Can You Guess Who's the Best Coach Airline in North America? →

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Best overall coach-class airline in North America: JetBlue

Even after the current downgrading, JetBlue's extra legroom still beats any other airline. The de facto charge for a checked bag, at $15 over the minimum fare, is less than on most other airlines. The satellite-based Wi-Fi is free, at slow speeds, and $9 an hour for enough bandwidth to stream movies. And seats in JetBlue's Airbus planes are an inch wider than on any competitors' 737s.

Hope to see you soon on one of my flights!  

JetBlue's New Fare Classes are Better than Meets the Eye →

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The big news is that the price differential between Blue and Blue Plus tickets is generally only $15. JetBlue has made it a better value to purchase a ticket that includes a checked bag than it is to pay a bag fee, even in advance. In addition, buying a Blue Plus fare earns more TrueBlue points than the base fare, for marginally more money.

In comparison, Delta and United don’t have fares that include a checked bag, nor do they let passengers purchase checked baggage ahead of time for a reduced fee. American does offer fares with checked bag included, but the premium is more than the cost of a checked bag, although it does include group one boarding.

Essentially, if you are going to check a bag, don't book on Orbitz or Expedia and just select Blue Plus via JetBlue.com. Attention media, friends and family, it's still the best out there.

 
 

Launching the #OnReserve Team via Slack →

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Slack syncs seamlessly across devices, features a powerful internal search engine, and is highly compatible with dozens of other programs that keep businesses running. But Slack’s truly innovative offering goes unlisted: It is a cool office culture, available for instant download.

I spent the last few days setting up onreserve.info and onreserve.slack.com. With the help of an awesome guy named henry from another slack team, I was able to find out that you can register domain names for free, have it hosted via a github page, and use an entire library of awesome images via unsplash.com.

I've been blazing away at lightening speeds setting it up and getting it going. Now, with many various channels ready to go up and running, I want to invite all various Pilots and Flight Attendants to come and join up in an online Live Chat / Bulletin Board / Forum. The end goal really is to become a productive and cool culture where everyone can talk, meet up maybe and or even plan things. No negativity just plane talk... and whatever else.

If you have any more ideas to add, email me or like I already mentioned, join in by navigating to onreserve.info and following the sign-up process. I'll also have a write up shortly on how I did the nitty gritty with more details. Thanks again!

JetBlue's Fly-Fi vs. the Rest →

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The inflight Internet market in the U.S. doesn’t seem to follow any basic rule of competition. On an American or Delta plane you could wind up paying $10 to $20 to surf for the duration of your flight, and “surf” might be a generous word in this case. If there are a lot of other people using the same network on your plane, speeds might be so slow you’ll wind up paddling your way through the web.

At the other end of the spectrum, JetBlue offers complementary Internet access to all of its passengers. Instead of delivering a sluggish Internet experience, its Fly-Fi service is the fastest in the biz delivering speeds over 10 Mbps, and doesn’t restrict high-bandwidth applications like Netflix on its networks.

Installed on about 85% of our Airbus A320s and 100% of our A321s, commuting on JetBlue is a breeze with Fly-Fi. So fast and with access to Amazon Prime, Netflix and YouTube and every other social network, time does fly. I love working here.

A Guide on How To Have Sex on a Plane

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Not safe for work due to language, but his sketch it pretty awesome! Take notes but 1) I don't recommend or condone this in any manner 2) after some flight attendants see this video, I doubt you'll have the chance. Cheers and fly safe!

JetBlue x Manhattan Portage Sustainability Project

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Now's your chance to own some of JetBlue Airways' previous uniforms. Familiar pieces from the uniform line include the pilot shirt with embroidered wings to the flight attendant tie, shirt and scarf make up some of Manhattan Portages newest pieces. Grab the limited set while you can!

The Manhattan Portage X JetBlue City Lights Bag is constructed out of recycled JetBlue pilot shirts. Keeping the original garment pocket and pilot wings, the City Lights Bag is a perfect organizational companion. Domestically and internationally, it loves to tag along! Buy here

The Manhattan Portage x JetBlue Toiletry Case is designed to carry all your important travel necessities. This "above the wing" piece is made entirely from recycled flight attendant uniform materials - the exterior body is JetBlue's signature windowpane shirt, the lining is a scarf and the easy grab-and-go handle is a necktie! Buy here

I'm thinking about picking up either or or maybe both! And Just in case you wanted something larger, check out the Manhattan Portage x JetBlue Europa.

