Round 1: Virgin America
SFO to JFK
Duration: 4h35
Pro: Actual tasty meals served on-board. Never underestimate this perk when you're stuck in a carnivorous airport at dinnertime. After security, there was—for real—no vegetarian food I could take to go from anywhere. Except yogurt and Fig Newtons. Trust me, more than three Fig Newtons aren't an experience you want to have. 5 points
Pro/Con: Domestic VA flights use the international terminal. It's shinier (+1), the accents are cooler (+1), and it's easier to reach from BART (+1), but the security line is epic and moves much more slowly (-1). 2 points
Con: Same little back-of-the-seat-in-front-of-you TVs as JetBlue, but with fewer channels, and they kept pixelating and cutting out. In the lame media player, the jazz playlist wouldn't just keep rolling—I had to hit the play button for each song. This is why Steve made iPods. -2 points
Pro: But you could order food and drinks through the screen and pay at your seat with credit. No carts blocking the aisles to wake you up and offer you peanuts you don't want. 1 point
Pro/Con: More leg room than Delta, American, etc., but not as much as JetBlue. 0 points
Customer Service: Nondescript. I heard a horror story from a coworker about their rude phone service, though, so I'm docking them in solidarity. -1 point
Total: 5 points
Round 2: JetBlue
JFK to SFO
Duration: 6h45
Con: We took off late, but only 20 minutes, and strong headwinds traveling westward aren't the airline's fault. 0 points
Pro: So. much. legroom. And there was nobody in the middle seat. 2 points
Con: The snacks are free and better than peanuts, but they're no caprese sandwich with an orzo salad that I can order through my TV screen. -1 point
Pro: Hundreds of working channels, including one that shows nothing but reruns of America's Next Top Model. (Yeah, what of it? I read for a living.) Last time, I found a Pop-Up Video marathon. 5 points
Customer Service: Tied with Southwest for friendliest ever, but JetBlue gets the top spot because the attendants aren't cloying and don't wear ugly shorts. 1 point
Total: 8 points
JetBlue wins!
But VA is a fine alternative, since they also fly direct cross-country and the tickets are super cheap. It's fair to say that both these airlines kick the collective ass of all the huge conglomerates and their overpriced, squished, three-stop flights to the East Coast.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Last time I flew Jet Blue there was a special on Jim Henson on the tv. I think Jet Blue should plan all television programing.
America's Top Model makes me want to kill puppies, though. That part where they all stand around and read aloud from the Tyra scroll like a second grade class scares the hell out of me. Pod models.
Yeah, that show would enrage me in any other context. I'm guessing the altitude does something to the part of my brain that controls taste.
Post a Comment