Review of JetBlue Airways flight New York Chicago in Economy

Airline JetBlue Airways
Flight B6 105
Class Economy
Seat 4D
Aircraft Embraer E-190
Flight time 02:47
Take-off 05 Dec 15, 15:29
Arrival at 05 Dec 15, 17:16
B6   #20 out of 95 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 60 reviews
Jetset
By 1876
Published on 17th January 2016
Background:
While living in New York City I had the idea to try an airline I wanted to fly with for a long time. JetBlue - a young, modern and innovational carrier with a fleet of Airbus and Embraer jets. My destination happened to be Chicago.
As a tourist I want to experience the strenghts and weaks of cities, to have a good insight into it it makes sense to me to try public transportation, because riding taxis basically is everywhere the same.

Flight-Report:

This time I used the NYC Airporter, a shuttle bus connection between multiple stops in Manhattan and the different terminals at JFK.

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Unfortunately this was not the best solution for me, as the whole trip took me about 90 minutes (30 minutes longer than with the subway).

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In addition the free Wifi did not work at all.

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After stopping at almost each of the Terminals it finally reached JetBlues modern T5 on the arrivals level.

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After taking the escalator up you will find yourself in the check-in area.

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Printing my boarding pass at one of the self check-in machines …

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… and dropping my bag off at one of the counters. Unfortunately the lady was not able (or did not want) to print me a real boarding card.

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Another weird thing is that passengers have to take their bag again, walk around the counter to the back and place it onto the belt. One of the most idiotic check-in processes I have ever experienced!

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I already though if I should purchase Even More Speed to skip the line at the security check, but it turned out that there was no line at all. The check itself was also quite fast, at least faster than what you are used to by TSA.

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Right after the security checkpoint.

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The destinations on the flight board are arranged alphabetically.

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No system works perfect.

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A clip for people who are curious how a jet engine works.

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And if even that is not enough: A real engine.

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A view of the beautiful decorated Christmas tree.

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All over the terminal these iPads are free to use. Something you just might know from Virgin America is that you can order food and drinks from the restaurants in the terminal by the tap of your finger.

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This I would call a security breach.

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While watching the happenings at the apron, I coincidentally saw the first newly repainted Austrian 767-300ER passing by.

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JetBlue A320

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A brand new A321 delivered in October 2015.

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Maybe somebody knows the reason for placing two connected pylons behind the wheel? This was the first time I encountered something like that.

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And here's the main person of this whole report.
The aircraft was an Embraer ERJ-190AR with the registration N353JB. In 2012 it entered service and since then it is part of the JetBlue Airways fleet. It is configured with 100 seats.




At gate 5 just before boarding.

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Wow that's a huge seat pitch! Compared to other US carriers JetBlue offers the most leg room in Economy Class. As the overhead bins were completely filled I had to store my jacket under the front seat.

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The controls for the screens are located in the armrests.

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The image was not that good, but at least I had a personal screen on such a short flight, what I absolutely was not used to.

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In the seatpocket I found a safety card …

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… and a kind of inflight magazine. The user NGO85 has already reviewed it before.

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Unfortunately the Fly-Fi did not work on this flight. Maybe the aircraft was not even equipped with it.

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Soon the FAs went through the cabin and took drink orders. The system is a bit weird, because they have to walk between the galley and the seats for almost each passenger individually. Advantage: They don't block the aisle with a trolley.

I went for an Apple Juice. Surprisingly the FA gave me two of it.

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Later they went with a snack-basket through the cabin. I grabbed a bag of Skeeters.

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Then after some time the idiot - I mean passenger - in front of me decided to lean back and make himself comfortable.

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This flight was fully booked. By the way: JetBlue states they never overbook their flights and everybody can select their seat already upon booking.

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I went back to have a small chat with the two flight attendants.

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A short glance at the airshow map during approach. I apologize for the bad low-light performance of my camera…

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The last minutes before touchdown.

