JetBlue's Redesigned Cabin (Phase 1)

As one of the few airlines that consider Boston to be a major hub, JetBlue has several flights coming and going from Logan International. Since American budget airlines have begun flying internationally, we were able to take advantage of JetBlue’s great fares to fly to Ecuador for the summer.

JetBlue has been renovating their interior in stages with phase one beginning in 2018 and phase two beginning in 2019. During our return from our six week trip, we got to experience phase one of JetBlue’s newly redesigned cabin.

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GROUND EXPERIENCE

JetBlue allows you to check in to your flight up to 24 hours before your departure time, and this is a feature I highly recommend taking advantage of if you’re flying out of José Joaquín De Olmedo International Airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador. In my experience, this airport is notorious for long check in lines that can add up to an hour to your overall time at an airport.

Since we were already checked in, we were able to bypass the significantly longer line and go straight to the baggage drop off. Here we paid our luggage fees ($100 for three bags), got printed copies of our boarding passes and headed for our gate. No frills but those shouldn’t be expected on a low-cost carrier.

CABIN & SEAT

Our plane was an older retrofitted Airbus A320 and did not offer JetBlue’s new Mint premium seating and had an all economy configuration albeit with a few rows of the airlines “Even More Space” seating.

(Photo by JetBlue Airways)

The seats themselves are brand new Collins Aerospace Pinnacle seats which, at 18.4”, are the widest economy seat on any American carrier.

These sleeker, ergonomic seats are a vast visual improvement over their old bulky counterparts.

These seats have come with an unfortunate trade off. JetBlue, an airline that used to pride itself on industry leading legroom in economy has added two rows (12 seats) into their new cabin, reducing the pitch at each seat to a more average 32”.

Although the new thinner seats are supposed to counteract this decrease in legroom, as someone well over 6’ tall, I definitely noticed. For those willing to pay more, the “Even More Space” seating offers 35” of pitch per seat, which although nice, is still just an inch more than what a regular seat used to be.

(Photo by JetBlue Airways)

These new seats also come with an adjustable headrest for added comfort. Again, my only complaint here is that, as a tall person, the headrest did not raise up high enough to accommodate the vertically gifted.

I have always found it strange when airlines that boast about their onboard Wi-Fi lack power outlets to charge the devices you use to connect to said Wi-Fi.

For a long time, JetBlue has lagged behind some of the legacy airlines that have had power outlets onboard their aircraft. As such, it was a welcome sight to see JetBlue joining the 21st century by installing power outlets underneath each row of seats.

(Photo by JetBlue Airways)

Details definitely matter and it was nice to see how much thought was put into making the seat more enjoyable for the passenger. This is on full display in the seatback pocket in front of every seat.

Divided pockets offer passengers the ability to store their personal items separately from the array of menus, in-flight magazines, safety cards, in-flight entertainment instructions, and more that are found at each seat. There is also a small elastic compartment for you to place a water bottle which is a nice touch so that you don’t have to keep your tray down at all times.

(Photo by JetBlue Airways)

Improvements have also been made above the seats with new overhead bins, sidewalls, carpets, and, most noticeably, LED moodlighting which gives the entire cabin a nice, dark blue hue at night giving you enough light to see when you’re getting up to go to the bathroom but dark enough that it won’t disturb you if you’re trying to get some sleep.

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AMENITIES & IFE

As is to be expected on most budget airline, extras will cost you money. Forgot your headphones at home or think it’s too cold on board the plane? You can buy each on board for $5.

JetBlue has always been a leader among America carriers in terms of in-flight entertainment offering screens in front of each seat with live TV services onboard all their aircraft since 2002.

With this new revamped interior, JetBlue has almost doubled the screen size from a standard definition 5.6”screen controlled by a remote in the armrest to a larger high definition 10.1” touch-screen.

On our plane, the physical control buttons were still located on the armrest which I found to be rather annoying as I found myself frequently hitting the buttons by resting my arms on my armrest. It is my understanding that in the next phase of renovations, JetBlue will be removing these physical controllers so I am happy to see someone else found those buttons annoying too.

The IFE system itself has also improved massively with three times more live streaming channels, over 300 movies and TV shows on demand, and a USB outlet to pair your personal device among other cool new features.

Despite these new features, I experienced a lot of lag with the IFE. As I tried to watch Avengers: Endgame at my seat, I often found that if you pressed the button to skip ahead 30 seconds, the system would take so long to buffer that you may as well have spent the time watching those thirty seconds on the screen. Again, it is my understanding that JetBlue is addressing this issue in phase two with a new, custom-built Android-based interface.

Another huge drawback is that the live TV only works as long as you are flying over the contiguous 48 states. This problem is pretty much universal among American carriers so I can’t knock JetBlue too hard for this one but it was disappointing not to be able to watch any of the 100+ channels they offer otherwise.

JetBlue also broke new ground by offering its in-flight internet service known as Fly-Fi for free to any and all passengers. Unfortunately, like the live TV, the onboard Wi-Fi is not available when flying outside the contiguous 48 states so I did not get to use it on this flight but I can say from previous experiences that the onboard Wi-Fi is very good as far as in-flight internet can go.

As American carriers continue to expand, they seriously need to invest in their Wi-Fi capabilities outside the US. The technology exists. Airlines like Emirates do not have their internet capabilities hindered by flying internationally or even over oceans. There is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to have Wi-Fi outside US airspace.

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FOOD & BEVERAGE

Again, it’s hard to expect much from a low-cost carrier, however JetBlue is known to go above and beyond the call of duty compared to other budget airlines.

You won’t be getting a small bag of peanuts on this airline, instead the flight attendants come down the aisle with large baskets with a cornucopia of snacks: sweet and savory potato chips, popcorn, and cookies among others. The best part is that you can grab as much as you want, and once the lights were turned down for this overnight flight, the basket of snacks is left out in the open for insomniac passengers to help themselves.

JetBlue also doesn’t skimp out on the beverages. When I asked for a diet coke I got a cup of ice and an entire can. I absolutely cannot stand when an airline gives me this tiny cup full of ice and three sips worth of actual drink. A can of soda costs a few cents and JetBlue is smart enough to know this little gesture can go a long way with it’s passengers while costing the airline next to nothing.

My only petty complaint is that in back in June, JetBlue switched to exclusively selling Pepsi brand soft drinks which I personally consider to be inferior to Coca Cola. I appear to not be the only person that feels this way about the switch.

Other, more substantial food options are available for sale on board however neither of us were hungry enough to justify purchasing an overpriced sandwich. Especially when free unlimited snacks are available. Alcoholic beverages are also available for purchase.

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SERVICE

Our Ft. Lauderdale-based flight crew was extremely friendly during the entirety of the flight, helping passengers with their bags in the overhead compartments and giving me an extra cup of ice with my drink.

Being based out of Ft. Lauderdale also meant that the crew was mostly bilingual which is definitely important when flying in and out of a Latin American country.

I did not have too much individual interaction with the flight attendants on this overnight flight so I can’t make a huge judgement on everyone’s friendliness but from the few interactions I did have everyone seemed in good spirits.

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OVERALL IMPRESSION

JetBlue’s new interior is sleek and modern and there was definitely a good amount of thought put into how to make the seat experience as good as one could imagine on a low-cost carrier.

The IFE onboard has a broad selection of TV shows and movies but is hindered by a laggy interface and with a spotty touch screen that doesn’t always detect correctly where you are touching. It is my understanding that phase two of the renovations have addressed these issues but I have not experienced them first hand.

JetBlue is definitely an airline that knows that in order to impress your customers you first have to invest a little in your product and it shows in their new interior.