When JetBlue announced its “25 for 25” promotion, I decided I was up for the challenge. And in the end, I’d get Mosaic 1 status (granted, it’s the lowest level of JetBlue status, but still…) for 25 years, AND 350,000 TrueBlue points? Sure, why not? So from late August to late November, I flew a lot – 37 flights, to be exact (needless to say, there were a bunch of positioning flights thrown in) – and completed the challenge. Go me!
My thoughts
Although my husband and I travel more often than most Americans (figure an average of one round trip a month, give or take?), we certainly don’t fly as much as true “frequent flyers.” So 37 flights over the course of 4 months was still a lot for me. Over the course of that time, although I thought I knew a lot of things about traveling, I actually learned plenty of things I never knew before. Or at least wound up changing my opinion about things from my past:
Airports
Obviously, I spent a whole lot of time in airports during these trips. To be honest, most of them melded into one big (or small) airport. But a few stand out in my head.
BOS
JetBlue’s biggest hubs on the East Coast are JFK and BOS. Since I grew up in the NYC area, and continue to fly in/out of JFK on a semi-regular basis, I’m very familiar with it. BOS, not so much (I had been to Boston before, but had never flown in – only drove, from NYC, once or twice, and it was 2+ decades ago).
That being said, after flying into BOS five times over the course of my “JetBlue junkets” (as I began calling them), I discovered that BOS is frickin’ HUGE. I sometimes had a significant amount of time between flights, so their Chase Sapphire Lounge became a favorite hangout spot…unless my flights were on the other side of Terminal C, and then I thought long and hard before making that trek back and forth.
BOS also had some amazing places to just sit and watch planes. They even have some rocking chairs set up in one hallway, so you can sit, rock and watch the planes out the window. And I may or may not have spent entirely too much time at Legal Sea Foods one afternoon in late September (I tipped the server well to make up for it) because I got so absorbed in watching what was going on outside.
JFK
Like I said, I grew up going to JFK. It’s so very different from when I was a kid, though. The restaurants at Terminal 5 have improved a bajillion times over, but man oh man…the lines and the crowds are CRAZY!
I do have to give a shout-out to Leon’s Bagels, though – EVERY time I stopped at JFK, I made it my business to get a bagel there (egg bagel with lox spread, please and thank you). *Chefskiss*
HPN
I spent a week at Westchester County Airport one afternoon.
Sorry y’all – what a weird little place. I landed at 3:20 PM, and my next flight wasn’t until 7:59 PM, and those 4.5 hours just dragged and dragged.
I get it; it’s a tiny little airport. But the setup in the terminal, with rows of chairs, totally reminded me of Ellis Island.
There was apparently a restaurant upstairs? But I never saw signs of how to get there.
And when I was there, in late September, you had a choice of sitting in the main terminal area, which was freezing, or a little hallway on the way to baggage claim, which was really too warm, but I’d rather be warm than cold.
So yeah, that’s why HPN stands out.
ACK
Nantucket Memorial Airport was fine, as far as small airports go. But why are the people flying out of Nantucket OK with being herded into a TENT to wait for their plane?
I wish I had taken a picture of it. I mean, it was a very nice tent. Huge. Big fan for the air to move around. A kiosk set up with all sorts of snacks and drinks and stuff. But a TENT? Weird.
Lounges
I’ve never been one to care much about airport lounges. But I’ll tell ya – when you’ve got hours to spend in an airport, many times over, having lounge access – GOOD lounge access, if you have it – becomes important.
At our home airport, MCO, I have access to our Priority Pass lounge, which is in Terminal C, where JetBlue’s planes are. The first one or two times I visited, it was fun. But after visiting the Chase Sapphire Lounge at BOS a time or two or three, I started getting lounge jealousy. I wish MCO had a Chase Sapphire Lounge.
Food & Beverage
I ate a whole lot of meals and drank a whole bunch of morning coffee in airports over the course of my JetBlue Junkets.
One thing I can tell you is that Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, which used to be delicious when I was a kid (teens, 20s), no longer is. At least, not to me. I have no idea why.
Starbucks is ALWAYS crowded in the morning (OMG, at JFK it’s totally a ridiculous clusterf**k) and to be honest, I don’t even find it worth it.
Also, trying to find relatively healthy food at an airport? Good luck with that. I’m not trying to go all JFK Jr. on making America healthy again, I promise. But offering a vegetable as a side would be nice, sometimes, LOL.
Hotels
During some of my travels on JetBlue, a hotel was involved. Over the course of the 4 months, I wound up staying in a Residence Inn, a privately owned hotel on Nantucket (I loved that place), a Westin, a Courtyard, a Hilton and a Holiday Inn & Suites.
All I can say is that hotel designers certainly don’t take short people into consideration.
Now granted, at 4’6″ tall, I’m VERY short. I realize I’m not “the norm” and I’m not expecting any place to have hotel rooms designed for someone my height. But there are plenty of short people, particularly women; why don’t hotel designers remember that, according to the U.S. census, roughly 25% of their female guests are under 5’2″ tall?
I’ve encountered thermostats that are 6 feet off the ground. Towel racks in the shower that are 7 feet high. Want to use the iron? It’s on the top shelf in the closet.
Again, I’m not talking about hotel amenities that are too tall for me – I’m not the norm. But there are plenty of hotels where they’ve just not taken the average “short person” into consideration.
My fellow humans
Travel friends, I’ve seen things. And people. Many, many people…
- The woman and her dog who were dressed in matching outfits
- Although the fashion choice made the news MANY weeks later, I definitely saw my share of adults wearing pajamas (for the record, I don’t care what people wear; you do you)
- Families with small children and they’ve brought nothing to keep the kids occupied (and *cough* quiet *cough*)
- The goth girl who offered me a cookie that her mom baked (goths are THE BEST)
- The other goth girl who took 6,812 selfies of herself on the plane
- People taking cookies from the plate at the lounge WITH THEIR BARE HANDS
- People who have no awareness (or care?) of how their actions affect others (read: if you’re going to watch videos, BRING HEADPHONES, ya jerk!). After all those flights, I have NO QUALMS about going up to these people at airports and asking, “Hi! Do you have headphones?” Most of them get the hint.
- The 20-month-old who was a perfect little traveler (and – bonus! – said “Hi!” to everybody they met)
- People will go almost anywhere to have access to a plug. AIRPORTS, GET A CLUE!
She totally reminded me of Harry Potter and his little “bedroom” under the stairs…
Done!
So yeah – my 25 for 25 experience is done and I now have Mosaic 1 status – AND a whole lot more education about airports, lounges, hotels and my fellow humans, to boot!
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