great now the overhead bins are going to be even more filled with peoples crap.

Lovely. When do they start charging for seat belts?

I was recently on an American flight (ORD to Montreal) where they offered blankets for $5.

Yeah I think your right. I sure as hell won't pay for a blanket/pillow. I have one of those U shaped neck pillows already. Guess it's time to find a really durable thermal blanket.

I'm severely annoyed by the sheer amount of stuff that we're starting to have to take on planes to A: Not Starve, B: Be somewhat entertained, and C: Stay as comfortable as possible in the tin-can.

You know, I was skeptical until I saw it comes with $5 coupon to BB&B. Those are very hard to come by.

This reminds me of this Carol Burnett skit with the No Frills Airline:
[www.youtube.com]

I think I'm going to write a song about the 'jet blues'...

charge me for my bags, dun da dun dun

charge me for myself, dun da dun dun

I sat in a seat full of pee,

AND NOBODY WOULD HELP!! I got the blues....

Yeaeeyeah the jet blues....

I saw this on the 12 O'Clock news. It kinda sucks that you'd have to pay to NOT freeze on a plane, but this is the era of nickel and diming.

How long be for the live set back tv goes PPV.

@Michael Belisle: Yeah, I only get coupons in the mail from them every week or so...

I've been flying JetBlue very loyally for years (yay, TrueBlue points paying for our otherwise $1000 round trip to San Juan this December!) and I didn't even know they had blankets or pillows available as an option. I'm always cold on planes but so far "wearing a big ol' hoodie" has always worked for me just fine. *shrug*

@IphtashuFitz: I have a stack of about a dozen BB&B coupons. It's like they're replicating: there seem to be more every time I look at the stack. Probably time to throw them out.

They are actually letting you take with the blanket and pillow for $7.00. It's not a usage fee, it's a sale.
Try to find a pillow in the airport stores for that price.

How long till a website actually consolidates all fees, charges, service, so you can 'build' your ticket (like a car where you select options) and you can compare total actual costs?

Travel sites comparing ticket prices are largely becoming worthless as the ticket price is semi-irrelevant the way fees are being packed on.

What's the big deal? This is better than getting a pillow on an American Airlines flight that you picked up after the last passenger drooled on it.

I've found vomit in the front-pocket after an American Airlines flight before (no kidding).

This really doesn't bother me.

Just raise your prices, though, on the ticket, and compete fair and square.

Ummmmm, it's going to take more than a coupon to entice me to rent a used pillow and blanket. Ick.
.

@Michael Belisle:
Stack them with your Michael's 40% off framing coupons!

@EtoilePB: Same here...never seen a pillow or blanket on the plane. Appears that they're only on flights > 2 hrs, which excludes all of the ones I've done.

@Cranky Customer: apparently these are new pillows and blankets, which you can keep. If it were a use fee that would suck, but JetBlue is selling them. Fine by me - I've seen pillows and blankets on Southwest, but it's not like they launder them in between passengers. Icky.

Nazis

This isn't a bad deal at all. A travel pillow and blanket with a carrying case for $7 that you can take with you (and bring with you on future flights). From the article:

JetBlue Airways said Monday that it would sell a pillow and blanket set for $7 on flights of two hours or more. The set, which passengers can take home, includes a 10-by-12 inch pillow and a fleece blanket, which fit into a carrying case.

Like others have mentioned, this is not a fee. But a mandatory purchase. So it's not an outright rip off but what if you just happen to have enough travel blankets and pillows?

New! I'm in. I sat next to a woman with a horrific cold (well, she was across the aisle). She was considerate and all, during all her coughing and sneeze attacks she used the blanket. Even though I used blankets knowing they were filthy, it took that traumatizing experience for me to stop. And if you're wheezing it up like that, then as far as I'm concerned you owe the passengers next to you $10 for some Hall's and Robitussin

@tundey: Why then you don't buy more.

BTW, if they can make as much as $50 million from that, any idea how soon they'll start selling electronics? Now that's a skymall I can get behind :)

@SkokieGuy: Yeah but with all the baggage fees, you can't bring them with you (and still use your allotment of carry-on baggage).

But does that mean that they will actually *clean* the items?

The fee is probably close to their replacement cost for those items anyway. Yea, it would have been horrible if it was only a rental fee. But it makes sense for everyone. You get to haul around a cheap pillow and blanket and they get to move their cost of replacing those items onto the consumer. (And make a bit of change on the transaction too.)

@tundey: Maybe you can't

Well at least you won't have to worry about using a dirty free blanket. This is cheaper then buying them in the airport shops so it's actually a good deal.

This really isn't bad if you do indeed get new items and can keep them. It ends up being $2 bucks if you count the $5 gift certificate. I'd gladly pay just not to get something that is used, especially if I flew more than once every few years.

How long before TSA declares pillows and blankets a national security threat?

$7 seems like a steal these days considering that all the stores in ORD wanted $15 for a neck pillow and I couldn't even find a blanket in any of the stores in or near my terminal.

I wish they would just raise the price of the tickets and stop hiding everything behind fees.

This has potential for the law of unintended consequences. Charge for pillows + planeload of spring breaking sorority chicks bring their own oversized ones= More weight, more potential for passenger conflict and PILLOW FIGHTING SORORITY CHICKS! Sweet policy.

I'm sure the $5 gift certificate isn't an added value to the customer, it's an advertising bit that BBB is actually paying JetBlue for. Soon, the airplanes will look like an aerial NASCAR race, with corporate logos painted on everything that has an inch of space left.

