Rate-An-Airline

Airline: JetBlue Airways

Flight:Long Beach to JFK, roundtrip

Type of airline: Low-budget, but with amenities

They stipulated: No meal -- bring your food with you. And just one cabin -- there are no separate classes.

High point: Having 24 channels of DirecTV at your seat is cool (although the choice of channels was unusual -- VH1 Classic, Boomerang and Discovery Kids were among them) and the flights were mostly pleasant. Snacks are also on the high end -- blue potato chips, oatmeal cookies, etc. Also, if you're flying out at 7 in the morning, getting to Long Beach is a breeze. We left at 5 and got there by 5:30.

Low point: The DirecTV is great -- when it works. On the way to JFK, several channels would pop in and out due to flying conditions. And the leather seats are comfy-- but the cabin as a whole is a little cramped.

Overall impression: After hearing about how cool JetBlue is, I guess we were expecting something... more. I'm not sure what that is, since at the end of the day it's still an airline. The DirecTV came in handy when we were stuck on the runway for an hour at JFK, storms in the midwest preventing us from taking off. It was nice having your own terminals at Long Beach and JFK... although the Long Beach gate is nothing more than a portable building (JFK was nice -- and super fast -- however.)

Still, JetBlue was good enough for "The Station Agent" Peter Dinklage, who shared our flight. I would have said something to him... but he carried a pretty angry-looking scowl Sunday night in the Long Beach terminal.

Chance we will go back: If it makes sense. Not sure heading down to Long Beach always makes sense. But it was a nice enough experience, that perhaps -- especially as JetBlue continues to expand its service.