This past Tuesday I finished my final exams at Embry Riddle and headed back to Maine for a much needed break. While I'm going to miss Riddle over the summer, I was certainly anxious to get home. Riddle's schedule, giving only a week break per 4 month semester, is rather taxing (especially in the engineering curriculum.) At the moment I'm still letting my brain catch up with all the knowledge I've been bombarded with in the past two months.

After checking out of my dorm room I departed Daytona, taking the "DOTS" (Daytona-Orlando Transit Service) shuttle down to MCO. The DOTS shuttle offers pick up and drop off anywhere in the Daytona/Deltona/Deland region, so I was able to get on the shuttle right outside the dorms, and get dropped off curbside at Airside A a little more than two hours later.

Anyways, on to the flight:

KMCO - KJFK
Flight # JBU 154
Equipment:A320-200 (N652JB)
Scheduled Departure: 17:35 Actual Departure: 18:30
Scheduled Arrival: 20:30 Actual Arrival: 21:26


JetBlue's check in at Orlando is set up with the self-service kiosks set away in an alcove opposite the check-in counters. It took me a little while to find the kiosks, but when I turned around and found them check in was really quick. With no line at the kiosks and maybe 5 minutes at the bag drop, I was quickly checked in and ready to wait in the half hour security line.

Arriving at the TSA checkpoint, I was surprised to find that the "experienced traveler" line was longer (and more full of young families) than the "family" line was. So it goes. Despite the terrible line, the TSA personnel were surprisingly friendly (they must be paid well). When the contents of my pockets went through the X-Ray, a TSA official noticed the outline of my F-4 Phantom keychain and commented as it came out of the machine that he was a fan of the F-4 himself. This surprised me, first that the screeners were paying enough attention to the the X-Ray images to notice a specific key-chain, and secondly that he was able to identify it as an F-4 from just the sillhouette. Impressive on both counts.


Orlando's terminal was nice, as always. When not under construction, Orlando's airside wings always strike me as being very well maintained, clean, and generally having an inviting atmosphere (much to the contrary at the other airsides that are under renovation.) Not many airports have ponds flanked by palm groves right in the middle of the ramp.


Can you spot the hiding 737?

JetBlue's airside is shared with Southwest and I must say, I prefer JetBlue's half. Southwest flies many, many more flights from MCO than JetBlue does, and it shows. Just walking down the concourse through the crowds is a difficult task of navigation. I sat at one of the Southwest gates for a while admiring the view and I overheard a number of ridiculous conversations between passengers and gate staff. I have to give a great deal of credit to Southwest's ground staff. With the number of screaming children, screaming adults, and screaming adults acting like children that they deal with, they deserve all the praise that can be given to them.


Southwest's extremely crowded concourse.


"Silver One" pictured in a typical Orlando scene


I must admit, Southwest's blue livery looks very nice in the afternoon sun.


More Southwest than your body has room for!! (pardon the Powerthirst reference. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. Random internet fad from a couple years ago.)

After getting my fill of plane-spotting on Southwest's side of the airport, I headed back over to JetBlue's rather deserted concourse. While starting to write this trip report I watched a number of flights arrive, one of them being the non-stop Embraer from Portland, Maine. Being curious about the load factor on the flight, I counted the passengers deplaning. On a plane that seats 100, I counted 92 passengers deplane. Not bad, being a leisure flight that should be suffering in this economy.


Flight 1149's E-190 pushing back about an hour later, departing to White Plains

Shortly before my aircraft should have been arriving from New York, the departure board was revised from a 5:35 departure to a 6:20 departure. The gate staff announced this was due to a ground stop in New York, and they would be trying their best to get us out as soon as possible.


My flight up to JFK, pulling into the gate just a few minutes behind schedule.

Hoping to make the best of the delay, I asked the gate agent if it would be possible to board early to take a few cabin photos for Airliners.net (I also mentioned a certain other website which is more likely to accept my photos...but I won't speak of that here.) She responded that she would ask the captain when he arrived, and that if I stayed in the gate area she would get back to me shortly.


Another shot of the aircraft, "Out With the Old, In With the Blue"

About fifteen minutes later, the gate agent approached me and informed me that the captain had agreed to let me board to take some photographs. She escorted me down the jetbridge and introduced me to the captain. We talked for fifteen minutes or so about aviation and flying in general. I was wearing my Eagles Flight Team polo, so we discussed Embry Riddle and the Flight Team. It turns out the First Officer was a Riddle graduate, and they had been discussing Riddle on the way down when they overflew Daytona Beach.


