ON TOUR: JetBlue

Having literally (it’s a pun) weathered a stormy crossing of the North Atlantic (see QM2 in this issue) Chris Tarry (and his wife) thought they might try a narrow-bodied return trip on jetBlue, operated with an Airbus A321 Long Range.  The aircraft offers 24 Mint suites including two slightly larger ‘studios’ in row 1 (they were in row 3) and 114 Economy seats of which 24 have “even more” leg room. 

“I had read a lot about jetBlue’s Mint service and had also received numerous personal recommendations where Mint was seen as the best premium product on the transatlantic routes.
 
We were flying back from Maryland and there were essentially three options:

Fly direct from Washington Dulles (IAD) or Baltimore (BWI) or connect.

Applying a quality adjusted approach to price, and to get the best value, as time was not a key determinant, we decided to try jetBlue starting the journey at Ronald Reagan airport in Washington (DCA, previously known as Washington National).  The best connecting option for us was the flight to Gatwick from Boston (BOS) − not least as Gatwick is our nearest London airport, and where the fare for what is a fully flat bed in a private cabin was not a lot different from the Premium Economy fares that were being offered by others at the time we booked.

We were dropped off at the departures door and given the amount of luggage we had, we recruited a porter to take our three large suitcases to the desk where they were tagged. He then took them to the bag drop off where all tagged baggage (whether tagged by an agent or self-tagged) are taken – all very helpful and $10 well spent.

It was then quickly through the United States Transport Security Authority (TSA) checks and airside for a late lunch (a toasted sandwich and a doughnut).

There was a late change of Embraer 190 aircraft on the DCA – BOS leg where the one that had originally been assigned was switched to go to Orlando (MCO) as all of its “rest rooms” worked and we flew on the one that had been assigned for the DCA – MCO leg as none of them were operational.

The pilot addressed us in the boarding area (with the resulting quick rush by a few to the rest rooms in the terminal to “get comfortable”) and said he would “drop the brake and we would be in Boston in 51 minutes” – in the end it took 57 minutes or so but no matter, all was well and no dramas.  Pretzels and a soft drink were on offer.

We had taken a slightly earlier flight than we needed to and this gave me time to write my piece for the December edition of Airline Business whilst sitting in an exceptionally well-appointed area near Gate C24 at Boston with marble effect tables and plenty of plugs to recharge devices. The absence of a lounge in this case was not a problem and indeed we resisted visiting either the Burger King or “Dunkin” which were close by – we hadn’t time to visit “Legal Seafoods” which was close by too.

Boarding the London flight was extremely efficient and unhurried but where the aircraft was not particularly full other than in Mint. It was after all a Monday night in early December. We boarded and were welcomed by the friendly crew led by Belinda who with Babette were keen to make sure we understood the key features of our Mint Pods. The aircraft, an A321Neo LR was less than a year old, having been delivered in June 2023, and was spotless.

We pushed back before the indicated departure time of 19:25 and the Captain came on to say that given the strength of the wind we would have to wait until 19:45 to take off so that we did not arrive too early. The inflight entertainment (IFE) was on and so it was possible to watch and listen whilst we waited.

After take off menu selections were made where it was possible to order what were described as a number of “small plates” which by UK standards were normal sized portions.

The food was very good in all respects and what was meant to be hot was indeed hot.

After dinner it was time to transition the seat into a bed put the ear plugs in, the eye shade on and to sleep; which I did.

I woke as we were flying abeam Exeter in time for a coffee and a hot pasty and then it was time to land. We came out of the clouds just before the autopilot came off as we went over the M23 (the warning tone is clearly audible from row 3) and after landing to a holding point as the gate was still occupied and were held for perhaps five minutes but still arrived at the gate ahead of schedule.

After a short walk to immigration where all of the e-gates were working and there were  no queues we re-entered the UK, took the escalator down to the baggage hall, got a trolley and went to the luggage belt which started to move almost immediately; our bags were the 1st 2nd and 4th; from gate to Marks and Spencer (for milk and other essentials).    In arrivals had taken less than 20 minutes.

Would I book jetBlue and Mint again?

Certainly". 

www.jetblue.com

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