JetBlue is holding a one-day sale offering $10 fares between New York's JFK airport and the carrier's first 10 destinations in celebration of its 10th year of operation.
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While that sale is over, it reminded me of one I did once take part in.
In 1989, Eastern Airlines was going through deep financial trouble, as were many other carriers. On top of the competitive issues, Eastern had a terrible relationship with its unions. The mechanics went on strike, and the airline filed for bankruptcy a few days later.
In the interim, however, they slashed prices on their east coast shuttle. Karl, one of my fellow members of the Archbishop Molloy Speech and Debate team, and I decided to take advantage of this awesome $10 fare to Boston. Heck, that was cheaper than taking a cab to the airport.
So we showed up at the airport, bought our tickets and went to Boston. I'm not even sure what we did for much of the day, though I do recall going to Faneuil Hall. I believe we also went to the JFK library, which seems and odd choice for us since at that point in my life I was at the height of my Republican-ness (Karl was slightly to the right of Rush Limbaugh). We did a few other historic related things and headed back to the airport.
And that was when I had my first "airport experience." We got to Logan, and wouldn't you know it? All those $10 fare drew a lot of people to the airport. Despite the hourly shuttle flight, people just kept showing up. We couldn't get on the first 3 or 4 flights we tried and got pretty nervous about being stuck in Boston.
We found ourselves in an interesting position. We really wanted to get back to NYC that night because we had a speech tournament the next day. I was 17 and had my driver's license. Karl was 15 and did not, so renting a car was unlikely to be an option. We began to think we might not have a choice but to grab a hotel room someplace, and try to catch the first flight out to get to the tournament the next day. Or we'd just have to sleep in the airport.
Eventually, though, we got on a plane and made it back to NYC.
Was it worth the hassle to participate in those cheap fares? Today, maybe not. But in 1989? Absolutely. It was an adventure to spontaneously go to another city while participating the in final decline of what was once America's biggest airline. Plus it was a great independent thing for a city kid to do. BOS and NYC are very close to each other for most of the world, but while I was growing up in Queens, it may as well have been in California.
Seeing stuff in Boston was almost incidental to just the exciting nature of the trip, and the opportunity to witness business history.
I just wish I recalled the details a little better.
Oh, and BTW, when I have to do the route now, I don't fly between NYC and BOS. It's just silly. That route is one of the things that Amtrak gets right.
For more information about the history of Eastern Airlines, check out the Wikipedia article.
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