(Delayed) Praise for JetBlue
At the end of my last day in New York I was coming out of a meeting and I got to see something I have wanted to see in Manhattan for a long time; it had just started to snow. I thought would enjoy this new event (for me) by walking a few blocks to visit an old friend of mine for a drink before I headed to the airport.
Let me just say right now, snow in New York sucks. Walking through snow in New York sucks more. Walking through snow in New York, in a suit, dragging a roller bag behind you sucks even more! It didn’t take long to realize that the building-channeled winds did everything in their power to drive snow flakes right in to your eyes, and that the sidewalks and metal grates in the city very quickly become wet/icy/slick death traps for anyone not wearing full-on hiking boots. After meeting my friend I tried to catch a cab out to the airport, but all the drivers were of course occupied or being complete assholes about taking someone all the way out to JFK in the snow (I know, I know, I should have gotten their number). I ended up walking another number of blocks to Grand Central to hop the airport bus out. By the time we got to JFK there was a pretty blanket of white on the ground, although I didn’t realize how much pain that was going to cause us trying to get in to the air.
Long story short, we were delayed about half an hour waiting for a connecting flight to come in, then queued up for de-icing. After being blasted by the little guys in their hilarious high-pressure cherry pickers we got in the queue for the runway. Just before we got clearance our pilot came out to examine the wings and decided we’d been on line for too long and we needed to get de-iced again…which meant we also needed to get more fuel. So we ended up heading all the way back to the gate we had left more than an hour ago! Total delay getting out of JFK was something like five hours…followed by a five hour flight home.
But, if I had to get stuck on the tarmac for so long, I’m glad it was on JetBlue. Their in-seat TV service was a pretty good distraction and the flight crew was nothing but nice the whole time. By the time we got in the air they announced we would all be getting a small travel voucher as appreciation for our patience. And, overall, I’m happy they chose to be safe rather than eager. I’m very happy with JetBlue for cross-country flights, and they will probably be seeing a lot more of my business considering that United has added a $200 premium on top of what should be a $300 fare, just because they put power outlets at each seat and now call the SFO-JFK flight “Premium Class”.
One thing I find interesting about JetBlue though is that they don’t offer any kind of alcohol on their flights. Is this because of accounting issues, cost cutting, or is it perhaps their CEO is Mormon? Hmmmm…..
