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Be a roaming hacker this fall: JetBlue offers all-you-can-fly pass for $599
- brk 17y agoI got mine earlier today when I saw this posted on Twitter. I travel a fair bit for work anyway, but I plan to just go to some random cities to work for a day here and there on my pass.
- kilowatt 17y agoThis is pretty awesome. And tempting. But I wonder how much "international fees and taxes" add up to.
- aquateen 17y ago(d) in the case of international travel, government fees and taxes of up to $127.60 each way, and (e) in the case of Puerto Rico travel, a US Departure Tax of $16.10 each way.
- ars 17y agoI wonder why they charge a $100 no-show penalty? Or why they charge you to cancel a booking if it's less than 3 days. Do they want you in the seat so badly? Wouldn't they get a standby flier if you didn't show?
- akd 17y agoAre you serious?
- RyanGWU82 17y agoThey don't want you taking up seats that you don't use. I think they're expecting their planes to be pretty full during this promotion. If you're not gonna use the seat, they could sell it to a revenue passenger, and earn more. But they can't do that if you're just a no-show.
- gojomo 17y agoAnd also: the number-one complaint about this program is likely to be: "there were never any seats on the routes I wanted". People who book and no-show will unnecessarily multiply these complaints.
- telegraph 17y agoFor the same reason that all you can eat buffets have small plates.
- chrischen 17y agoI just get more plates.
- paulgb 17y agoSome also charge for uneaten food, which is a more direct equivalent to the $100 charge.
- zackattack 17y agoI've never heard of an all you can eat buffet charging for uneaten food. Example?
- SwellJoe 17y agoI've seen signage to that effect at buffets before. At least one of the Chinese buffets in Houston (of which there are about a billion) has such a sign, though I don't remember which one. I don't know that it's enforced...just a not-so-subtle way to say, "Don't waste food!"
- hrabago 17y agoThese are how buffets are where I grew up. When I moved to the US, I was surprised that buffets here allowed me to leave food on the plate while I went to get another plate of food.
- JimmyL 17y agoOften happens at all-you-can-eat sushi places; personally I know of three or four in Montreal/Toronto where this is done. They're the kind of places where you order small dishes off the menu, and you can just keep ordering them until you're done. No limit on the number you can order simultaneously, but if you call for the bill when there are uneaten plates they'll charge you some nominal per-plate fee for each one (this isn't for leaving one or two pieces behind - it's for when you order a plate of ten pieces of sashimi and eat two).
- po 17y agoNo they wouldn't. Jet Blue doesn't overbook their flights. If fact, they pay you $1000 if you ever get bumped. See their passenger's bill of rights: http://www.jetblue.com/p/about/ourcompany/promise/Bill_Of_Rights.pdf http://www.jetblue.com/p/about/ourcompany/promise/Bill_Of_Ri... I think it's reasonable for them to ask you to make a three day commitment or pay $100. Think of it as a guaranteed reservation.
- look_lookatme 17y agoMan, I was laid off 8 months too early.
- phreanix 17y agoI can imagine a video/photo account of someone making the most of this pass going viral.
- endtwist 17y agoI was just thinking the same thing. Though I'm in school during that period, I'm very tempted to buy one of these and travel every weekend for the month. Perhaps spend one weekend seeing how many cities I can get to in just 48 hours. Edit: except, I just remembered that jetBlue doesn't serve St. Louis (my "base"). Damn!
- paul9290 17y agoHere's where they fly to ... http://www.jetblue.com/wherewejet/ http://www.jetblue.com/wherewejet/ Bermuda and the Bahamas - nice!
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- invisible 17y agoNo International flight's taxes and fees included though, which seem rather high (up to $127 for just one government fee/tax).
- breck 17y agoWe looked at some of the international taxes/fees. Most were between $60-$70. Highest we found were $110. So it's definitely a great deal if you stay in the U.S. If you go International the math becomes more complex. Still, one of my roommates booked it and others are considering it.
- 10ren 17y agoNot global, JetBlue seems to be restricted to the Americas.
- eli 17y agoUh, it's for one month JetBlue's pretty cheap already. I don't think I'd want to fly multiple times per week even if it were free.
- bretthoerner 17y agoYou don't have to fly multiple times per week to beat $600 in a month. 4 weeks, 4 distant places you've wanted to visit. Bam, hundreds in savings.
- Alex3917 17y agoYou'd save money even if the only place you flew was to Bogota and back. If I had any faith that Jet Blue would actually deliver on this then I'd do it, but I'm guessing they'll run out of seats in like three hours and then have to refund everyone's passes.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- seanos 17y agoThe pass only covers domestic travel so Bogotá is out.
- kqr2 17y agoUse it in conjunction with something like: http://www.airbnb.com/ http://www.airbnb.com/ to find inexpensive places to stay.
- Derrek 17y agoOr find a free place to sleep at http://www.couchsurfing.org http://www.couchsurfing.org. I haven't done this but know folks who have had great experiences with couch surfing. The OP might also include profiling his hosts as part of his video project. Sort of a Tour of America And It's People... or something like that.
