Flying time: 2h 15m
Aircraft: A320, N627JB "A Friend Like Blue"
Seats: 18A&C
This is the first leg of our trip home. Originally we booked the VS10 with a 5pm JetBlue departure from TPA and 2 hour connection at JFK. JetBlue then changed their schedule, making the connection untenable. The best VS could do was move us to a 12 noon departure from Sarasota (45 mins closer to our condo than TPA), and then the VS46. This left us with 4 hours or so in JFK. I did push them for something better but VS wouldn't budge as no reward seats were available on any other flights.
Sarasota is a neat little airport, just 15 mins in the car from our condo in Anna Maria. The JetBlue agent was very friendly and printed both our JetBlue and VS boarding passes. No issues with any hand luggage needing to be checked in.
Security was slow mainly due to the 'cough' mature age of many travellers passing through, as well as many little children. Very friendly TSA agents though. AirTrain (who have been purchased by Southwest) are ending service to Sarasota in August, so this should cut waiting times in future.
Boarding was a bit slow, but once onboard I was impressed by the modern cabin, excellent leg room and seat back Live broadcast TVs.
Take-off was 15 mins late but with an on-time arrival due to schedule padding. One thing I noticed was that the spoilers on the left wing raised themselves slightly during the take-off roll, I assume that this would be to counter a slight cross wind?
The flight itself was largely quite bumpy, but the service was good with free drinks and snacks served on trays rather than in a trolley as per ususal. Free live TV was good, although the content itself was pretty dire even by US TV standards. The crew seemed quite content, although one lady did challenge the "weight in proportion to height" requirement, and I wouldn't have fancied her chances of vaulting through an over-wing exit
We landed on-time at JFK on runway 31R, giving us a short taxi to the gate. Terminal 5 is JetBlue's own terminal, and is very modern, clean and appears to have good amenities.
A helpful agent also gave us walking directions for the 5 minute stroll to T4, which saved us waiting for an AirTrain.
To conclude, my expectations of US domestic airlines are rock bottom, but JetBlue were good by any standards and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them if they are serving your route.
I'd also look to use SRQ airport wherever possible, its small size and convenience count heavily in favour against TPA which is a good airport itself.
Last edited by clarkeysntfc on 20 Feb 2012, 14:45, edited 1 time in total.
Always planning a trip somewhere!
