Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Free tix for your AYCJ tales!

Did you do something amazing on your All You Can Jet pass?  Change the world?  Change yourself?  Change your underwear?

Hopefully you’ve got a “yes” for at least one of those.  And if you have more than one, jetBlue wants to know all about it.  To encourage folks telling their stories they’re giving away free jetBlue flights – one a month for an entire year – for two lucky winners of a contest.  Tell the story of your great adventures or how you used the pass to help others.  One winner will be chosen from each category and will fly around on jetBlue all next year for free!

Entries are due by 5pm EST on Sunday, November 1, 2009.  If you haven’t told your tale yet it is time to get started.  And you’re limited to only 500 words for the story so it shouldn’t take too long to write.  Get on it!

Full details of the competition and the entry form can be found here: http://bit.ly/aycjtales.  Again, the contest closes out this Sunday afternoon.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Looking forward to AYCJ memories

Barely two weeks have passed since the original All You Can Jet passes expired.  The memories of my trips – 25 flights across 19 cities and over 25,000 miles – are still fresh in my mind.  The three hour tour of San Juan by the light of the moon, driving through a monsoon between Austin and Houston and racing across the Bay from Oakland to San Francisco stand out particularly vividly.

And yet the best thing I can think of right now about the month I spent crisscrossing North America is actually the future: the next AYCJ experience and how I’ll make it even better.  That’s right, I’m looking for a repeat of this phenomenal event and I’m pretty confident that it is coming.

Why?  Because it wasn’t just great for the customers.  It was also a big win for jetBlue.  The airline reported their financial results for Q3 earlier in the week and they actually made money, a rarity in the airline industry.  More significant, however, is that the AYCJ was actually part of the profit, not just a marketing boondoggle.  While they wouldn’t release specific numbers related to the pass there were some interesting comments made about it by CEO Dave Barger including these juicy nuggets:

  • The program was “revenue positive” for the airline, plus the invaluable marketing and online buzz generated by the offering.
  • “[AYCJ was] by far the most successful promotion in our history.”
  • “The loyalty that this further built for the jetBlue brand exceeded our expectations.”
  • Approximately 50% of AYCJers were new members of the TrueBlue program.

So the program was profitable.  It cast jetBlue in a positive light in the media, among customers and with its employees.  And it brought in new customers.  There’s no reason not to repeat such an event.

Plus, some of the marketing folks have hinted that it is going to be coming back.  I’ve got my credit card ready to go and my bag is rarely unpacked enough that it’ll take more than 30 minutes to be out the door.  I’m really looking forward to those memories.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Using the AYCJ pass for a good cause

No, feeding my crazy obsession for air travel isn’t a “good cause.”  Well, maybe it is, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. 

I had the great pleasure of meeting with another AYCJer last Friday night who actually is doing something amazing with his pass.  He’s not just flying for fun, to visit friends, to watch sporting events or to catch a few concerts.  He’s raising awareness and money for a school and boarding home in Zambia.  Here it is in his own words:

What I am Doing...

Over the course of 30 days I will be flying over 60,000 miles on 50 flights and visiting 30 different cities with the JetBlue All You Can Jet Pass. I am using this as an opportunity to tell people about a new elementary school in Zambia Africa. I will be seeking donations during this journey with all funds going directly to this school. The needs are great and every bit helps!

Why I Am Doing It...

4 Years ago, my parents were asked to start an elementary school in the village of Macha, Zambia. This school now has 75 students and a boarding home. One of the greatest needs is a reliable 4X4 vehicle to transport the children and bring supplies into this remote village. Together we can make a difference!

I’ve been following along with his adventures all month long and I was incredibly happy to finally get to meet him (completely by chance) at JFK’s T5 on Friday night.  I was heading out to Ponce, PR on the midnight flight and he was settling in to spend the night sleeping in the terminal.  But we got to talk about our flying, my crazy and his efforts.  I have to say that his are much more meaningful and valuable than just about anything I’ve ever done.

