When we flew home from Seattle last month, I decided to upgrade our seats to the Even More Space seats.  The option was available when I  checked us all in 24 hours prior to our departure.  I was able to see that we could get 3 seats together and 1 seat in the next row which is about as good as it gets for a family of four flying on a plane with a 3-3 configuration.

We had not flown jetBlue in quite some time (we flew Delta to Seattle) and having heard so many great reviews, I was looking forward to the flight.  Especially with all that legroom…

But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

Let’s start with the positives:

1. Loads of legroom.  I think Jason appreciated it the most.  I’m only 5’2″ and the kids are shorter than me – for now, at least – so we have a little less at stake on the legroom issue. One unexpected benefit – the kids weren’t bumping into each other every time they reached for their backpack which reduced the bickering. And that’s always a win.
2. With more legroom comes an extra window.  This is key when traveling with 2 kids as it means the kid who has scored the window seat isn’t blocking the view for the other kid with his/her head.  This reduced the bickering far more than I expected. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I really appreciate anything that reduces kiddo bickering.
3. Helpful flight attendants.  While our needs weren’t great, they kept the snacks and beverages coming and even put out water bottles in the galley for self-service.

Now for the negatives:

1. The screens and entertainment system in general.  The first thing the kiddos said when we sat down  “why are the screens so small?”  I don’t believe I’ve ever seen screens that small before.  To make matters worse, the movies were not working.  This left us with just the TV channel options which can be hit or miss for kids.  We had our own devices and were happy to use them.  Except it was a 5-hour flight and we didn’t have charging outlets.
2. Snack boxes were the only food items available for purchase.  I had higher expectations for a 5-hour flight that left at 11am local time.  It was too early to buy lunch at the airport prior to boarding since we’d just had breakfast and we had no way to keep it fresh until we were hungry.
3. The plane was a little “tired” – there was some peeling on the interior just above the windows and we were delayed for a bit because the handle on an overhead bin broke.  Maybe I’m being too critical but sometimes, it’s the little things you notice.

The Even More Space seats were great and I would purchase them again – especially for a long flight.

As for our jetBlue experience on the whole, I definitely learned a few lessons and will be a little more prepared next time with charging options and meals.  I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be, but nothing was a deal breaker.