Tampa-Newark and Back - Jet Blue Gets it Right, Well Maybe

Yea, sort of.

It starts with the nonstop night A320 to EWR from TPA. 

I get to the gate, the Airbus is there, the flight deck crew is there, but no flight attendants.  They are arriving 45 minutes late on a delayed inbound from BOS.

I never knew they operated this way, it's almost Delta-esque.

So the arrival into EWR is an hour late.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/JBU534/history/20130304/0112Z/KTPA/KEWR


Next, the return.  What I'm about to type will bore everybody on earth EXCEPT high mileage serious business travelers who know how the system works.

To fly back to TPA, you obviously need an airplane and I check and see that the inbound from West Palm Beach is set to arrive 20 minutes early!  And the weather is great, it should all be great!

Well, at the adjacent gate sits a delayed A320 to Orlando, with an obvious maintenance issue.  No big deal to me, right?

Until they off load the Airbus (which is completely full) and announce to the pax that they are going to have a "new a/c at the next gate in just 10 minutes".  Problem is, it's the a/c that is SUPPOSED TO MAKE UP MY FLIGHT TO TPA.

Now I have to outguess them and figure out what a/c will be used for my flight to EWR and where in the hell it is.

And sure enough, it's inbound from Ft. Myers and will arrive just 20 minutes before the scheduled departure to TPA.  Meaning, we are gonna be late.  It's just a matter of how long.

I guess 30 mins.

Wrong.  We load and suddenly take a maintenance delay on this ship as well as one of the PA phones is inop.  I have no idea of a PA phone is on the MEL list or not (the minimum equipment list which you gotta have to legally fly).

So we sit and watch JBU MTC put in a new phone on the forward galley.

Now the delay is one hour.

And that's how our modern air transportation system works, for our new folks.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/JBU537/history/20130305/2016Z/KEWR/KTPA