Onboard

Forgot to mention, we were delayed.

Supposed to leave at 2100. The cabin crew arrive from a delayed inbound from LAX, and they board about 2040. We are allowed to board at about 2045ish.
Can you imagine that. Operating a 6hr flight, and then doing it again 30 minutes later. Blech!

The boarding call asks for the special handling and business class to board through the right lane.
Then zone 1, then 2 etc. Zone 1 is at the front, then 2 the middle rows etc. Not the best boarding sequence. The more I think about it though, the less sense it makes. We were zone 4 (officially), but were only 6 rows from the front of economy. Maybe I got it wrong. Like I said, signage not the best here.

Anyway, the boarding call is for zones 1 and 2, and they are strictly following that. Unfortunately, nobody else is. Everybody wants to board NOW.

There is 1 lane (the right hand only for the special people), and lots of people trying to board. Form one line please. Might as well have been in Romanian. It's like a Bangladeshi intersection here. Or a sale at a bridal store. 5 rows of people trying to squeeze into one line. Every time the staff find somebody trying to board ahead of their zone, they get put to one side. Then a queue forms behind them. Sarah could SO sort these people out!

We officially don't know our zone, so we join the melee. Anybody who books late(like us), gets a boarding pass without a seat number. As punishment for not being organised, they need to wait till everybody else checks in, and then get whatever's left.

So we board, and wait in our F seats for the first E person to arrive next to one of us, so that we can make the offer. Easy, done this a hundred times back home.

Meanwhile, there are other groups around us trying to swap seats. And more. Finally there is a family of about 8 middle-eastern people, scattered across about 5 rows. They include at least one of the E seats next to us. So, the first couple had been sorted. Then the next. Then us. Then this family was pretty much sorted. Then the crew get involved.

Oh
My
God!!

Everybody has to sit in their allotted seats!

She then starts to unpick the knitting. We sit quietly.
Can you move back to that seat. But he is with his child. I am happy to sit in his seat.

Everybody has to sit in their allotted seats!

Eventually she gives up. I think she was getting the look, not only from the passengers who had solved their own seating issues, but also from the other crew. It's almost 2115, and they want to shut the door.

So they do.

We are on a 757. It looks new, but I didn't think they were still in production. It has wingtips and everything! Maybe a retread, but looks good inside. We are in row 26 now. I thought it would be down the back, but it isn't.

Rows at the door we came in start about 20. Business is turn left.

I don't know how they get 4 zones for boarding, but there are 3 cabins, separated by a toilet on the port side. Opposite the toilet is some form of galley station. That's where the hostie makes coffee. Maybe the carts come from there too, I didn't see. Probably not, though.

The pilot said the flight would be 5hrs and change, so a quick trip, right? Yeah nah!

We pushed back just after 2120, and took off about 2215.
I KNOW, right?

Apparently we didn't just get caught at a bad time. We turned once, and I could see the queue behind us disappearing off into the night.

We first did Amrika in '02, and JFK was part of that. We flew in on QF from LAX, but then flew to Buffalo on JetBlue. I've already said I like them.
Before that trip, I did some research on the company. Sarah is nervous about flying on Amrikan carriers. Not for any jihad reason, just that their service and safety records are hardly stellar.
So, JetBlue. They are a VBA, one of the first and apparently one of the best. The guy that started it, had started another VBA in the past, and then sold it on. This is apparently fashionable in airline start-up circles.
Anyway, this guy also wrote the check-in software he used, both in his original start-up, and in JetBlue. He then sold that as well. I think it has changed hands a couple of times, and has been known by a couple of names. We knew it as "Open Skies", when we handled Freedom Air. It is also the software used by EVERY VBA in the world.

Anybody naive enough to ask, would know that I am a big fan of Open Skies. Huge. It is not only the easiest system to learn (I could teach someone to be up and running at check-in in 15 minutes, 30 tops), but it is completely idiot-proof. And I use the term advisedly. If there is anything to pay on the booking, you cannot check them in. Period. No discussion. No mistakes.
Also, before the door is closed on the aircraft, the company can know, to the cent, how much profit or loss has been made on that sector. Now how's THAT for nimble? Any legacy system, like those used by any major airlines, doesn't come close to that kind of transparency. If we are lucky, then in about 6 months our bean counters will have a ball-park figure of the profitability of a route. Ball park.

Anyway, I digress.

Back in '02, Jetblue was quite a young airline, and was based in JFK. Back then this was unheard of. All domestic carriers were using the other 2 NYC airports. JFK was an international airport. The JetBlue logic was simple. Too much congestion at the other 2 meant delays. JFK had lots of slots unused. Whatever disadvantages there were in using JFK were wiped out by the advantage of quick and on-time turnarounds.
Obviously, it was a good plan, because everybody else is now using JFK as well. Result? Congestion there as well. Bugger.

We eventually go airborne, and fidgeted our way to LAX. Delta is actually very good. Not a lot of room for the fat white guy, though.