Background:
I booked jetBlue to/from Fort Lauderdale because I wanted to try their A321 Mint configuration plane featuring the newer seats and 10 inch IFE in economy. Plus, they were cheaper than the nonstops on American to Miami, so it really was a no brainer!
The Flights:
jetBlue Airways Flight 2800 and Flight 101
Los Angeles (LAX) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and
Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Los Angeles (LAX)
Seat: 21A and 21F Core Class (Economy)
Aircraft: Airbus A321 Mint
Boarding at LAX:
After a nice visit to the Korean Airlines Lounge at Tom Bradley, I took the nice bridge from Bradley to Terminal 4, than the underground tunnel from Terminal 4 to Terminal 5. Walking from Bradley to Terminal 5 took a little less than 15 minutes at a casual pace.
I arrived at the gate at 2:25pm, 3 minutes after boarding was supposed to start. Apparently they did an early boarding and so all group zones were boarded already! Lol! Thankfully I still found overhead carry on space.
The captain said our flight would take 4 hours and 24 minutes once in the air and the boarding door closed 20 minutes before our scheduled departure time.
Boarding at FLL:
After visiting Kafe Kalik, a Priority Pass Lounge, I headed to my gate in the E section. The area is not renovated, and the seating is kind of cramped so I hope jetBlue invests more in FLL.
Boarding commenced on time, and the captain said our flight would be 5 hours and 18 minutes once in the air!
Seats!
The Seat: jetBlue A321 Core Class (Economy)
Both 21A and 21F (window seats) had good legroom, but a bit less than the jetBlue old A320 I flew on a week before. Despite that, the legroom on this flight still felt like I was in Comfort Plus on Delta haha. I also think the water bottle holder is a nice feature!
On my LAX-FLL flight, my seat was really clean which was a pleasant surprise! Good job cleaning crew! The FLL-LAX plane was clean, but not as spotless.
The seat-back IFE was a tiny bit blurry, but still a much appreciated upgrade from the old jetBlue planes! The IFE was 10.1 inches, and had a large selection of movies, and over 100 channels of live DIRECTV. I watched Aquaman, Fantastic Beasts, The Upside and some Family Feud.
Free In-Flight WiFi!
Yes I’m serious. There’s free gate to gate WiFi! I’m actually writing this review as I’m on this plane. The WiFi was decent for browsing on LAX-FLL, with a small service interruption when flying over the Gulf of Mexico.
On the FLL-LAX flight, the WiFi was unfortunately a bit worse! Service cut in and out many times, and it was very slow over Texas. After entering New Mexico was finally when WiFi was faster. I’m hoping this was an abnormality.
In- Flight Service:
An hour in, a beverage and snack service was provided on both flights. Whole cans of soda were given, man I love jetBlue!
Approximately 2 hours before landing they brought out Dasani water bottles on both flights. Starting June 2019 they won’t be handing out individual water bottles anymore and also they will be switching from Coke to Pepsi products.
At this time, I decided to use the lavatories and noticed that they were very clean! At the back of the galley they also left a snack basket and bottles of water. Very nice!
About 45 minutes before landing on my LAX-FLL flight, we were notified that we wouldn’t be receiving a second beverage service due to anticipated turbulence before landing. I appreciated the heads up!
On the FLL-LAX we did receive the second beverage service which was perfect to refresh a bit before landing.
Both flights landed a bit early and arrived to the gate early as well!
The Verdict:
Flying on the jetBlue A321 was an absolute joy! The good legroom to the great service, free WiFi and plenty of movies + tv! I’ll be sure to try to add jetBlue to more of my travels. I do want to try the mint service in the future and this flight only makes me want to do that even sooner.
How have your jetBlue experiences been? Share below!
Happy travels,
Ty
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