My wife, daughter (21 months at the time), and I recently flew on JetBlue out of their brand new Terminal 5 facility at JFK Airport in New York. I’ve always been a fan of JetBlue and a steady customer since they first popped up as an airline. There’s not much not to like – flights with more legroom, leather seats, TVs in every seat, cheap flights, etc.
So, it was only fitting that when they recently opened their brand new state-of-the-art terminal at JFK, the same thought, care, and customer-first attitude would go into planning the facility’s layout and amenities. Some highlights include great food options (Dunkin’ Donuts, full-service deli), bars, shopping, free WiFi, beautiful structural features – marble flooring, calm lighting, clear informational screens.
One additional hidden gem is a welcomed feature for parents – a small, enclosed activity play area for children located near Gate 12. As you’ll see from the pictures, it’s not much – just a few toddler activity toys, but just the fact that they have considered parents and the very difficult chore of entertaining children in an airport terminal further raises JetBlue in preferred airline list (they are already at the top anyway).
Most airports are not kid-friendly at all and they are certainly NOT toddler-friendly. The closest thing I’ve seen in other airline terminals is a bank of 80s-era video games and that’s it. When we traveled out of other airports with my daughter, we spend most of the time chasing her around the seating area by the gate or wandering in-and-out of newsstands. Not fun.
Big props to JetBlue for providing a toddler-friendly area for kids to play and parents to relax while they wait for their flights.
