After being away for five months, I have ventured back to Cali. Since I wasn’t sure when i wanted to return to Boston exactly, I booked a one-way flight on jetBlue. It was my first jetBlue experience. Yes, I’ll admit until last night, I was Blue virgin. And my first time wasn’t only memorable. It was good!!
I decided to upgrade myself when purchasing my ticket to the extra legroom, which was a great call on my part. Even though jetBlue does have the most legroom in coach, a 6 hour flight needs to be extra comfy. I sat down in my cushy seat in row 3 (I enjoy sitting at the front of the plane so I can get off the plane ASAP when we arrive), and got out my reading materials, snacks and headphones. A young man sat down on the aisle and we both lucked out in having the middle seat empty! So far, so good.
The best part about flying jetBlue was I got to watch television. For free. I am so sick of in-flight entertainment. The airline always shows prime time shows I don’t care about, like The New Adventures of Old Christine… come on!, and movies that I would never watch if you paid me. I once was on a plane where
they showed Arlington Road. Yes, that’s EXACTLY what I want to watch while flying 40,000 feet in the air. A movie about blowing things up. Anyway, each seat has it’s own TV built into the seat back in front of you. You can control what you want to watch. When I was in college, I used to fly back and forth on Frontier Airlines, and some of their planes had television, but you had to swipe your card (after paying a million dollars for your flight) and there were limited stations. JetBlue got it right. I had 36 free stations of DirecTV at my fingertips. With not one, not two, but three movie choices available for 5 dollars a pop. I chose to watch the free stations since I had literally seen 27 Dresses the evening before (adorable!), and wasn’t in the mood for Jumper nor the other movie.
I also liked that they gave you a choice of snacks. I am personally not a fan of peanuts, and those snack mixes which contain 3 crackers are barely a snack. On jetBlue they give you the option of Munchies chips, cookies, cashews, chips and other tasty snacks. The flight attendants were generous with the drinks and water, and if I had wanted more snacks, they would have given them to me. However, since the flight was 6 hours, i came prepared with a sandwich, fruit and mega water bottle.
Even the two young kids sitting directly in front of me didn’t rain on my parade. The toddler was happy and friendly, occasionally standing up and looking over the seatback to me. And as for the baby, I didn’t realize there was a baby there too until at least halfway through the flight. And I only realized this because I saw her. The parents however could have taken a few lessons.
- Offense 1: Flashers – Parents, I get that your kids are adorable and you want a million pictures of
them. And in normal situations like a trip to Disneyland or having a face covered in cake, that is fine. Snap away. However, when you are in the confined space of an airplane, choosing to do a full on photo shoot of “Baby’s First Flight” is not appropriate nor courteous to your surrounding passengers. There were so many flashes going off, that if I had epilepsy, I certainly would have had a seizure.
- Offense 2: Smells Worse Than Teen Spirit – Note: This rule is for all times, not just airplanes. Poopy diapers. If I can smell them, and everyone else can smell them, why can’t the parents? No, it’s not convenient for your kids to shit while you’re in that department store, but put down the Theory dress and excuse yourself and your poopy-pantsed kid to resolve the stench. Use your brain people. Needless to say, being around a smelly diaper is much worse on a re-circulating air airplane than in an open department store. I think you catch my drift.
All in all, I arrived at Long Beach airport having watched two movies on FX, the season finale of America’s Next Top Model, the new episode of Top Chef, and bits and pieces of various episodes of Friends and Family Guy. I recommend that if jetBlue flies to your next point of destination, you book it.
Rants and Raves du Jour 