Background
For my 4-day cruise on Virgin Voyages, I needed to get to the Port of Miami, so the most logical options would be to fly into Miami or Fort Lauderdale. Comparing pricing, JetBlue had the lowest-priced flight, but we would have to fly into Fort Lauderdale (FLL) instead of Miami (MIA). FLL is 30 miles from the Miami Cruise Port, compared to just around 8 miles from MIA. It seemed that the Uber/Lyft would only be $25-30 more from FLL than MIA, so the flight savings would be worth it & JetBlue Economy was booked!
Flight Details
JetBlue Airways Flight 571
New York (LGA) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
Cabin: Economy
Aircraft: Airbus A320- Glad to Be Blue
Seats: 17E
Booking JetBlue Economy
I booked a “Blue” fare, which is the standard economy option that comes with a carry-on, free standard seat selection at booking and offers free changes & cancellations to a travel bank valid for one year. The Blue fare on my flight was $30 more than the Blue Basic fare, which does not allow free changes & cancellations or advanced seat selection (until 24 hours before the flight).
Since there was bad weather predicted, the morning of the flight I got an email waiving change fees. I decided to switch to the earlier flight as I was on the last flight of the night and it seemed that the storm would be worse later in the night. My original flight ended up getting to the gate an hour late, so I was happy to fly on the earlier flight.
Upgrade to Even More Space
At booking and check-in, prices for the Even More Space (rows 1-5 and exit rows 10-11) cost $82 for a middle seat and $89 for a window or aisle. This is a lot more than when I flew this exact route in March 2023 and it cost $58 for a middle seat and $64 for a window or aisle. If you book the JetBlue Even More Space Seats, you also get Early Boarding, and Priority Security if it’s available at your airport. But keep in mind that the priority security would only be helpful if you don’t have TSA Precheck or Clear.
I decided to pass on the Even More Space upgrade and try out the standard Economy product.
JetBlue Boarding Groups
Currently, JetBlue’s boarding order is below:
- Pre-boarding for customers with disabilities
- Mosaic and Mint® customers
- Even More® Space customers (Group A)
- Courtesy Boarding for active military personnel and customers traveling with children in car seats and strollers
- Group B
- Group C
- Group D
- Group E
- Group F
- All remaining customers
Customers on the same reservation and checked in together will be assigned to the same boarding group. But keep in mind. if you are on the same reservation and check-in separately, you are not guaranteed the same boarding group.
How boarding is said to work on JetBlue is that those in the rear of the plane and window seats get an earlier boarding group (B). Then, it goes to those in the middle seats in the middle of the plane (C). Lastly, those towards the front of the plane and/or in aisle seats will board later (D). Then, of course, Blue Basic (Basic Economy) passengers will board in Groups E and F.
In terms of carry-on bags, if you are boarding in group D and your plane is full, you may not find room for your carry-on.
Since my travel companion and I had assigned seats towards the middle/rear in a window middle seat, we got boarding group B. The whole group assignment was a bit funky, where I got a notification that they changed my group to C a few hours before the flight, perhaps because I was in a middle seat. They did keep my travel companion who was at the window in B. But, I already screenshotted my boarding pass and boarded in B with my travel companion with no issues.
The Plane + Seat
Our flight was operated by an A320, and it was the newly renovated A320 Restyled. Our particular aircraft was a little over 16 years old but recently refurbished in 2022. The plane’s interior seemed quite fresh and updated. A vast majority of JetBlue’s A320s are in “Restyled” form already, with only 11 out of the 128 in service being unrefurbished. Our plane’s name was Glad to Be Blue.
JetBlue already offers solid legroom, in their standard Economy Cabin. These seats on the A320 “Restyled” offer 32 inches of pitch. The JetBlue Even More Space seats offer 35 inches of pitch (38 inches for the exit row).
For standard economy, I found the legroom to be quite good being 5’9, as my knees had some wiggle room.
In-Flight Entertainment:
The seat featured a 10.1” HD seatback touchscreen. I found the display quality to be good and the touchscreen responded well. There were movies, DIRECTV, prerecorded TV shows, and games. A cool feature was that you could pair your phone to the TV and use your phone as the remote instead of using the touchscreen.
For charging, in-seat USB on the screen and in between the bottom of the seats are available, as well as 110v power outlets.
Wi-Fi:
JetBlue offers free Wi-Fi called Fly-Fi on all of their flights which is powered by ViaSat. One nice thing is that there are no device limitations, so you can connect to both your phone and laptop. At the beginning of the flight, the Wi-Fi worked well, but towards the middle of the flight and until the end, it was quite spotty.
The Flight:
The captain let us know that the time in the air would be a little less than 3 hours, but due to inclement weather in New York and the Northeast, air traffic control had to keep rerouting our route, so it took a while before the boarding door closed. We eventually left the gate 30 minutes after our scheduled departure time and took off 50 minutes after our scheduled departure. We ended up landing in Fort Lauderdale 35 minutes late and got to the gate 10 minutes later.
In terms of lavatories, there is 1 lavatory in the front of the cabin and 2 in the rear. Since the flight was relatively short, I didn’t use any of them during my flight.
Cabin Service:
After reaching cruising altitude, the cart for purchase came down the aisle first. There were the EatUp snack boxes for $9-$10. There was a Protein box, Mediterranean Inspired box, Cheese & Cracker Snack Plate, and a Party Up Candy box. Additionally, a pillow and snooze kit was for sale for $7, a snooze kit by itself for $2, earbuds for $6, and a blanket for $10.
Beer was $9, Liquor was $10, and Wine for $11.
After the items for purchase cart completed its trek across the cabin. The beverage and snack services commenced. Interestingly, they first do the beverage service, then the snack service separately after. Pepsi products were complimentary, and snack choices included Chifles Plantain Chips, Popchips Sea Salt, Quaker Chocolate Chip Granola Bar, and Vegan Butter Pretzel Braids.
Interestingly, Seagrams Ginger Ale was offered, which is a Coke product. I had this plus Pop Chips & Plantain Chips. I appreciated that the whole can of soda was provided.