A Comical but Spot On "Living the Dream" Skit of Being an Airline Pilot Done by Legos

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Just this morning, as I'm walking through the gate down to the aircraft, a passenger approaches me and asks if he could board. I mean, sure but we aren't even on the plane ourselves yet and since we are running late, yes, we will be a tad late on the other side. Out of my control really but I do my best. I love our guests.

Typed: Airbus A320!

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Add another aircraft to the list of ratings! Last Friday night, my sim partner Joe and I went into our Maneuvers Validation and killed it! It couldn't have gone any smoother. And just yesterday morning, we finished our Line Orientation Evaluation and passed! As I was making the final landing of the two leg trip, I started getting goosebumps of excitement and then when we set the parking brake and the instructor said we successfully completed our LOE, the relief could have been felt from miles away.

We prepared well throughout the last two weeks. I mean, it was around 4 weeks total after the initial indoc and such. Chair flying each event, going over callouts and non-normal procedures and studying our approaches over and over until we got bored. In the end, I couldn’t have asked for a better sim partner or instructors. Needless to say, I came out of the sim typed in the Airbus A320 Family.

In all honesty, I’ve been lucky throughout my aviation career. At CAPT, I got to meet three guys who would be my best man and groomsman and end up at ASA. At ASA / ExpressJet, I got hired with over a dozen friends and became friends with many more. Our new hire class was pretty awesome. When I transitioned aircraft to the CRJ 700/900, I had another guy from my new hire class during the same period and when I upgraded to Captain years later, I was partnered up with one of my best friends from CAPT.

Now at JetBlue, I was fortunate again to have a Captain going through requalification which allowed me to sit in my First Officer seat the entire time enabling me to really learn my flows and callouts. When you are in a paired setup, I feel like it’s the most productive as long as you keep working through the periods where the captain is getting instruction. When you’re paired with another new hire first officer, you get that seat half of the four hour allotment but then you are able to observe and watch the other guy. It just depends on how you learn I guess. Thanks again Joe for everything! Even though it was albeit on the small size, nine total, everyone in my new hire class has been awesome.

Now with a mandatory four days off, I’ll be released to Initial Operating Experience at JFK! I’ve included a few various pictures throughout the 6 weeks here at jetBlue University. Yea, that’s outgoing CEO Dave Barger, my favorite instructor Bob Stafford and the obligatory PBE picture. There’s also a picture of our raft, the no motion flight training device and of course the simulator.

The last picture in the gallery below is of one of the newest Airbus' in the JetBlue Mint fleet courtesy of Planespotters' Juan Carlos Aponte! The Transcon A321 Mint aircraft holds 159 passengers total with 16 in Mint class and 143 Core Expereince seats while the A321 Core Aircraft holds 190 passengers. Then there's the main A320 that holds 150 seats soon to hold more. Take a peep! It's sweet!

For details on all the aircraft, check out Our Planes!

JetBlue Adds Apple Pay for InFlight Purchases

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With many airlines accepting only credit cards these days, I'm glad to see jetBlue getting onboard with Apple Pay. Bravo! And in a few months, we'll be paying with our Apple Watches! ^_^

Starting next week, passengers on select JetBlue Airways flights can use Apple Pay on their iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets to buy food, drinks and certain onboard amenities when the plane reaches cruising altitude. You'll be able to upgrade to available premium seats, too.

Update: Looks like a new app will go along the iPad minis too! Way to utilize tech jetBlue!

Apple Pay in the air, JetBlue will deploy iPad minis and NFC-enabled cases to more than 3,500 inflight crewmembers. In addition to the cases with Apple Pay compatibility, each iPad mini will be loaded with a custom-designed iOS app — The Inflight Service Assistant — which will give inflight crewmembers access to customer manifest and flight data to provide the best experience possible to JetBlue customers.