Check out his website (http://30daysonjetblue.com/) and the charity that he’s working to support.  Definitely an inspiring tale.

Here we are hanging out in T5:

Also, a special thanks to Morgan (aka @mhjohnston) for the introduction and the photo.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

San Juan under the lights

With a 3.5 hour booked layover in San Juan there wasn’t a whole lot of time to see much of the city.  The fact that the layover I booked was from 2:30 to 6:00 in the morning made it even more difficult.  My initial plan was to just sleep in the airport.  After all, I would be going to work directly from the airport and I wanted to be somewhat coherent.  Instead, however, I listened to the little voice on my other shoulder and decided to take a tour of town instead.

Upon arrival I was first out the door and into the taxi line.  I was actually seated in the cab briefly until the driver heard I wanted a 2 hour tour.  Apparently that is rather uncommon for the 2:30am arriving flights and the driver was hoping for a quick fare and then to go home and sleep.  Actually, it seems that most of the drivers were searching for a similar fare.  Indeed, it took until the fifth driver until the dispatcher was able to find someone willing to stay up late with me and show me around.  But I did get a driver eventually and we set off on a grand, middle of the night adventure to see Old San Juan under the light of the full moon.

The moon was bright on Monday morning.  It was a beautiful full moon.  And I needn’t have worried about seeing the sights as they are actually quite well lighted on their own.  And they are rather magnificent to see in the quiet of the night.  The forts loom large over the coast line of Old San Juan.

First stop on the tour was Fort San Cristobal.  It was completed in 1797 and was actually still in use in World War II.  Among other features, it has a huge ramp leading up to some massive entry doors.  Quite impressive.  As it was 3am the doors were locked, but that didn’t stop me from wandering around on the ramparts and snapping a few photos.

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Next up was the Fort San Felipe del Morro.  The El Morro fort sits out on the very tip of Old San Juan Island, jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean.  The site has been a defensive stronghold for almost 500 years, though the current structure mostly dates from the 18th and 19th centuries.  El Morro is even more impressive than the San Cristobal structure.  In addition to the enormous walls (18 feet thick in some places) the fort also features a lighthouse (though not the original one; that was replaced in 1908 by the US military).  The fort covers six levels and rises hundreds of feet from the surf below.  It is rather amazing. 

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And while I’m very much looking forward to getting back to San Juan to see the sights during the day when we can actually go inside, I’m also very happy I got to see them at night.  They are very well lighted and I was completely comfortable wandering around in the field in front of El Morro, even at 3:30 in the morning.  There were a few other late night revelers out and about but not too many.  It was actually quite nice to see it quiet.

And then I crawled back up into the taxi and we headed off for the airport.  It wasn’t quite time for the tour to have to end but I was exhausted and the driver was, too.  He dropped me off back at the terminal and, at ~4:30am, headed home himself to get some sleep. 

As for me, I settled into a chair in the corner by the jetBlue gates and simply relaxed.  No sleep, really, but I was able to rest quite nicely.  Finally, shortly before 6am I was happily ensconced in seat 3F for the return flight to JFK.  The sun was coming up outside and I was quite happy to put on my eye-mask and fall right asleep.  I actually slept through the safety demo and takeoff.    A short 3:25 later we were back in NYC and my jetting adventures were over.  But not without a great last stop and tour.

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Sunday, October 4, 2009

Flautas to lobster roll to arroz con pollo

This weekend’s All I Can Jet adventure sortof had a purpose.  I was heading to Texas to have some drinks with friends.  I got that (and five flights) in on Saturday.  Sunday was another five flights covering the length of the eastern seaboard.  It was just about midnight on Saturday night when a buddy and I hit up one of the taco shacks in Houston for a late-night snack (I had the flautas, he had the nachos) before a couple hours’ sleep and then heading back to the airport to start jetting again.

