Background & Booking
I was attending a wedding in Lake Tahoe, California, and needed a flight to get there from New York City. The only nonstop options were to either Sacramento (SMF) or Reno (RNO), with JetBlue flying to both airports and United flying to just Sacramento. In the end, I just picked the cheapest nonstop, and it was from New York (JFK) to Sacramento (SMF) on the JetBlue A321 Classic aircraft.
Flight Details
JetBlue Flight 161
New York (JFK) to Sacramento (SMF)
Seat: 14C (Core/Economy)
Scheduled Duration: 6 hours 28 minutes
Actual Duration: 7 hours 10 minutes
Aircraft: Airbus A321 (Blue’s That Girl)
Check-In & At The Airport
I checked in online and noticed that there were extra “Even More” seats available. I did find them quite expensive, at $144 a piece. So, I stayed put.
JetBlue utilizes JFK’s Terminal 5, and there is a lot of construction going on in the area, but my Uber drop-off wasn’t too bad considering the amount of construction. The TSA PreCheck line was short, and I was in the terminal within 5 minutes.
While there aren’t any lounges at Terminal 5, it’s still a nice terminal and has a lot of food options.
Boarding
Boarding was scheduled 45 minutes before departure, and then they actually started 2 minutes early.
Boarding groups were A-F, and I was assigned E. I think it’s because I was in the window. F is for basic economy, and most of the flight was actually in Group F, as there was a huge field trip of students. So during boarding group E, there was a lot of overhead space left, and I could get space above my seat.
The pilot let us know that the flight time in the air would be 6 hours. Boarding was complete 15 minutes before our scheduled departure, but we were waiting for bags and paperwork. We ended up leaving the gate a few minutes early. But we were in the 20s for takeoff, so that it would be a while on the ground. We also had to get rerouted since there was a big storm in Indiana, so our flight path was longer to avoid the storm. We ended up taking off about an hour and 15 minutes after leaving the gate.
The Plane & Seat
The JetBlue Airbus A321 Classic has a total of 200 seats. 158 of them are standard Core Seats, while 42 of them are Even More Seats with extra legroom.
The Core (Economy) cabin offers a solid pitch of 32 inches, and all seats have universal power adapters with USB-A sockets. There are 2 sets per group of three seats.
The 10.1-inch IFE screen offers DIRECTV, movies, TV shows, and music to keep you entertained. While the screen isn’t the highest resolution, it is totally fine. Also, there is free gate-to-gate Wi-Fi on the Fly-Fi network. It was good for occasional surfing, but typical slow airline speeds.
There is 1 lavatory in the front of the aircraft, and 3 in the rear. It’s a bit of a trek to walk to the back if you’re in the middle of the cabin, but since there are 3 in the rear, it’s often less busy than waiting for the 1 in the front. I visited the lavatory once during the flight, and it was alright since it was a bit tight.
The Flight
Shortly after reaching cruising altitude, the flight attendants came by to offer items for sale, which included: Earbuds ($7), Blanket ($10), Pillow and Snooze Kit ($7), and Snooze Kit ($2). Then, they came by with the snacks/food for purchase. I really wanted to try one of the sandwiches, either the chicken salad or ham and cheese, but both were sold out by the time they got to my row. Considering I was in row 14 out of 34 and they started from the front, I am shocked they ran out already, and thought they would stock enough since it is one of their longer flights at over 6 hours. This is something they should work on.
I ended up settling on one of the Protein Snack Boxes ($10). It was fine, but it kept me from starving on the flight. It came with a snack bar, coconut bites, almonds, cheese straws, and some turkey jerky.
Then, the complimentary beverage service and snacks came out. Complimentary snacks included an Oats Chewy granola bar, Plantain Chips, Goldfish & Biscoff cookies. Sadly, they have discontinued the Pop Chips.
One hour before landing, they did do an additional cold drink service, which was appreciated since our flight was so long at this point, but no extra snacks.
We landed about 30 minutes late, and got to the gate 10 minutes after. Quite a long flight at over 7 hours due to the runway traffic at JFK and weather in Indiana, but we made it to Sacramento!
The Verdict
Overall, I had a decent flight on the JetBlue A321 Classic from New York (JFK) to Sacramento (SMF). The in-flight entertainment & Wi-Fi help make the time go by, and the legroom is sufficient. Though I wish they stocked more sandwiches for purchase.
Have you flown on the JetBlue A321 Classic before? How was your experience? Comment below!
Cheers,
Ty
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