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Tuesday, March 16, 2004

My First JetBlue Experience

The JetBlue airplane was lumbering through the air at 516 mph at an altitude of 31,930 feet. It was hot. So hot that I had to remove my sweater and shirt.

Good think I had my FNX T-Shirt on!

We'd gotten off to a late start because a FedEx plane at Fort Lauderdale got a flat tire on the runway. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Storrow Drive Airport Signs Are Messed Up
The trip from our house to the airport took about 20 minutes. At the end of Storrow Drive, there's a sign that says, Government Center Exit Only. That would lead me to believe that the exit for Logan Airport is somewhere else up ahead. Nope. It's on that exit too! Maybe the sign should be changed to say Government Center and Logan Airport Exit only?

Parking or Central Parking? Make up your mind.
We parked at Central Parking. Again the signs leading the way were inaccurate. there was an initial sign that said, 'Parking." Upon seeing it I asked my wife, "Where's Central Parking?" She said that's it. Oh. We'll up ahead there WAS a sign that said Central Parking. there was an LED sign that said the best parking could be found on level 3, so we parked there. It turns out that Level 3 wasn't actually the best place to park since the walkway from Central PArking to terminal E is on level 4. I'll make a note of that for next time.

I haven't been to terminal since it was finished and was impressed. As we neared the terminal, we ran through a sound installation on religions from around the world. I'd hear about it on the radio. A woman combines all types of music and chants from different religions and now has an exhibit of them in the ramp between Central Parking and Terminal E. Maybe I'll have time to listen to it when I get back home.

A Personal Greeting
We rushed up to the ticket counter and no other passengers were in line. The airline representative asks me, "Mr. Garfield?" Ha Ha. Yup. We must have been the very last people to get there for our 11:20 flight. She says that we'll probably make it.

Airport Security: Defined by a Peanut Butter Snadwich.
Next up was airport security. People were taking their shoes off all over the place. So I did too. I put them in a little box along with my computer, phone, camera and jacket. After it all went through the scanner, the attendant told me that the computer had to go back through since it needed to be in it's own little separate box. Fine.

When my backpack came though the attendant asked who's bag it was. Funny that the girl beside me claimed ownership of my bag. She quickly realized that it wasn't hers.

I then said it was mine and they had to open it and look around.

Out comes my camera battery recharger, my phone charger, my eyeglass case, and my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"Do you have anything sharp in here like a knife, " they asked.

"Nope," I replied.

The he pulls out my all purpose pocketknife, screwdriver, wine cork, nail file, etc. combo. "Oh, I forgot that was in there."

Well we have to take it but we won't take you Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich.

You can pay $8 and we'll mail it to you, or you can go back to the checkin counter and check it as baggage.

I decided to let them keep it and sell it on eBay or whatever they do with confiscated things. I got it at a trade show anyway as a free promo.

There's Been A Delay.
So we made it to the gate with 20 minutes to spare and then hear the dreaded announcement that's the bane off all air-travelers. There's been a delay.

JetBlue was cool though, during the delay, because they brought out nice free snacks and drinks for us. And we didn't even have to get out of our seats for 'em. We just sat there and they brought by all kinds of fun food. There were Blue chips, Chocolate cookies, animal crackers, Doritos, and a little blue box called JetBlue snack. That was made up of some Oreo Cookies, Wheat Crackers, moldy cheese and a lifesaver. I passed on the moldy cheese since it was the bad kind of moldy cheese and not the good kind that cheese connoisseurs like.

Roomy Seats and Your Own TV.
When we boarded the plane we settled into our comfy JetBlue seats with lots of leg room. I like that. They we took our free headphones and plugged in to our personal TV screen that had a bunch of channels of programs with nothing worth watching. Note: Bring your own headphones for higher fidelity.

Overall it was a great JetBlue experience and I'd fly them again. I just saw that they have $99 promo fares out to the West Coast. A good deal.