"This engine brought to you by the Home Depot! This blanket brought to you by BB&B! Be sure to enjoy a refreshing Coke during the flight for only $4!" Then, "This is the captain speaking, from the official Staples 'That was Easy' cockpit, we're in for a rough flight today..."

Oh no, I just gave them ideas, didn't I?

@goodkitty: Actually, that has already been tried. Skybus started in May 2007 and sold advertising on the outside of their planes and was also reported to have tried selling ads on all the things inside the plane, like the overhead comparments and seatbacks. It didn't work, though, and Skybus went bankrupt earlier this year.

As for me, I don't mind buying a clean blanket and pillow for $7. I hold with those who would rather avoid something that God-knows-who-else has been able to slobber and sneeze all over.

Coming soon: Oxygen masks $8. Exact change required.

Good idea. Few people use these, but they still tend to be in short supply. Charging for them means we aren't all subsidizing the few that want them, and it also means demand for them will be less. Except that carrying fewer of these will do very little for fuel economy, this is the model of what the airlines should be charging for, not simple beverages and tiny snacks which people will go without and thus end up dehydrated and lethargic.

And that's just what airlines need to determine: What is getting the "free ride" and what needs to NOT be disincentivized because it is a common need or just makes sense. Second-plus bags, yes charge for those; but allow a first checked bag or the passengers will be up to their ears in carry-ons.

Instead the airlines are just taking a nickel-and-dime approach that frustrates people because of its ubiquity such that even sensible charges become just one more thing to despair over. I look forward to the following exchange at the ticket counter:

Me: "I see you've charged me a fuel fee, a seat fee, a boarding fee, a check-in fee, a take-off fee, a landing fee, a checked-bag fee, a taxi-away fee, a taxi-back fee, two airplane parking fees, a carry-on bag fee, seven security fees, an armrest fee, a seatback fee, a runway fee, a fly-to-destination fee, a landing strip fee, an airplane aisle fee, two jetway fees, a mini-pretzel fee, a soda fee, and a trash collection fee."

Check-in agent: "Yes, those are all legitimate fees. And none are refundable even if it's our fault you flight is delayed or cancelled."

Me: "I agree, and I'll pay them, but I want a refund on the ticket itself. It doesn't seem to get me anything."

Check-in agent: "Wait, the landing fee is refundable in case that service is not delivered."

So I get one carryon and one "personal item" and now one of those is going to be used by a carrying case with a pillow and blanket? Can I still carry two items if I wear the blanket and stuff the pillow in the front of my pants?

Dear JetBlue,

I own my own shoes, shirt, pants, jacket, AND an inflatable neck pillow that fits in a pocket.

Good luck on that $50 Million you are hunting for. Try checking the airplane seats for spare change. You're going to need it apparently.

Hmmm...I suddenly don't feel so bad about taking one of their flimsy little excuses for a blanket off the plane and with me into their freezing cold excuse for a terminal at JFK last winter!

I hope those aren't the blankets they plan on selling! If they're 'gonna charge for them they should at least make them out of a substantial amount of fabric that will actually keep you warm!

I would gladly pay $7 for a *washed* blanket and a pillow that doesn't have 10 flights worth of transatlantic random person hair-grease on it.

A $5 coupon to Bed Bath and Beyond? Come to think of it I do need something cheap and utterly useless...

I go to NJ and upstate NY quite a bit in the summer and I bring my own blanket because the busses are freezing. I notice most people do and they bring those blow up neck things. I can do the same on a plane. why would I buy anything from these shithole airlines? They just all suck.

I used to be a travel addict but am so glad I don't have to put up with the indignity that is post 1990 flying (the last time I remember having an enjoyable flight was 1990 and the week after 9/11/01 when the plane was completely empty) much anymore.

I have to say that as far as air travel goes Jet Blue has been exceptional, they don't charge for luggage, they hand out lots of snacks and 2 weeks ago we were stuck on the plane for 5 hours at jfk due to thunderstorms, they kept us informed, the lead flight attendant offered the use of his cell phone to let people know we were delayed, they kept the ac on and the beverages and snacks going and just when i thought it couldnt get better they sent my wife and I $1200 in flight vouchers as an apology for the delay that was not their fault.

Jet Blue was the first to not do meals (they started up not doing meals) and clued others into what they could get away with if they put an idiot box into the seat.

I'm flying to the West Coast in the fall and I'm either shipping my stuff before hand (I can't imagine it costing more) or buying stuff when I get there (I'm not without my love of shopping) and shipping it home. Actually the second option sounds simply fabulous to me. I'm not paying their stupid ass fees.

So now when I fly from warm place to warm place I need to pack a blanket so I don't freeze my ass off in the exit row or another cold spot on the plane (usually most of the front). Wonderful.

Hey, at least it's clean!

Unless, it was contaminated when they "factory sealed" it.

Oh, bother...

Thanks, JetBlue, for leaving me in Boston last week! I know it took a lot of effort to email me at 12:30am to let me know my 6:30am flight was cancelled (due to crew scheduling), and even more effort to tell me that there'd be no compensation for a hotel since your next flight wasn't until the next day. I also appreciated your fine offer of "we'll give you your money back and you can find another flight the day of your flight", and I'll pretend I didn't hear the smug tone. I also really appreciated spending more money to fly to 4 airports on US Air, who at least got me to my destination the same day.

Sad thing was, I paid more originally just to fly JetBlue, telling my friends it was worth the extra few bucks. Guess I'll save those few dollars to feed into the flying vending machine next time.