The A320's flight deck. Note the paperless cockpit, featuring a pair of HP notebooks.

After about fifteen minutes of interesting conversation, the captain had to do his pre-flight walk around, so I went back into the cabin to take a few photos. I introduced myself to the cabin crew, took a few shots, and then took my seat in 11F.


I didn't notice the two Flight Attendants sitting in the back row until my camera's flash prompted them to both peer up over the seats


Looking forward.

On JetBlue's A320s, row 11 is the second exit row, and is one of the "even more legroom" seats. At the time I booked the flight, these $20 seats were the only window seats left open. The seat was well worth the extra $20. As the rest of the passengers boarded, I found out that the middle seat next to me was empty. I ended up with more leg room than I could possibly need, and an empty seat next to me. Add that to the fact that the flight crew was now addressing me by name, and I felt like I was in business class.


Somebody put my window in upside down!

As we approached our 6:47 wheels up time, we taxied to runway 36R and promptly took off into the hazy Florida skies. Take off in the A320 was surprisingly quiet (for being less than 5 feet from the engine), and I quickly settled in to watch some free in-flight television.
About fifteen minutes after take off, I happened to notice a familiar sight out the window, as we passed over Daytona Beach at 30,000 feet.


A very hazy KDAB.

The next hour and a half in flight was taken up by the Discovery Channel. There were a few interesting documentary programs on, and I kept myself entertained with tales of Mexican prisons and manufacturing turbine blades.


"How It's Made" making a CFM-56 compressor blade.

Service on this flight was standard for all JetBlue flights I've been on. The FA's came around taking drink orders before delivering ice and full cans of drinks, followed by a snack bag with the standard options of Terra Blues, Trail Mix, Cookies, or a few other choices. As novel as Terra Blue chips are, I've found them to be hit-or-miss on taste. While I usually find them quite tasty, the bag I got this time had quite an earthy dirty taste that I didn't much care for. This sub-par bag of chips was one of only two very minor complaints I had this trip. The other is in regards to JetBlue's moving-map channel. It seems like more and more ads keep getting added, which means less and less map. It takes almost a minute of ads to see the map (which in itself is disappointing. The aircraft image takes up almost as much screen as the entire state of Maine.)


In flight somewhere over Virginia-ish. Does anyone know what causes these interesting ice crystal formations on the windows in flight? I've always been curious about that...

As the sun set over New Jersey, I noticed something strange. Can anyone tell from this picture?


The sun sets to the west.

What's strange about that picture? Well, I was sitting on the right hand side of the aircraft, and we were traveling to the North. I shouldn't have had any view of the setting sun to the West. A minute or so after making this observation, the captain came on the PA to announce that we were in a holding pattern, and would hopefully be cleared into JFK sometime soon. After about a half hour of circuits over New Jersey, we finally made our way down to New York. After overflying the west side of the airport, we made a quick turn to final to runway 13L and landed approximately an hour behind schedule. Luckily my layover was scheduled to be just under two hours, and I quickly made it across the terminal to my connecting flight to PWM.


At the gate at JFK.


KJFK - KPWM
Flight # JBU 608
Equipment:EMB-190 (N247JB)
Scheduled Departure: 22:25 Actual Departure: 22:25
Scheduled Arrival: 23:47 Actual Arrival: 23:40

The next leg of my trip was a quick flight up to PWM. The best way I can describe this flight is "uneventful." This flight would be on an Embraer 190 named "Blue is So You." I arrived at the gate area about 15 minutes before boarding started, and I quickly checked my Email using JetBlue's free WiFi in the terminal. Despite all the hype about the new Terminal 4, I didn't find it all that spectacular. Yes, there were a lot of over-priced shops to waste money at, but when it comes to basic passenger amenities, the terminal didn't have any real advantages over a traditional terminal at any other airport.

Upon boarding, I took my seat in 8D. Even though the E-190's leg room is much less than that of my "even more legroom" exit row seat, there was still more than enough space. Additionally, the seat design makes the space available seem much more spacious than a traditional seat would.


