Review of JetBlue Airways flight Bogota → F. Lauderdale in Economy

Context

Hello everyone, this time I'm sharing a trip I took last year to FLL on B6.

South Florida is the biggest market ex-BOG to the US with 3 airlines flying between BOG and FLL daily (AV, B6 and NK), and 4 flying between BOG and MIA (AA,AV,LA and FC), which roughly translates into 15 daily flights.

I had already flown with AV and NK to FLL, so I was looking forward to see how B6 compared to them. Tip: avoid NK like STDs, and on the BOG-FLL route B6 is usually not that expensive compared to NK.

At Bogotá Eldorado Airport

The day before the trip I had a big party and got there a bit hung over…but I made it. Check-in was painless and done in no time.


With that done, it was time for greasy food for the hang over.


And then off to the LAN Lounge (my favourite in BOG)

Restroom view:


Food offerings, quite good and much better than in the AV Lounge


Newspapers from various regions, this is a Mexican newspaper dedicating a story to one of Latin America's first skyscrapers: torre Latinoamericana


General lounge view…


FR corporate pic with the rival lounge in the background


I could confortably watch my gate while lounging :)

Boarding

I could confortably see when my flight was going to be boarded and thus proceeded when boarding started.

This wasn't my first flight on B6, I had already flown them between BOS and JFK, but I remained excited about trying their international service.


Big leather seats with TONS of legroom…nice!


General cabin view from my seat with the IFE.


PTVs are of an old generation and in general the offering is quite lame. Much better than NK in any case

Taxi and Take Off

The flight was more or less full, the middle seat in my row remained empty, yay! I was in and out of sleep while boarding was completed.

Avianca A320 with Costa Rican flag


Dreamliner!


The new ATC tower and the flags while we pass CATAM Military base


The PTV shows that we are in Bogotá but not in the airport…plop


We took off from RWY 13L and turned northward as its usual for East Coast departures, we then flew over west Bogotá. Being seated on the left side of the cabin we managed to enjoy nice views of BOG.


Bogotá comes to an abrupt end because of the wetlands


And then comes suburbia with golf clubs and small bedroom-communities

En Route to Fort Lauderdale

IFE was quite boring: no satellite coverage meant no DirecTV, and the movie that was going to be shown was quite lame. The TV quality was very poor anyway.

So I enjoyed the window views of cloudy Colombia.



This little booklet shows what's for offer on the flight. Nothing entertaining. But it does give a nice heads up about what's going to be given in terms of food.


They kept passing this video on how to fill the customs form…they did it twice!


We follwed the Magdalena River into the Caribbean Sea


Bye bye my beloved Colombia. As soon as this happened we were handed drinks and food. I ordered a ton of Apple Juice (hungover) and ate greasy Mickey D's


Trying to use free wifi resulted in utter failure. Supposedly we were within coverage area.


Chocolate chip cookies as dessert for the greasy McMuffin


Flying over Jamaica


Then Cuba


And eventually the US is at sight I always try to choose A seats on these flights to catch a view of the huge urban smudge SoFLa is.

Arrival to Fort Lauderdale

I expected a right away landing into the 28 runways…but we made a whole downwind approach into RWY 10R



Zoom int Sunny Isles Beach


FLL


And now over suburbian sprawl in Broward….Pembroke Pines I guess


Fires on the Everglades


Back to sprawl….from the ground its quite a monotone boring view, but it does have some charm from above


Straight ahead: Downtown Ft. Lauderdale


And now we'll follow I-595 to FLL


Lining up


Zoom into Downtown Ft. Lauderdale as we near FLL


The North Part of the field is visible now…check how near the begining of RWY 10L is from the highway!


Flying over I-95 means your landing is imminent


ATC Tower


Azul giant waiting to go back to Brasil


Flying cabs at their base


Avianca had beat us already!

Taxi to Gate at Fort Lauderdale/ Hollywood International

You can basically see the whole offer of airlines competing between FLL and BOG in this photo


Quite a beautiful plane!


Blue hub in action


AV 319


Caribbean Airlines 738


Guyana Golden Jubilee stickers



Then it was queueing at the CBP. It took its fair time. The agent was quite worried about my looks (hangover). I told him I had a rough time last night (which was true indeed) and he wished me well…with a huge sign indicating that I was selected for secondary inspection on my form. Yikes Then, baggage claim area was chaotic, full and with a huge queue to get out. Secondary inspection was super thorough and the CBP people weren't too nice. After an hour I was finally let into the US.