Review of JetBlue Airways flight New York → Buffalo in Economy

Morning view of Empire States from my hotel room.




New York Times building across from Port Authority.




Then it was back to the subway for the journey to JFK again. It started to snow a bit while on the way to JFK.




View of Delta Terminal 2 from the Airtrain.




Delta-land at JFK Terminal 2/3.




More Deltas at Terminal 4.




jetBlues and TAM at Terminal 4.




Reaching the jetBlue Terminal 5. It is a rather long walk through the link-bridge from the Airtrain station.




Tarmac action across to Terminals 7 and 8.




Deicing on a jetBlue A320 in progress.




First sight that greeted us at Terminal 5. Self-service check-in machines. As we had no check-in luggage for the day-trip, I proceeded to the machine to print out boarding passes, as I had done online check-in earlier. Unfortunate due to some issues, the machine could not spit out our boarding passes and
we had to get them from the counters.




jetBlue check-in counters. No queues at all and we got our boarding passes immediately.




Boarding pass for the flight.




Document check by TSA done (valid passport/ID needed to clear through security) and through security we went, which was not too bad as there were no queues. Travelling through US airports, as long as everyone follows the drills (shoes, jackets and belts off, liquids out, laptops out, all metal objects out), the process would not be that painful. And currently they also utilizes the body x-ray thingy to speed things up a bit.

Departure board.




The spacious departure hall, with shops and dining available.




There is even a A320 engine on display!




Shops in the terminal. There is even a Muji!





07 March 2013
jetBlue
B6 108
New York John F Kennedy (JFK) - Buffalo Niagara (BUF)
A320
N564JB Absolute Blue
Economy Class

Absolute Blue would be flying us to Buffalo this morning.




Boarding had already commenced when we reached the gate. So straight into the aircraft we went.




Welcomed at the door by a friendly crew member. Down the aisle, passing through Even-More-Space seat rows with 36 pitch. These can be purchased for an additional cost, but I don't think that is really necessary as normal seat rows on jetBlue A320s offers 34 pitch, the largest economy seat-pitch among all US airlines.




Reached my seat at 19A. View out of the window.




Boarding in progress.




DirectTV entertainment consoles on the armrest. I had brought my own earphones to enjoy the free IFE.




Entertainment selections are already available at the gate.




Weather Channel, showing a storm brewing around Boston. Legroom was more than sufficient at 34. The leather seats were rather comfortable.




Safety card and inflight guide in the seat pocket.




Entertainment and buy-on-board meal box options.




And the complimentary snacks/drinks and payable alcoholic options. The beverage choices can put many full-service carriers to shame!




All aboard and we are ready to go. Flight time was announced to be approximately 55min. A manual safety demo was conducted by the crew. There were only 3 cabin crew onboard this A320.




Pushback.




Starting the taxi to Rwy 04L.




Taxi to runway.




American eagle ERJ starting its takeoff roll.




Delta Connection CRJ ahead.




jetBlue behind.




And another jetBlue landing.




Takeoff from JFK Rwy04L to Buffalo!




Above the white sea of clouds, which would be the only scenery throughout the entire flight.




Flight map. We would only be cruising at a low 20+k feet.




On this short flight, jetBlue would only offer the express-service instead of the full works. This meant that only a few selection of drinks and snacks would be available. For today, the snacks available are Linden's Chocolate Chip Cookies and Kings Nut Fancy Nut Mix. Drinks on offer are Orange juice, Dasani water and Dunkin' Donuts coffee. First, snacks are distributed from baskets, followed by drinks on trays. No carts were used on jetBlue flights. Crew were friendly and professional.




Both options of snacks, paired with coffee and water. More than sufficient for such a short flight! The mixed nuts were delicious, being a premium mix of almonds, cashews and honey roasted sesame sticks.




View for the rest of the flight while I channel surf on DirectTV.




Before long, we started our descent into Buffalo.




Crew picked up the trash and secured the cabin for landing. We would be landing towards the north-east today, but flew south to intercept the approach path.




Cloudy day in the Buffalo area as well.




Flaps and gears down…




And landed smoothly on Buffalo Niagara International Airport Rwy 05.




Parked at the jetBlue designated gate. One interesting concept of US domestic operations is that most of the domestic airlines have their own dedicated gates in the terminal.




Southwest B737-700 also arrived.




Disembarking.




Last look at the spacious and comfortable cabin. Crew were already clearing the trash off the seats while bading goodbyes, preparing the aircraft for the short turnaround.




Welcome to wet and cloudy Buffalo!




From Buffalo airport, we headed directly to Niagara Falls using the airport taxi. There was an hourly shuttle by the same company which costs much less, but we missed the shuttle and so decided upon the taxi to save time, However return was on shuttle. Upon reaching Niagara Falls at the USA side, which was about a 40min drive away, everywhere is walkable or reachable by a shuttle trolley bus.