Review: JetBlue Embraer E190 Economy Class

I flew that same tail number in 2017 to see the total solar eclipse in Charleston.

JetBlue, on paper, provides an experience a cut above the rest of the US industry, but sadly, it rarely delivers and is hobbled by operational issues, prone to delays and meltdowns which have occurred throughout its 20 year existence. Their E190s were the red-headed stepchild of the fleet for years, with poor dispatch reliability, which combined with heavy operations at delay prone JFK and BOS, cascading delays throughout the system frequently, makes them a difficult airline to choose. All of my flights with JetBlue, which I've flown infrequently, have experienced delays or other issues. I tend to avoid them.

I had wonderful flights on JetBlue this winter with a non stop from Nashville to Cancun and back. Great crew, both flights were on time. Great planes. But JetBlue in Cancun was a cluster getting a boarding pass (almost 2 hours in line) and they are pretty difficult to communicate with. I know they are having operational issues, but I really enjoyed the actual flight and service on the plane. I hope they get their issues corrected as they offer a great value.

In Terminal 3 they are building a Escape Lounge by American Express so that will solve the lounge issue soon.

JetBlue made their name by offering substantially more legroom than competitors. 32" is not excellent these days, although it is sadly on the upper end of normal. As an example, Delta offers 31" pitch.

We flew JetBlue BGI-FLL a couple years before the pandemic, the 320 in “even more space”. My experience was positive. Good staff, and with ~ 38” of pitch, the space was roomy (it didn’t hurt that we had an open middle seat). Being an Alaska Air elite I with we also had some kind of reciprocal agreement. Looking at the seat maps for the E190 it seems the “even more space” seats are mostly mid cabin…. odd. Nice review.

Amex needs more lounges in airports like this. Bring one to LGA please!

Wish more carriers used the e190's, instead of the garbage 737s

When the gate agent told you that they had no pilots, you should have informed her that you had stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

You see, the 737 is need because it offers more money to the airline just as the 320.

Silver Airways is eligible passengers flying on a 016 ticket and a member can use the great United Club at FLL.

Not sure how that's possible, as the UClub access rules are 1) United or 2) Star Alliance flights

Ben: I am a huge JetBlue fan. I am a Mosiac flyer and whenever I can fly Mint I do. I always book the extra space seating for the E-190's. They are my favs to fly with them between Pittsburgh and Boston/NYC. Their Airbuses are even more spacious. But I have to say, even though you experienced better service than other airlines, I can personally tell you that service has faltered since the code share with American.

I am still a huge fan. I typically fly 100K plus per year with them and look forward to using their partners more as we head to Europe. But their service has really been dropping due to the stress that American has put on them. You can definitely see it when things get bumpy like cancelled flights and movement of flights due to weather.

In the past, they have been extremely accommodating and were very gracious with perks (over nights and meals). Now it is more of a fight and more of a problem in getting things.

I recently had a very poor experience with them on my latest trip from Pitt to NYC through JFK. But I am hoping it will improve as I pick up my travel again this year. Thanks for this great review and I am so happy you had an over positive experience. Their new terminal at JFK should be great. I can't wait for that too.

I’m just not a beach vacation person. Although Turks & Caicos and Grand Cayman would be the perfect place to educate people about what Bitcoin is and how it works. Lol
I need to be in a hectic crowded city trying to figure out the metro and going to museums.

I’ve had the same experience and assessment. Their employees are great but operationally, they’re not organized or reliable

How does JetBlue know you are AA elite? Do you add that info when booking the flight and it prints on the boarding pass? Or some other way?

That legs belongs to a "he"?
interesting

I think JetBlue has the best Economy Class product in regards to legroom and snacks as well as the seatback TV's. That said, I consider the checked bag fees (80$ each way for two checked bags) to be a deal breaker. For that reason I still say that Southwest is Best.

Would love to use B6 more but every (read: 100%) of my flights have been delayed. This is prepandemic and have not used them for a few years. Primarily flew the routing between PDX and JFK. It’s too bad there operations are so poor

*their

I agree with shoeguy. Lucky, I think you are being overly generous with stating that they struggle with being punctual. They generally are on the bottom of the list for on-time performance when measured against all other airlines (Delta, Hawaiian, and Spirit tend to be consistently at the top). The jetBlue product is great for sure - far and above hands down better than any other currently flying in the US today. But reliability is a major factor and for some reason they have "struggled" for years now so it's not really a struggle - it's a daily reality. The excellent product helps with their image for sure and I'm a huge fan of them, but if I really need to be somewhere by a certain time I'll choose someone else. I hope one day they can get a proper hold of their operation.

