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Attending inaugural flights is basically my favorite pastime before the Pandemic, and as the world shuts down in 2020 and me remaining here in Hong Kong, I have not been able to attend any inaugural flight. When I finally get the chance to fly back to the US for three months, I was excited to find out that there were a few opportunities to fly a few inaugural flights. In the end, I settled in two inaugural – one is the long-awaited JetBlue’s inaugural flight to Vancouver, and Alaska Airlines’ inaugural flight to Cleveland. Unfortunately Covid-19 has also changed how airlines plan and view inaugural flights, and while some excitements remained, inaugural flights have become a subtler event with less celebration. JetBlue kept a decent buffet in JFK but Alaska Airlines chose not to serve any real food items like before. As an AvGeek, it is a disappointment to certain extent but with Covid-19 still lurking in the background, it is a new reality that we all need to deal with. I am just grateful that JetBlue still has a nice celebration at the gate in JFK. I will have another month and half in the US in October/November and not sure if I will go out of my way to attend these inaugural flights till things become more normal. I also will not write such detailed reports anymore and let my photos speak more.

June 9, 2022
B6 603 JFK-YVR Lv1710 Arr2046 Airbus A320-200 N729JB “If You Can Read This, You’re Blue Close” Mosaic livery

Due to some personal matters, I arrived much later than I wanted at JFK, but thankfully I did not miss much. Check-in was fairly normal and I used the Mosaic desk. The agent was a bit unsure about the document check but we managed, as I guided her through the requirements – basically my vaccination certificate and my ArriveCAN approval QR code.




For some reasons, JetBlue likes to use gate 15 for inaugural flights, but I can’t think of a worse gate to conduct such festivities. First, there is no good view of the aircraft used on this special flight and second, the sunlight does not allow any good pictures at all. Yes, I understand the available space but it was just not the right space.

JetBlue did a typical setup at the gate with a decent buffet spread of signature food items that identify with Vancouver – it includes Nanaimo bar, sushi, fried rice, ketchup chips, egg rolls, fortune cookies, as well as cookies celebrating the inaugural flight and bottled waters. Each item is separated into small cartons and you can have as much food as you want. It is a Covid-19 protocol but is actually better to serve food this way.












There were plenty of JetBlue staffs and Canadian consulate/tourism staffs too. There were the usual small speeches and JetBlue will be only airline running a year-round nonstop service between JFK and Vancouver.

Ribbon cutting time




Destination Poster – Vancouver


The new flight will depart daily from JFK at 6:59pm, but today’s flight departed a bit earlier. I presume it was for the celebration and some training session at Vancouver.

However I am a bit disappointed that JetBlue does not use a newer plane on this inaugural flight. Sure the aircraft has the new A320 cabin, but they usually use some of the newer planes featuring their new tails and special liveries on these new flights.



Boarding began at 4:33pm and the flight was not full. There were plenty of non-rev but also many new JetBlue travelers. The F/As were friendly and I snap a shot with them during boarding.


A320 Restyle cabin










At each seat, there is an American/Canadian flag and a postcard featuring the posters of JetBlue’s latest destination. It is interesting to see how the destination painting changes from posters to a A4 sized print to now a postcard. But to be fair, the postcard is easier to carry around.



Door was closed early at 5:05pm and we pushed back on time.




We took off at 5:39pm for our five hours and forty-six minutes flight to Vancouver. Our routing was a bit unusual, as we actually headed north first towards Ottawa before turning West towards Vancouver through mostly Canadian airspace. For Fly-Fi and Live TV, the signals remained pretty strong throughout the flight, but we lost Live TV signal briefly over North Bay, but we got pretty good signals throughout the flight. I managed to watch the whole shocking first hearing of the January 6 committee during the flight. I am impressed with JetBlue’s wifi and Live TV system.

Cabin service was pretty normal and everything is pretty much back to pre-Covid-19 standard. Sadly there was no free drinks or sparkling wine on the inaugural flight.

Menu



Buy-On-Board cart actually still had plenty of items available for sale, despite being in the exit row.

I bought both the Turkey & Provolone Sandwich with avocado spread and the cheese plate, as I knew it would be a long flight due to strong headwind. I save one of the items for later part of the flight.














Then there was a full beverage service with the snack basket featuring Cheez-It Crackers, 88 Acres’ Cinnamon & Oats Seed Bar Thins, PopCorner’s Popcorn Chips, and Goodie Girl Cookies Brown Sugar Crunchy Oat Flour.





After the beverage service, there was the usual seat lottery and some lucky passengers got some tickets to local attractions and one lucky passenger got a pair of free JetBlue tickets to anywhere JetBlue flies.

The rest of the flight went by quickly and there was a final beverage service about two hours prior to arrival.

Since the Canadian government still requires masking at the airports, the F/A made plenty of announcements to remind passengers that they need to wear their masks once they deplane in Vancouver. They made a mask run prior to our descend into Vancouver. Sanitary wipes and masks were widely available for passengers.

Descend began at 8:03pm local time, and sadly it was a cloudy day at Vancouver.






We landed on R/W8R at 8:25pm.

Despite a promise for water canon salute, it did not take place due to the rain. It sort of dampened the mood though.




We parked at gate E75 at 8:35pm and there was a traditional Native greeting, but there was no gift bag from Vancouver Tourism board or the airport. It was a disappointing end.

Final shot of the aircraft at E75






Baggage claim for the first JetBlue’s flight at Vancouver


In conclusion, I guess we have to get used to the new subtle inaugural flight festivities now in the post-Pandemic world. However, it was much better than Alaska Airlines’ Cleveland inaugural though. At least there was a nice buffet at JFK, and with more enthusiastic staffs, who all have ties to Vancouver. Airbus A220-300 will be perfect for the winter season, when demand might be lower. I wish JetBlue can maintain the year-round nonstop service and hopefully the Boston to Vancouver flight will become reality next year.

Nice TR, great pictures, well done!
Very strange to see that's permitted to stow handluggage in exit rows under the front seats... Only airline I have seen this before was LH, but with a "rail" to secure objects from sliding.

Ketchup chips and Nanaimo bars lol

Instead of serving the Dunkin Donuts coffee, they should have brewed up some JJ Bean for a much more authentic YVR experience