- peterwwillis 17y agoI can recommend this too, it's big in places like Portland
- rufo 17y agoIt would be pretty neat to be part of a roaming band of hackers traveling around the country visiting different cities. But maybe that's just my restless side showing. :-)
- alaskamiller 17y agoSan Jose -> San Diego, 2 Days San Diego -> Las Vegas, 2 Days Las Vegas -> Denver, 2 Days Denver -> Salt Lake City, 2 Days Salt Lake City -> Portland, 2 Days Portland -> Chicago, 3 Days Chicago -> Pittsburgh, 2 Days Pittsburgh -> Boston, 2 Days Boston -> New York City, 3 Days New York City -> Washington DC, 2 Days Wash DC -> Tampa, 2 Days Tampa -> Aruba, 2 Days Aruba -> Houston, 2 Days Houston -> San Jose, 2 Days 14 airports. 30 days. I'm still double checking all the connections but I think this probably the max you can hit within the promotion. I originally wanted to do the international parts like Aruba, PR, San Jose, Cancun but that's just not workable or it'll has to be a trip in itself. Considering the extra costs needed for traveling outside of the airport, food, and living expenses, I'm going to be spending at least $3k ($599 pass + $200 taxes/fees + $1000 food + $1000 beds + rental car/cabbing/bussing?) for everything. Concept wise, I'm also drawing a blank, I need a hot geek girl/onair personality to come along. I can Ustream all the airports but no one will sponsor/pay for it--certainly not JetBlue since they know 1000 people will consider it, a dozen will go through with it, and all the social media marketing will be valued at zero. At best you can tape yourself going to all the airports and talk about them (review the architecture, shops, food, services, etc.) but that's boring after awhile. Time-lapsing and condensing the footage into a 5 minutes Where In the World is Matt video, maybe, but that's marginally novel and I think will only be a moderate (YouTube: 500k? Vimeo: 100k?) viral hit. How do I monetize on viral videos? I don't have access to a pre-existing support system so it makes it that much harder, whoever has access to a film/production crew or video podcast already can certainly this take this and run a big play. Who has connects? Let's talk, I'm willing to help. In my mind I think this is the greatest modern American road trip you can get but in the BACK of my mind where logic resides I think this is the worst idea ever. Argh... bad idea, bad idea, bad idea, bad idea... Edit: This would allow for THE best geocache or turfwar game. EVER. Or an web-based Amazing Race knockoff. Argh, I need to start a production company. PS. How fast will I end up on the terrorist watch list after this?
- alaskamiller 17y agoCan't edit my original post but just to update you guys: bought the passes. Going to do something great with this. Thanks guys, stay tuned!
- aichcon 17y agoIf someone does make a viral video out of this, I'm interested to see how many days will be lost due to delays :)
- PostOnce 17y agoIIRC Amtrak has the same deal but by train for half price.
- kragen 17y agoThat's awesome! I had no idea! What's it called? Edit: the rail pass, naturally. But it's a lot more restricted: "Passes are available in three travel durations and travel segments (15 days/8 segments, 30 days/12 segments and 45 days/18 segments) through out the entire United States. Travel must begin within 180 days of the date the pass purchased." ...and there are some other restrictions. It also isn't noticeably cheaper: US$389 for the 15-day pass, US$549 for the 30-day pass, and US$749 for the 45-day pass.
- PostOnce 17y agoIt was $300 for the month last time I checked. Thanks for the fact-check. /me updates mental notes
- Xichekolas 17y agoYeah the Amtrak passes suffer from the problem of too much complexity, which makes them risky for the buyer. The restriction to only 4 trips on any given segment is especially killer. Their own example shows that going from DC->NY and back would use up 2 trips, then DC to Philadelphia would count as trips 3 and 4 because it happens to travel the same segment of track for a while as the DC->NY route. That is way too hard for the buyer to figure out on his own. I wish they still offered the unlimited riding for 30 days passes that they had several years back. Eurail passes are immensely popular, partly because they are easy to understand.
- jbr 17y agoI did this alone for my winter break of freshman year of college. To the best of my recollection, my itinerary was Portland -> Vancouver (BC) -> Toronto -> New York -> New Orleans -> Ft Worth -> Joshua Tree -> LA -> SF -> Portland. One month. I arranged to either sleep on the train or crash with friends (knew someone in most of those places). The diner car was pretty expensive, so I generally carried a little food and ate heavy when I hit stopping cities. A significant portion of the 30 days was spent in a train, from what I recall. Traveling by train has a special extra something; you're with the people you travel with for long enough to actually develop a conversation, but you're with them just short enough that you don't have to worry too much if you don't hit it off. This was great for an introvert like me to practice chatting up strangers with little risk in a safe setting. And you meet a really interesting mix of folks, different from the people I normally find myself talking to. It's particularly fun to feel the gradient of humanity / culture shift as you travel. I traveled light; just a backpack, a camera, and a laptop (well, and climbing shoes for J-Tree). I was super careful about keeping the tech gear hidden and slept wrapped around my bag when I slept in public spaces (train stations / trains). One thing about traveling by train: Amtrak is always late, and often by half a day. Make sure people who might be meeting you at connections know this and don't expect it to work like air travel. Anyway, my thirty days of independent travel was a fantastic experience, and I'd really recommend it to anyone, young or old. You can even comfortably get work done in the passenger cars. Tether to your 3G phone or whatever and you're riding the Rails in style.
- datums 17y agoIf planned correctly this could be a pretty awesome roadtrip for 2. Napping at the airport , keeping your luggage at the airport while you discover a new city. Sponsorship would be a great idea.
- edw519 17y agoThe quality of this program will be inversely related to its popularity. How quickly will all the seats be gone?
- breck 17y agoOne of my roommates just booked it.
- danw 17y agoSlightly off-topic, but relevant for roaming hackers: What's the pricing and coverage of 3G mobile broadband dongles like in the US?
- ryanwanger 17y agoI just bought my pass! I've mapped it out already (http://www.everlater.com/ryanwanger/jetblue-all-you-can-jet-month http://www.everlater.com/ryanwanger/jetblue-all-you-can-jet-...) and I'll be documenting it as I go. Disclaimer: I work for Everlater. But of course, this is why we built it! I tagged the description of my trip with #AllYouCanJet so if anyone else does it, I can create a page of trips from others doing the same.