No Free Pillow for this Pilla

You all know that airlines are starting to add fees for checked baggage, but the trend to charge is seeping into other areas of air travel. Just the other day, I booked my family's airfare on jetBlue to my alma mater, Syracuse University, for homecoming/reunion weekend with the sistahs of Chi Omega. I noticed a few new items in the booking process on jetBlue's website. First, a little reminder to bring my own earphones, as my friends at JB will no longer be offering el cheapo free ones. No biggie, I thought, I always bring my ipod headset. When I got to the seating chart, I was excited that many of the "extra legroom" seats were available in complete rows for my family of 3, but when I clicked on them they mentioned a $20 each upgrade. Ooops, no way. Luckily, even though I had to go to the back of the bus, I'm far enough away from the nauseating latrine smell.

I was extremely happy to get the flights on JB, as they were cheaper than the other options and a girl's gotta have her HGTV in the air. So when I read my Budget Travel RSS feed this morning that JB will be charging $7 for a pillow and blanket, I thought... I need to read some more about this! Is my beloved airline sliding down the slippery slope of pissing off their fans like those other airlines? They are claiming they need to offset the cost of gas. In their defense, here are the pillow pluses: you get to keep the pillow and blanket (I would hope so!); it's made out of a special fabric technology that blocks dander, mites and dust; and you get a $5 coupon for Bed Bath & Beyond.

So, this "research-obsessed-gotta-getta-good-value" travel princess had to check things out. Should I pre-buy a travel pillow and blanket? I went on a variety of websites - pricegrabber.com, bed bath and beyond, target, etc but could not find a set for less than $17. And I wondered, do they have special fabric like JetBlue's? Then I checked out this Clean Brands they are touting, and sure enough, their tagline is: The World's Cleanest Bedding. They even have patented their MicronOne technology. My conclusion, at $7 with a $5 coupon, jetBlue is my hero! I may even buy extras as Christmas gifts.

P.S. For those of you who are scratching their heads about the title of this blog, my maiden name is Pilla. Yeah, I know, my married name is Cushing. Go ahead and laugh.