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My seat.

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Just as everybody left the aircraft the crew started preparing the cabin for the return flight.

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I did not like the look of Terminal 3 here so much.
Two ATMs facing each other.

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The walk to the baggage claim was quite short and my bag arrived just as I got there.

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American Airlines should have chosen screens which are more suitable for running 24/7.

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The gloomy way to the Blue Line (subway) going to the city.

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A single ride starting at O'Hare costs $5, a day pass (valid for 24 hours) is $10.

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After a 40 minutes ride which sounds endless, but was not that bad, I was in downtown Chicago.

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Staying at the Swissôtel located on E Wacker Drive with a great view of the river.

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See more

Verdict

JetBlue Airways

7.9/10
Cabin8.0
Cabin crew9.0
Entertainment/wifi6.5
Meal/catering8.0

New York - JFK

5.8/10
Efficiency7.5
Access3.5
Services5.0
Cleanliness7.0

Chicago - ORD

7.8/10
Efficiency10.0
Access7.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.0

Conclusion

As mentioned this was my first JetBlue flight ever and the experience was quite satisfying.

#Cabin comfort
The ERJs are not that big, especially when fully booked it is very cramped. Nevertheless the big leg room is a huge bonus when flying JetBlue!

#Crew
Some aviators make fun of AA and their many older aunties working as flight attendants. The two FAs of this flight were about 25 years old and nice and friendly guys.

#Catering
Drinks, snacks and coffee to choose from. Thumbs up!

#Entertainment
No working internet, no newspapers, but a personal screen with DirecTV.

#On-time performance
Departed on-time, landed 15 minutes early

Related

5 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 156230 by
    Chibcha SILVER 540 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this nice read, it was really fun, I'm taking a flight on jetBlue in a pair of months, so it was even exciting to read in anticipation of my trip!
  • Comment 156232 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Great report with beautiful pics! I've always like the B6 Terminal at JFK. It's very nice and modern and has that beautiful historic TWA terminal out front. JetBlue has the best product in Y of any US carriers. Except for the A321s with the Mint Business class product, they only have Economy, so it's nice that they focus on making it comfortable.

    The ERJs are not that big, especially when fully booked it is very cramped.
    - You think so? I love E-jets because I think the 2-2 configuration feels less cramped, plus E-Jets have wider Y seats than most other aircraft at between 18.5 and 19 wide compared to the typical 17.5 width of a 737 seat, or 18 for A32Xs.

    Thanks for sharing!
  • Comment 156309 by
    jetsetpanda 2283 Comments
    Thank you for sharing this FR with beautiful shots.

    B6 is a great airline that sets itself apart from the legacy carriers. Back when David Neeleman was in charge, it used to be better IMHO.

    It is not the norm to be offered newspapers on U.S. domestic flights. It's always nice to have a choice of snacks, especially when flying in Y.

    The subway ride from ORD to downtown is long, but it's nice to have this option.
  • Comment 156543 by
    NGO85 SILVER 1963 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this great report on B6!

    I really like B6 a lot. Yes, it is not in an alliance, but it is the best full-service carrier in the US. The seat pitch is great and the IFE is good (quantity and not quality like you pointed out, the screen is pretty low resolution). I have always found their crews to be very friendly for US standards (and as you pointed out, also younger).

    LOL, I love that “claw” shot of the person reaching back. This is where a ruler would have come in handy to slap them.

    I don’t think it’s just Terminal 3 at ORD that looks bad, all of ORD looks bad, lol.

    Great quality photos throughout the report, always a pleasure to read your reports!
    • Comment 333901 by
      Jetset AUTHOR 52 Comments
      Their crews now have also got new fresh uniforms with orange accents (to much blue all the time also gets boring) of which the FAs seemed to be proud of.

      Thank you for your nice feedback! The times before I filmed with a camcorder and extracted stills from the video. This was the first time I used a 'real' camera.

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