JEt Blue or Airtran??

[the Fidge]

I will be flying out of the NY upstate area to Orlando in APril of 2008. Both airports have non stop flights to Orlando.

My concern is possible weather delays (SNOW POSSIBILITIES) and after last years mess with Jet Blue I am hesitant.

So my flying peeps, what would you do?? Please share your thoughts on this.

Thank you for all your input.

 

[bradk]

before i respond, can you explain to me what kind of weather would affect one airline and not the other?

just for some background, the infamous weather and jetblue incident took place at JFK. at JFK, 65% of the marketshare is JetBlue - just about twice that of Delta who's in the 2nd spot. so guess who'll you'll be hearing most about when there are problems?

 

[debster812]

All things being equal, I would choose JetBlue over AirTran any day of the week.

I was stuck in some of that weather last February and we were flying Delta. We were not stranded on the tarmac for hours, but we did spend close to 12 hours at Logan airport, only to ultimately have our flight cancelled, and Delta could not get us out until THREE DAYS later.

Jet Blue really blew it last February, I suspect they've learned from their very large mistake. Your choices are both similar in that neither airline codeshares with anyone else, and in the event of a huge weather issue, you'll be waiting until your original airline can get you on a new flight.

FTR I have flown JetBlue, AirTran, Spirit, Delta, Southwest, and USAirways in the past year and the only flights that did not have some manner of delay were in fact Jet Blue and Southwest

 

[kcminnie]

I would choose Jetblue. We were at the tail end of the Feb problems this year & our flight out of Orlando on Presidents weekend was delayed 2 1/2 hours. We all rec'd $50 vouchers for the delay. In April 2006 we flew Jetblue out of Newark & had over an hour delay once we boarded. There was not one sound on that plane that was full of school vacation children. They all watched the TV's. Once we finally took off they gave us all free in flight movies. I think Jetblue has great customer service. I don't know if I would still think that if I had been one of the people sitting for 12 hours on the plane.

 

[the Fidge]

Thank you both. I really appreciate your feedback about your expereinces. Its the best thing to go by for me.

I am thinking after the events of last year that Jet Blue will have a new policy in effect to handle similar matters next year.

Also, if you book and they come out with a better fare doesn't JEt Blue have a better policy relating to changing pricing over AIrtran??

 

[kcminnie]

If Jetblue lowers their price you can just call them and get a credit. The credit is good for one year. Also one of your choices was take a flight out of a larger hub. I can take Jetblue out of Newburgh, White Plains or JFK from where I live. I find JFK flights will be delayed more often than Newburgh or White Plains. For me I don't think there is any benefit out of a larger hub.

 

[bradk]

again, in regards to earlier this year, which affected more than JB (and historically, JB isn't the only airline that had passengers on the tarmac issue. in fact, after that, i believe they were bested by another airline). in response, JB refunded the money of everyone who had problems and either flew them for free or gave them vouchers to allow them to fly for free in the future. they were also the first (and only?) airline to enact their own passenger bill of rights ( http://www.jetblue.com/p/about/ourcompany/promise/Bill_Of_Rights.pdf ) which pays customers based on delays (something they had done before anyway in certain circumstances) including an unprecedented $1000 for anyone who gets bumped due to overbooking (although JB's policy doesn't allow overbooking to begin with).

so now i officially cast my vote for the only airline that should be. jetblue.

 

[the Fidge]

Thank yo all so much for the great information! It really helps alot when making these decisions to make an informed one.

I have not done any serious flying since 1996 after becoming Mom and the car has been the way for us since.

I just don't feel like driving that long drive anymore. My history of flying had been out of JFK mostly and had used Delta, Pan Am, American and ok no giggling PEOPLES so that tells you right there my knowledge is rather dated!

I think its pretty clear the way for us to go and thank you very much for all your insights!

