Many travelers might get the impression that nothing ever goes right on a flight—that one must almost prepare for battle or at least the absolute worst when going a trip. Well, sometimes it’s true, but on a recent business trip from Boston to San Diego, I ended up being pleasantly surprised.
Life’s too short to be uncomfortable and hassled to save money, but I certainly couldn’t fly Business or First Class on the company’s dime, so for my cross-country trip, I looked at what JetBlue had to offer.
I had flown JetBlue to my company’s home office in Kentucky relatively regularly a couple of years ago. At the time, the airline offered service between Boston and Columbus (they don’t anymore). I liked JetBlue’s leg room and the comfortable seats—I’m not tall so even the seats behind the exit rows, which have less leg room than those in the front section, still give me plenty of space. And, is it me, or do JetBlue’s planes just seem cleaner than some other airlines?
Economic times being what they are, however, I couldn’t in good conscious choose JetBlue unless it worked into my company’s budget.
Checking the available flights (I has less than three weeks before the trip), I found a ticket for $429 on JetBlue that included one direct flight (OK, it was a red-eye on the way back to Boston, but better than stopping and changing planes, which was all I found on the cheaper flights with the other airlines). I jumped on it, even though it was about $60-$70 more than any other options. I reasoned that some of the difference would have been made up for in baggage fees anyway with the other airlines.
Going against advice
My flight from Boston left in the late afternoon and included a quick stopover in JFK. It allowed me to work most of the day before heading out, even though the timing was not recommended – the advice is to try to fly non-stop in the morning to avoid the inevitable build-ups of problems. So, I cringed when the pilot announced right after we taxied away from the gate at Boston’s Logan Airport that we couldn’t take off just yet because of congestion at JFK.
Uh-oh, I thought, this is it, the beginning of the end. A friendly announcement that we were welcome to turn on and use our cell phones and computers until it was time to go caught me by surprise, however.
It was almost an hour wait before we could take off, just about negating the time that I had between flights at JFK, but the pilot kept us informed on a regular basis and the flight attendant reassured us –- the people sitting next to me were also connecting to San Diego –- that they would try their very best to get us there in time.
They did. Somehow, once in the air, the flight took an amazingly short amount of time –- much less than was scheduled. Passengers were asked to let those of us off with connecting flights first and most of them did. There was a jetBlue agent right at the door when I got off the plane to direct me which way to go to the connecting flight. And after I did my OJ Simpson sprint down to my gate, the flight attendant on the San Diego flight, who was looking for us, whisked me right in. The flight attendants even helped me find a convenient place to stow my bag.
Once we were on our way, one flight attendant surprisingly brought me a gratis glass of wine after I mistakenly picked the one movie in their selections that I had already seen, something they can’t undo. With snacks on demand (my plan to eat while on the ground at JFK had been foiled), the flight went by quickly and I was happy to find that my bag made it, too.
The little extra efforts continued on the way back – like the flight attendants putting up blankets with tape to block the one set of lights that appeared to be stuck on. OK, I would have liked one of those blankets or just a pillow, without paying the $6, but, hey, it’s a new age isn’t it?
Remember when gas stations were full service? If you don’t, the scenario was highlighted in the movie “Back to the Future” – a whole crew of people ran out to take care of each car. One person pumped the gas, one washed the windshield, one checked the oil. The idea was to completely take care of the car and the customer.
Maybe our travel expectations have been lowered so much so that any real customer service, any sign of going that “extra mile” seems extraordinary. I have to hand it to JetBlue, all the way from check-in to in flight to de-planing and picking up my luggage, they made me feel like I was, once again, flying on a full-service airline.
After several decades working in a variety of jobs as a newspaper writer, event publicist, communications specialist, and marketing director, Karen Cummings is now “retired” and working on Travelers United’s social media and newsletters in addition to occasionally contributing a travel-related article to TU’s blog. She lives close to her family in Fryeburg, Maine, and travels as often as she can.
