May 1st 2018:
This trip began very early in the morning. 4 O’clock to be exact. Although I don’t mind early flights, I’m not a morning person so being in the airport at one of the busiest times a day isn’t the best way to wake up. Instead I usually opt for night flights. There’s nobody in the airport and I usually get the row to myself. That wasn’t the case this time. I was traveling with family whom it was a nice change to fly with instead of by myself. That’s for later though, my trip started off at the house, and we had to leave around 4:30 EST to catch our flight from Boston to West Palm Beach in Florida. The purpose of the trip was to go see family and check out a new flight school that I’ll be attending soon and I can’t wait to get started. Usually the traffic is horrendous in Boston early in the mornings with people going to work but this time was a breeze with a travel time of about 25 minutes.
Upon reaching the airport we were greeted with chaos. A bunch of people rushing into the airport and the occasional few who clearly have never been on a trip before blocking the way. We got into the airport and checked the flight board to make sure the flight was on time. Since I am a JetBlue TrueBlue member I was able to easily use one of the many kiosks in Boston’s terminal C. Next up was security and let me tell you, I was dreading this the whole car ride here but luckily me and the other party I was traveling with got TSA precheck. This meant we went in a much faster line and didn’t have to remove shoes belts or jewelry. That brightened up my day as it only took about 20 minutes to get through security. I felt bad for the poor people whom had to go through the regular security lines as they seemed a mile long!
Once through that mess we headed on to our gate. We were at gate C10 today, right next to the international terminal. Only problem is all the international flights don’t come in till later in the day and leave by 11PM, which meant there were none there. Well walking to your gate in Boston your greeted with a variety of many different shops who sell things ranging from souvenir’s to food. There were also some restaurants on the walk to the gate which were all closed because they were only for Lunch and dinner. Fortunately the Dunkin Donuts was open. This is literally where everybody from New England goes in the morning! It is the best coffee and donut shop around. It’s like Starbucks but much better! After we got our food we settled into the gate area where we awaited our flight. Once arriving at the gate I noticed our plane wasn’t there, and it was a A321 instead. Turns out this A321 was going to San Francisco! There was a few Jetblue planes parked up at our gate though. One being the one heading to San Francisco and there was also one headed to San Diego. Once these planes were off the gate our plane was soon to pull in. It was parked over night in Boston the night before.
Now it was time for boarding and Jetblue always does a great job with boarding with this time being no exception! They started to board in groups for example group A,B,C, then D. I found this to be much more efficient than the old way of boarding in rows. Per usual it was a full flight this morning and it took some time to head down the jetway. Once on to the plane we were greeted by the flight attendants. I honestly don’t care to much if they weren’t to greet us upon boarding but I also think it shows they care about the customer. Good job Jetblue! We were in seat 16F and 16E today, I of course got the window. I like to plan my flights so I have the perfect side of the plane. Due to it being on the east coast of the US, only the people on the right side can see the coast line on the way south and vice versa on the way back home. So this time we had the perfect view of the sunrise and the coast of the US! It was amazing! Shortly after boarding we pushed back off the gate and started up the two engines and were ready to go. This time seemed much faster than others as we were off the gate and started our taxi to runway 27 relatively fast. Due to morning rush there was a slight back up of planes but not to bad. Surprisingly we were number two for departure behind an American A319 heading to Washington! We then taxied on to the runway advanced the throttles and those two IAE engines came roaring to life as we screamed down the runway! Takeoff was uneventful and we departed to the southwest heading right over the city where we were able to catch a glimpse of all the skyscrapers in Boston! The climb out was relatively short as we reached our cruising altitude of 36,000 Ft. It seems to me that the Airbus series climb at a very high rate of climb but to me this is the fastest I’ve ever climbed because the only thing I fly is the little Cessna in flight school. Shortly after departure I settled in to my seat and started to watch some TV and let me tell you, Jetblue is amazing! As we were in the air I was browsing through my phone and had seen that Jetblue is going to remodel their whole A320 fleet to be more like their Beautiful A321’s! This is huge. It’ll include Brand new 10.1” Touch screen IFE screens compared to the older and smaller IFE screens. It will also have over 100 channels for FREE! The current A320’s have 36 channels. They will also add all new in seat power via a USB or a standard plug. They are also remodeling the older seats to have adjustable headrest, Ergonomic seat support, and the most leg room in coach which I can already attest to that. The current seats allow me to fully layout and relax comfortably at any seat. The seat back pockets are going to be custom designed and they’re also adding a dedicated bottle holder. Lastly in the cabin they will be adding LED mood lighting, Brand new overhead bins, side walls, carpets, and newly branded front Partitions. So Jetblue has some big things coming! Back to the flight, shortly after reaching cruising altitude the flight attendants announced Jetblue is using new cart service. This means they would be coming around with dedicated snack and drink carts instead of taking an order, then having to head to the front of the aircraft to retrieve the order. They now come around with carts and hand out snacks and beverages which allow for a much faster and pleasant service! I chose a Coke with some Choclate chip cookies. The Coke was fine but I liked the older cookies Jetblue gave out instead of the new ones. The new Belgium ones seemed a little hard and didn’t really taste like much. It was only a three hour flight so I didn’t order anything off the menu but Jetblue has many other food choices available for purchase along with headphones and neck pillows. There was no further service but the Flight attendants would come around and check on us.
The flight was relatively uneventful, there was little to no turbulence and before we knew it, we were starting our descent into Palm Beach! It was a nice descent with amazing views as we came in over the Coast line in southeast Florida. We had a Quick turn to final and were on the ground after a smooth touchdown by some fantastic pilots. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the cockpit but maybe next time! Hopefully one day I’ll be able to head to the Jetblue training facility in Orlando and bring that to you guys as well!
Overall I give Jetblue an A+. I’ve always loved their service and will continue to fly with them. I’ve flown with them since I was 11 and have never had a problem with them, so I know I can always trust Jetblue getting me to where I need to be! The pilots always come out at the end and see the passengers off with the flight attendants. The flight attendants have always been amazing with some really stellar service every time I fly. The service is always amazing and always good with the one downside being the new cookies but that really means nothing to me. The flight was great with no turbulence and a really amazing takeoff and landing! Great job to Jeblue and everybody who made this flight great and I will definitely be seeing you again in the very near future!