Delay aside, sounds better than the JetBlue flight I took a few weeks ago from MCO-SJU. The A320 was filthy and the IFE and wifi were both out, crew was pretty indifferent. People did the clapping thing landing there too and it was a super smooth landing so who knows what that was all about LOL.

That leg in the aisle would get a bump into by me - you're not kidding about the folks coming out of FLL

It’s too bad their Travel Bank expiration policy sucks during the pandemic.

Silver is a United Partner and I buy my Silver Tickets on UAL.com. Got to the clubs in MCO and FLL all the time.

I guess given they're flying a leaner operation with less leverage than the bigger players - his contributes. I guess - if you want lower fares - you can fly Spirit which is on time but unpleasant or Jetblue which is pleasant but often late?

I almost always fly JetBlue and usually this sane air craft. I love HetBlue, have never had anything bit a great experience a d absolutely love the 2 seat across configuration.

Have flown on Embrar 190 several times from Worcester, MA to FL. Always comfortable and and good experience.

Yep, American Airlines AAdvantage is an option to select for your frequent flyer program during booking. Also, when your AA number is on the reservation, your boarding group will say “AAELTE” for AA elite and you can board with Mosaic as first group after pre-boarding.

I flew MCO-PSE last week and it was a beautiful brand new plane (with its phone pairing and NFC features on the IFE). Then I returned via SJU and yeah it was an old, worn out, gross A320. Like day and night experience.
Also had clapping upon landing both ways but I enjoyed that to be honest lol.

Yeah, smaller planes the Even More Space seats are limited to first ans emergency row(s).

Good review… I have a few feedback points:
1) FLL (along with NYC) is my home airport. Agree that FLL T4 is much nicer than T3. I would also add that T1 (UA and WN use T1), and T2 (DL and AC use T2) are very nice as well. T2 recently went through a major renovation and its now airy and feels “new”. T3 (AA and B6 use T3) is older but perfectly functional. As reference I recently flew out of MIA Terminal J, and would say that FLL T1, T2 and T3 compares favorably with MIA Terminal J.
2) JetBlue’s punctuality issues vs. others: I think some context to this is in order: JetBlue’s route map is concentrated in Northeast congested so by default it should have more late flights than AA/DL/UA/WN and others. That is unavoidable. It’s not a true apples to apples comparison.
3) I fly FLL to NYC frequently, and many airlines fly this route (B6, DL, UA, NK, AA) so I have a lot of choice. All things being equal I almost always choose B6. Their hard/soft products are superior to DL/UA/NK/AA especially if one doesn’t have status. B6 has free WiFi, nice snack choices, DD coffee, more legroom, nice FA’s etc etc. I used to be based in Philly so I had US/AA status for years. Out of NYC, there is really no point in chasing status given so much airline choice and competitive fares amongst the airlines… Few years ago, I was on a DL LGA-FLL flight and there were over 100+ DL elites in the flight! Its hard to think that all 100+ DL elites got anything special on that flight!!
Hope this helps!!!

Sorry to say that this is spot on. Jetblue runs hands down the worst operation I’ve ever seen and nobody seems to care to fix it. What a shame, because the product and people are amazing. If they’d fix their operation they’d be a fantastic airline, but it’s almost like they choose to be bad on purpose.

I flew jetBlue on this route - FLL to PLS - last July (July 2021) and I had a similar experience. I also flew on the E190 but the flight timings were earlier - we were connecting from New Orleans so we took the early morning flight out of New Orleans and the flight to PLS took off at 12pm.

The experience onboard was the same - minus the delays - with comfortable seats, endless supply of snacks, and pleasant crew. This was definitely a different scenario than my return which was booked and operated by American (full details on my blog). The legroom, great snacks, and good legroom is a reason I am flying on jetBlue again in a couple of days

I have to be one of the luckiest guys alive cause I think I've only really had one, maybe two, bad delays with B6. American always has been the worst for me though. I recently flew there older A321 to Aguadilla on an interesting redeye, and I had the worlds rudest off-duty flight attendant next to us, but other then that they're usually very friendly. Im excited to try their new eco product to Punta Cana on the NEO the December, I remember how 'new' there A321 cabins were when they first released them, and they're still good, but the IFE definitely lacks, so it'll be interesting to see how it is on the NEO.

This is actually the only JetBlue product I've flown on to date, but it was enough to make me a fan. Great legroom, good padding, IFE at every seat, decent snacks, and very friendly staff. Plus, the E-Jets are great for passenger comfort, thanks to the large windows & 2-2 configuration with wide (18") seats.

i think they are good. While they experience delays I do not fault them at all for that as thats part of flying and the aviation industry. So much work goes into the aviation industry behind the scenes.

i don't think so. i think they care and try to be good