs when we arrived back at PHX, so it just wasn't for our flight. I of course opted to go out on the tarmac (a very rare experience at PHX), and got in the line for the hidden stairs down to the ramp. Ticket was taken, and down we went.





This trip was also the first with my new Canon 350D, which allowed me to capture my favorite shot of the trip:

[photoid=445239]

When we got inside the cabin I was amazed at how new it was- I knew JB had newer planes and everything, but the cabin was virtually spotless- the carpet and everything. I was seated in row 14, and let my mom have the window seat so she could sleep, so I got the aisle (which is always nice). JB's leather seats are really thick- they're like triple cheeseburger thick- they're really nice! The IFE screens in front of us were playing witty marketing phrases before the DirecTV was turned on.





We had a nice cabin crew today- if there was a "Hottest Flight Attendant of the Year" Award, the girl serving my section should have gotten it. Young, blonde, chiseled face, and looked wickedly hot in JB's uniform. I could tell it was going to be a good flight.

After waiting for the people who clog the aisle like cholesterol & are completely oblivious to the line of people waiting behind them, everyone was finally seated and we were immediately pushed back- the flight deck said they were going to do everything they could to get us into JFK before 0900. As the engines were started and we began taxi, I was impressed at how quiet the A320 was. Even when we took the runway and he kicked in takeoff thrust, it was still really quiet. This was my first airbus flight, and I must say, a very quiet one.

The flight was pretty uneventful- not much turbulence, and we got superb service from the cabin crew. I had my ritualistic tomatoe juice on ice (TWO CANS!), and (TWO!) snacks. jetBlue doesn't do carts in the aisles, which I really like, because it makes things more simple. Simplicity is key to a good airline in my opinion. They took drink orders on pads and brought them out on trays, and brought the 7 different snacks you could choose from out in baskets. The snacks included roasted almonds, Dorito's snack mix, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered biscotti, some other stuff, and...



For the full jetBlue experience, I chose the chips.

I tried to get some sleep, so I didn't watch much TV, and managed maybe one or two hours. As twilight turned into daylight, we were nearing New York. We began our descent, and came in over the water.





The A320 feels like it floats a lot when it's landing- almost like a toy plane (that's not meant to dis Airbus or anything). Nevertheless, the landing was nice and smooth, and we had a brief taxi to JB's terminal. We were over an hour late and missed our tour of the Treasury, but no sweat- the joy of flying with jetBlue made up for it.

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jetBlue Airways #179
JFK-PHX
Sun, March 27, 2005 (Happy Easter!)
ETD: 2035 local
ETA: 0015 local
Airbus A320-232 (sorry, didn't catch the reg on this one)

Well, after a great time in the fantastic city of New York, it was time to head back home. I had school to look forward to the next day, and a jetBlue flight to look forward to today! We took a cab (didn't book a TownCar) from our hotel all the way down to JFK with four passengers and their luggage stuffed in it, but we survived. Checkin for jetBlue at JFK was a little more....let's say chaotic... than at PHX, obviously because that's their main hub. We arrived a little earlier than we should have, but that gave us a chance to sit down and rest. After passing through security (which was staffed by a pretty grouchy population), we grabbed some pizza & I got a jetBlue nalgene water bottle from one of the news stores. I had somehow survived without my cell phone (lost it on the inbound flight), in New York, for four days- how, I do not know. Still never found it even after calling jB's baggage claim office... Alas.

I worked on my chem homework until boarding started, and we had an ontime departure. This time I remembered to grab my headset on the way down the jetway, and watched some TV as everyone finished boarding.




jetBlue kicks butt.

Takeoff and climb was fast, and the city lights ended relatively quick (so whatever dirrection they end fast in that was our runway lol). We reached cruise, and the first round of drinks was postponed because of some moderate turbulence. The whole way home there was intermittent turbulence. The cabin crew on today's flight wasn't as friendly and outgoing as the inbound, but we survived. About halfway through the flight I got up to use the lav and snap a shot of the cabin since there aren't that many of JB in the DB. I managed to get one before I was shot down & asked not to take photos for "security reasons."



& ya know... I can understand where they're coming from, but honestly I'm starting to get a little tired of it. It's a camera, not a gun, and either way if somebody wanted to see what the cabin (not even the cockpit) looks like, they could just fly for themselves & see it. I played nice & didn't take anymore & all, but there's a point where it just becomes ridiculous...

We were ahead of schedule when we began our descent into PHX, & managed landing ten minutes early. The landing was the smoothest I've had this year. I didn't even feel the gear hit the ground- just us sinking into the runway from the spoilers being deployed. On my way out I told the captain (who was very nice & talkative throughout the flight) "Nice landing."



I think that's about it- real smooth experience with jetBlue & would definately fly them again. I booked in the rows with more seat pitch, so I actually had legroom (I'm 6'4"), and the leather seats were very comfortable for my bad back. My first A320 flights were great & it's a superb aircraft (even though it looks kinda like a toy ). We loved the red-eye because it worked with our schedule & my dad didn't have to waste precious vacation days for transit time. Plus it was cheap! (even though we would have gotten free flights with Delta... oh well- the airline that gives you what you want gets your business I guess)

Hope y'alls liked the report & thanks for reading. Happy contrails!
Justin