 

[jgraney106]

I live in upstate New York too (Rochester) and I have never had a problem with JetBlue at all. In fact I am waiting for their April 2008 fares to go on sale also. I have flow Airtran too, but Jet Blue is our first choice, always. Good Luck to both of us,as the airfare up here is never as cheap as other places I've seen mentioned. :

 

[Bichon Barb]

Are you talking about a direct flight on Jetblue out of Syracuse? If that is the case, you should have no problems. It takes A LOT of snow to shut down Hancock. You might have a slight delay if we get a storm which dumps two feet or more.

Seriously, if you don't have to change planes, you should have no problem getting to MCO. And I'm sure that is the same with flying out of Rochester.

 

[the Fidge]

It seems Jet Blue is the Diser's favorite! Oddly enough no votes for flapping my arms though lol!

Thanks everyone now I will keep watch for a good April fare!

 

[kaytieeldr]

JUST for that, I voted "flap my arms"

But seriously, JetBlue hands down.

 

[the Fidge]

Awe thank you! There is nothing better then laughing at oneself, well maybe someone else with an equally wierd sense of humor!

 

[CarolA]

before i respond, can you explain to me what kind of weather would affect one airline and not the other?

just for some background, the infamous weather and jetblue incident took place at JFK. at JFK, 65% of the marketshare is JetBlue - just about twice that of Delta who's in the 2nd spot. so guess who'll you'll be hearing most about when there are problems?

All Airlines are affected by weather.

JetBlue is the ONLY airline I have ever heard of that over a week later was "cancelling most" of thier schedule because they did not seem to be able to figure out where the planes and crews were. The "weather" was LONG GONE, but JetBlue was unable to recover. IMHO I would be like the OP... a little leary until they PROVE that they can get thier act togehter next time!

 

[disneynutt1225]

AirTran used to be our favorite airline to fly. We loved being able to bump up our seats at checkin if there was availability, the prices were usually reasonable, and customer service was decent. Then we started seeing a decline in customer service. At the time, it wasn't a big deal because we were still getting cheap flights and they had the best schedule for our needs at the airports were were flying out of (Philly or Newark).

Now that we live in NY, JetBlue is our FAVORITE airline. We will most likely never go back to Airtran. I find JetBlue's customer service to be excellent, their prices are reasonable, they don't change schedules as much as AirTran did, and they have a good rewards program. Also, because of the layout of the plane, we get much more room on a JetBlue flight than any other flights we've taken. It's a no brainer for me. JetBlue all the way.

 

[bradk]

JetBlue is the ONLY airline I have ever heard of that over a week later was "cancelling most" of thier schedule because they did not seem to be able to figure out where the planes and crews were. The "weather" was LONG GONE, but JetBlue was unable to recover. IMHO I would be like the OP... a little leary until they PROVE that they can get thier act togehter next time!

ohhh! that's why! thanks. see, i always thought it was a pre-emptive strike because of new weather conditions and they were just trying to prevent further confusion and having current passengers showing up for flights that couldn't leave. you know, like the other carrier mentioned above that kept someone waiting 3 days too.

an obviously very biased source reporting on just how unreliable JetBlue is especially when compared to other carriers:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/06/news/companies/tarmac_delays/index.htm

which reads in part:

JetBlue had a record of relatively few long tarmac delays in January before February's service meltdown.

In January it had only five flights with a delay of two to three hours, and one additional flight with a delay of three to four hours. That works out to fewer than four flights out of every 10,000 with a delay of two or more hours, a big improvement from the average of nearly 19 such delays per 10,000 flights in 2006.

and as mentioned elsewhere, 2/3 of JB's service is out of JFK. so if JFK gets hit, yes, it affects JB.

just like it affected Delta flight 6499 which kept passengers on the tarmac for over 7 hours just recently in June.

or continental recently having delays for 6 hours+

but i digress. this topic is about airtran vs jetblue and obviously you can't elevate airtrain without taking potshots at jetblue, so it goes.

the truth is, JB had a proven track record before AND after Feb 07. it had consistently been rated the #1 airline using pure statistics by the Airline Quality Rating report since JB was introduced to it. and the conde nast readers poll rated it the #1 domestic airline for 5 years in a row.

clearly they must be doing something wrong.