Iron Chef at 25,000 Feet. I Call That Heaven.
Written: Oct 20 '02 (Updated Oct 21 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The prices, web site, employees, planes, snacks, DIRECTV.
Cons: Limited number of destinations
The Bottom Line: If I gush about this airline anymore, I'm going to make myself sick. It's a great way to travel.
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| prfstars's Full Review: JetBlue Airways |
I wanted to hate jetBlue, with their cute blue potato chips and their passé dotcom era hipness. Mostly, I wanted to hate them because everyone else seems to love them. I showed up at Long Beach Airport for my flight to Oakland with pen and paper in hand, prepared to record every irritating detail.
I'm staring at that paper now, two flights later, and it's still blank. I loved everything about jetBlue.
When I decided to travel up to the Bay Area on only 24 hours notice, I realized I had three choices:
1. Sign my kids' trust funds over to United.
2. Line up for Southwest's Flying Cattle Car™.
3. Try jetBlue.
jetBlue commenced service between Long Beach and Oakland a couple of months ago, and they've been advertising $29 one way introductory fares. This fare is only available mid-week, but even their last minute weekend fare was slightly cheaper than Southwest's, which made the choice a no-brainer. I hate Southwest.
Falling in love, part 1: the web site
jetBlue's web site is intuitive, fast, and friendly. I signed up for their frequent flyer program, TrueBlue, checked flights and fares, and ordered my tickets in a total of about five minute. When you look for flights at Southwest's site, you get a confusing array of ticket options, most of which are not available for a given day. jetBlue's site lists only the flights and fares that are available on the days selected.
Falling in love, part 2: the airport. Or, bigger isn't always better
LAX is a major international airport, one from which you can fly pretty much anywhere. It's also fifteen minutes from my house, so I've never even considered a flight into or out of Burbank, Ontario, Long Beach, or Orange County. For reasons that probably make good business sense, jetBlue flies out of Long Beach and Ontario, but not LAX. Long Beach airport is right off the 405 freeway, which makes it convenient for almost anyone in Southern California. Even though it was rush hour, the traffic was nothing compared to what it's like near LAX.
Long Beach is an efficient, no-frills airport. The lines are shorter, the employees are more relaxed, the security is just as tight but without the 'tude, and you'll never miss the heat-lamp-maintained barbecued chicken pizzas at LAX's Wolfgang Puck Cafe. If you've got the option of flying out of Long Beach instead of LAX, give it a try.
Falling in love, part 3: the employees
Customer service can be a tricky thing. Employees who deal with the public should obviously be polite, smart, and efficient, but I'm on the fence regarding friendly. Just as I don't want an over-eager waitress with Try Our Awesome Onion Thing Appetizer buttons on her suspenders to slide into my booth to take my order, I don't want corporately mandated banter at the ticket counter. The employees at jetBlue strike the right balance. They smile, they ask if they can help, they perform their jobs quickly, and they always maintain an appropriate level of professionalism.
Falling in love, part 4: boarding
At Long Beach Airport, you leave the airport, walk out to the plane, and climb a flight of stairs to board. jetBlue uses this to its advantage. Instead of boarding from the front of the plane and beginning with people seated at the back, jetBlue boards from both ends of the plane, from the middle seats on out. This virtually eliminates traffic jams in the aisle. I usually dread sitting in the back because it takes forever to get off the plane, as a couple of hundred people search the overhead bins for their carry-on bags. When I returned to Long Beach, I picked up my single carry-on bag and walked straight off the back of the plane.
Falling in love, part 5: those wonderful seats
Before my flight, I scanned through about a dozen reviews here on Epinions, and several of them included comments about the lack of leg room and the narrow seats on jetBlue. I flew United three weeks ago, and those were small seats. With the exception of a few forays into First Class, jetBlue's (leather!) seats are the most comfortable ones I've tried. On my flight to Oakland, I sat in the first row, where there's enough leg room for a giraffe. On my return flight, I sat in a regular row, which still felt quite spacious.
If you feel cramped anyway, each seat back is stuffed with a Crunch Fitness Inflight Yoga instruction card. The cards offer tips on exercises you can do in your seat, as well as some choice metaphysical counseling:
a flight attendant may ask you if you if you need something. Tell them* that we all need inner peace. And more space in our spines.
Absolutely, positively, without a doubt, head-over-heels in love: DIRECTV
The worst part about flying is being confined to a small space for a long time. I avoid visiting my family and old friends in New York because six hours on a plane is about five too many for me. I can never seem to fall asleep on a plane, and I can't read any book for that long. Until one of the major airlines offers inflight Ritalin service, the best fix for me is jetBlue's DIRECTV. Flipping through the channels, I noticed Discovery, The History Channel, Home and Garden, news, weather, sports, games shows, cartoons, and my personal favorite, The Food Network. Time really flies when you're watching the quail battle on Iron Chef.
I've read two complaints about jetBlue's DIRECTV connection: that the headphones are lousy, and that it's annoying to have to see your neighbors' screens flashing in your peripheral vision.
Humbug.
The headphones are disposable, so they're not the best quality. The sound was fine though, and I never noticed sound from anyone else's headphones. It's true that the video screens can be seen from any angle, but I don't see why this would be a problem. In fact, it can be a true vidiot's delight. On the flight home, I had a row to myself so I tuned my set in to Food Network to watch Extreme Cuisine, and I set the one next to me to the flight info channel. It was fun to keep track of the plane's altitude and speed.
Chow
Airplane food is pretty much always bad, unless you fly first or business class. And for the cost of a first or business class ticket, you could eat dinner at the finest restaurants every night for weeks. I'd much rather take my own sandwich on board anyway, so I don't mind the trend of eliminating meal service on many flights these days in favor of light snacks.
Southwest Airlines serves small bags of honey roasted peanuts, an over-the-top muck of stale peanuts and faux honey, glommed together in a syrupy mélange of salty-sweet goo**. jetBlue, on the other hand, offers a choice of several snacks. The selections on my flights were bagel chips, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, and their trademark Terra Blue potato chips.
Is there anything not to love about jetBlue?
jetBlue currently flies between only twenty cities, so there's a decent chance that they don't fly where you're going. If they can get you where you need to go, though, there's no better way to get there.
* jetBlue violated one of my biggest grammar pet peeves, but I love them so much that I just don't care.
** © Steve, 2002
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
prfstars
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Location: The Burbs
Reviews written: 304
Trusted by: 238 members
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