Plenty 'o Legroom

We took a rather circuitous taxi around JFK so I'm not entirely sure which runway we used, but I suspect it was 13R. Taxing past the other airline terminals, I caught a glimpse of Emirates' A380 resting overnight.


Sorry about the picture quality. It was dark.

In flight service was revised for the short flight. A limited selection of drinks and snacks were available, but still better than many airlines offer. I went with the cookies this time, and settled in to watch a show about telemarketing. (don't ask...it's a somehow addicting show...)

We only reached a cruising altitude of 17,000 feet, and quickly arrived at PWM. We made use of Runway 11, and taxied in to Gate 10, past a whole fleet of RON aircraft. Parked for the night were a pair of CRJ-700s, a Q400, a 717, a pair of E-170s, 3 CRJ-200s, a CRJ-900, and an ERJ. Add to that our E-190 and another E-170 that came in after us, and that's using every parking spot the terminal has to offer.

It took about fifteen minutes for our baggage to come out, and after that I was on my way home, done with my first year at Embry Riddle.

Despite my delays, I really enjoyed this flight. JetBlue's staff continue to be friendly and courteous in everything they do. Their planes and terminals are spacious and comfortable. JetBlue's product (in my humble opinion) is superior to any other economy class product in the domestic US market. If JetBlue's JFK hub was not so crowded and delay prone, I would rate them as nearly flawless.

Hey, I really enjoyed reading your trip report. I would definitely agree that B6 offers the best economy product in the US, especially with the $20 upgrade for extra seat pitch.

I think they did put the window in upside down....

Is that what B6 does, or is it really a mistake

Nice report. I'm pretty sure the window shades are like that in all exit rows, though!

JBLU

Quoting JetBlueGuy2006 (Reply 2): think they did put the window in upside down.... Is that what B6 does, or is it really a mistake

On the Airbuses (or is that Airbusi) I have been on the window shades are in "upside down" in the exit row windows.

Quoting KPWMSpotter (Thread starter): More Southwest than your body has room for!! (pardon the Powerthirst reference. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. Random internet fad from a couple years ago.)

  

Ah internet memes, aka fads. Anyway, interesting report. JetBlue seems to to a great job, in front, in back as well as on the ground. Thanks for the great photos and text  .

Great TR!

Can't wait to give B6 a try someday soon. Good pics too.

Enjoyed the read,

WNTex

Nice report and congrats on finishing year 1 at ERAU. I like the pre-boarding shots of the cockpit and cabin, it was nice of the crew to accomodate you. Every time I fly B6 or see a cabin shot I always wonder why they chose a grey interior instead of "Blue" that would sure seem to better fit their image when ironically most US cariers now have blue interiors. AA/CO/DL/FL/NW/UA/US just to name a few. And BTW the A-380 you saw at JFK departs at 2300 to DXB.

Enjoy your summer break.

LGA777

HAHAHA, you flew the aircraft I named. Glad you chose Jetblue to fly with. Nice trip report btw.

Thanks for all the comments!

Yep, the "upside-down window" was a sarcastic comment. As far as I know, all Airbii have the window shades inverted on the emergency exit windows.

Contrails, which aircraft did you name? How exactly does JetBlue name all of their aircraft? Do they let employees submit names and chose the best of those, or something like that?


I'm going to be flying JetBlue again in a week to get to the NIFA national competition, and then a hop on Northwest to ride in a DC-9 afterwards, so I'll have another extensive trip report for you all to read in a few weeks, so stay tuned!

Awesome TR man! Loved the pics

BTW I just finished my first year down there too! I just got home Fri. Hopefully I'll be posting a TR for my flight back to MKE fairly soon  

Great report of this JetBlue experience!
Thanks for sharing

Joost (D-ALCE)

Great report on your JetBlue experience,i have to say that having read that I am really looking forward to my up and coming trip with them next month from Las-JFK,and I am glad i booked exra leg room seats as well.
Thanks again   

Hiya,
that Jetblue ride seems quite ok indeed. So they serve drinks and a bite for free? That's good to hear! Would love to fly the E-190 some day soon. I think I will like that aircraft type.
Does this airline use T4 at JFK, same as the international flights use? Or is it a dedicated section in this terminal? I found the shopping/dining area in T4 very messy and customer unfriendly, during my visit last week.
Thanks for the read. Great stuff!