There is just enough time on a straight turn from JFK to Portland, Maine and back to grab a lobster roll to go from the bar/restaurant in the terminal before the return flight departs.  They make their roll with the lobster dry rather than in a lobster salad – the way I think it should be done – but I still managed to have lobster in Maine.

And then back on the plane, headed south, through JFK on to Orlando.  That completes the east coast run, but I’m not stopping there.  Later tonight I’m off to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a few hours in the middle of the night.  If I’m lucky (and awake) I’ll get a couple hours in Old San Juan to try to find some food and snap a couple photos before heading back to the airport for a 6am departure.  Not bad for one day.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Connection time in Ponce, PR – 1:06

I’ve finally managed to make one of my planned same-morning turns to Puerto Rico, a trip that has me on the island for just over an hour.  It isn’t the first time I’ve tried – I was supposed to do it a couple weeks ago – but previous efforts were waylaid by a pretty nasty cold.  And so I’m sitting here in the sterile but otherwise completely reasonable waiting room of the Ponce, PR airport at 4:00 am on a Saturday morning awaiting the flight back to JFK in just over an hour.

I knew it coming in to the flight, but this is the first airport I’ve had a layover that hasn’t had WiFi available.  It is a bummer, as I’d hoped to have something going on to distract me from the fact that I have absolutely no good reason to be awake right now.  Other than the lack of Internet connectivity, however, the airport is actually rather alert and hopping for the time of day.  Taxi drivers are out in front of the terminal, trying to pick up one last fare for the night.  The small cafe is open and doing a decent business in snacks and coffee and the car rental agents are all open and giving the newly arrived customers the hard sell on insurance options.  Except for the part where I’m having trouble keeping my eyes open it could be the middle of the day.

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Boarding at PSE

There’s no option for connecting passengers to de-plane back into the departures area – I may actually be the only connecting passenger they’ve ever had here – so I had to deal with the TSA again this morning.  Other than the part where they all spoke Spanish to me it wasn’t so bad, even if I’m not really coherent enough to deal with that sort of moronity.  I also managed to move my seat, from the very last row to the very first, a move that should help significantly with my 35 minute connection in JFK later this morning.  I said it before and I’ll say it again.  Row one on the jetBlue A320 is a free version of their Even More Legroom section.  Plenty of space and it doesn’t cost any extra, regardless of what the agent at the counter tried to say.

Booking these flights (I’m doing a similar connection in San Juan in 48 hours) has resulted in some rather entertaining conversations with the phone agents.  Each and every one of them has tried to “help” me, noting that the dates I have chosen don’t make any sense.  One went so far as to insist that I wasn’t reading the calendar correctly, but my version of insistence won out and the flights were booked as desired.  I do have to give them credit for trying, though.  Were I not such a crazy passenger I’d be very happy to know that they were looking out for me.

Finally, I had an awesome run-in while waiting in the terminal at PSE for the return flight.  A flight attendant came walking right past me and did a double take.  All I could muster in my overly sleepy stupor was, “Yeah, you know me.”  She was one of the awesome FAs I had on my trip to SAN/SLC/LGB last week and she was working the flight this morning as well.  If you’re reading this, no, I am not stalking you.

Time to go catch the next flight – JFK-Buffalo.

Coming to you live in-flight on BetaBlue!

I finally managed to snag a ride on jetBlue's BetaBlue, the plane
equipped with in-flight WiFi connectivity. Hopefully this post will
make it on to the blog as I have to use my email account rather than a
regular posting system to get it online due to the limits of the
service.

It seems to work OK, though the service options are VERY limited and
it was a bit kludgey to get connected. Still, it is free, and there
is a lot to be said for that.

My Outlook 2007 client connected right back up without any trouble and
Gmail (even hosted on a custom domain) and Outlook Web Access both
work as well.

It is definitely slow - too slow to be really useful for me - but that
may be related to the fact that we are rapidly leaving the coverage
area of the service.

More on the BetaBlue in the morning, hopefully from a full posting
client and hopefully after I get some sleep on the next couple
flights.