Regards,
Eric

Quoting Airbuseric (Reply 13): Does this airline use T4 at JFK, same as the international flights use? Or is it a dedicated section in this terminal? I found the shopping/dining area in T4 very messy and customer unfriendly, during my visit last week.

They use T5, which just opened late last year. It was built specifically for them. Check out t508.com to see more about it.

Quoting PanAm330 (Reply 14): They use T5, which just opened late last year. It was built specifically for them. Check out t508.com to see more about it.

Yep, sorry, I meant to say terminal 5. My finger must have slipped a digit over.
T5 was opened less than a year ago, and has been advertised and touted by jetBlue as being advanced, luxurious, and generally better than anything else out there. It was nice...but not as nice as the ads make it seem.
So, to answer your question Eric, nope, different terminal. JetBlue has their own dedicated terminal, and as far as I know, it doesn't handle any international arrivals.

Quoting KPWMSpotter (Reply 9): Contrails, which aircraft did you name? How exactly does JetBlue name all of their aircraft? Do they let employees submit names and chose the best of those, or something like that?

Out with the old and in with the blue was the plane I named. Employees get to name the planes. About every two years there is a contest were they will pick a bunch of names that they like and if you get picked you get nothing theses days. LOL However, back in the day when the company first started and you won, they would send you off to France to see the plane you named and get a tour of Airbus. You then take the trip back on your new named plane. Those were the good old days, times of changed as money is a big issue.

The new terminal is what we refer to as "a pax friendly terminal" meaning its clean cut, easy to get around and find things. So when you say that you didn't find the new terminal to big no real thing, its understandable. Its a HUGE improvement to what we used to have over at T-6 but we have lots of compliments and complaints about it but if you see something that you feel would a nice addition to the terminal you should e mail the company. Believe it or not, they do read customer e mails. Hope that answers any questions you might have and feel free to ask me more. I've been with B6 for 7 years now which is almost its entire life. LOL Once again, nice trip report.

Quoting Airbuseric (Reply 13): Hiya, that Jetblue ride seems quite ok indeed. So they serve drinks and a bite for free? That's good to hear! Would love to fly the E-190 some day soon. I think I will like that aircraft type. Does this airline use T4 at JFK, same as the international flights use? Or is it a dedicated section in this terminal? I found the shopping/dining area in T4 very messy and customer unfriendly, during my visit last week. Thanks for the read. Great stuff!

We only use T-4 for inbound international flights that have to go thru customs. Right now they are POP, STI, SDQ, CUN, SXM, AUA.

Hey, Kevin,

good to read something more from MCO and also DAB, where I was also only some days ago.
Nice pics, MCO looks much better during sunshine than my last time there.
And Jetblue seems ok so far.

Greetings,
Markus (FLIEGER67)

Quoting KPWMSpotter (Thread starter):

Awesome Trip Report. MCO is quite a uniquely designed airport which I have been at several times as well. B6 will start daily JFK-MBJ ( A320 ) on May 21st and I am positive it will do well on that route.

Nice report! I'm glad you got to go home for a little bit.
How are you getting to KCPS this week?

Go Eagles!

Quoting Res6cue114 (Reply 20): Nice report! I'm glad you got to go home for a little bit. How are you getting to KCPS this week?

I'm flying back down to MCO/DAB on Thursday, then the team vans up to St. Louis. I'll be sure to write a trip report afterward, reporting on the leg room and in flight service in the Econoliner on the way up...

How do you like living in Maine? I just got my ATC assignment and it was for PWM. I fought up and down to try and get something in my current state of VA, but to no avail. So my Oklahoma City date is July 8th and then after that I'll be working at the good ol' Jetport.

Good report by the by  

Interesting report with many nice pictures. The cabin shots are outstanding - good to see they allowed you to take the pictures prior to the flight.

Quoting KPWMSpotter (Thread starter): "How It's Made" making a CFM-56 compressor blade.

...and all that on an IAE-powered plane.  


PH

Quoting KPWMSpotter (Thread starter): It took about fifteen minutes for our baggage to come out, and after that I was on my way home, done with my first year at Embry Riddle.

When I looked at Riddle, I really enjoyed the campus and location, but I don't think I saw a single female during my campus tour. I ended up at FIT, but that's still not much of an improvement on the girl to guy ratio, haha  

Nice TR, I've yet to experience JetBlue but I am familiar with the network from a few college classes.