N.Y. friends finish JetBlue all-you-can-fly U.S. odyssey

Clark Dever and Joe DiNardo touched town at Buffalo Niagara International Airport about 12:05 a.m. Friday, five minutes after the end of a JetBlue promotion that allowed a month of unlimited travel for US$599.

Along the way, there was skydiving in Las Vegas, stage-diving in Houston, cliff-diving in San Diego. Dever even dove into a marriage proposal, popping the question to his girlfriend, Susan Cope, when she flew out to Phoenix to meet up with him. (She said yes.)

“It was the journey of a lifetime,” Dever said later Friday morning as he and DiNardo, both 25, recounted the adventure at a Buffalo coffee shop.

The trip meant 58 flights for Dever and 62 for DiNardo, who detoured back to Buffalo to quit his job halfway in. They figure each flight cost them about US$13.

The pair, who recruited two other friends for the trip, managed to make every flight to avoid what would have been a disastrous cascade of rebooking and fees. Only one flight was delayed, for 30 minutes.

After mapping out their route, they went into the trip with few concrete plans for any city, relying on Facebook, Twitter and a Web site: www.12hoursinacity.com, to meet up with people who could show them around, provide a place to stay or a ride.

Companies that jumped in with services got plugged on the Web site and others became official sponsors.

“The biggest thing we learned is that so many people are so willing to help you out,” DiNardo said. “Everywhere we went, someone wanted to buy us something or give us a place to stay or show us their city. People are very, very proud of their individual cities and they like to show them off.”

“People would hear what we did in other cities and they would want to show off and top it,” Dever said, “... so it got pretty brutal for us.”

The travelers said they picked up 2,300 Facebook fans and more than 1,000 Twitter followers in the month and 30,000 people visited the Web site, where DiNardo wrote about their experiences and Dever posted photos.

“Everybody wishes that they were doing what we were doing,” Dinardo said. “Our business was to take in the city and so we were able to really experience things. ... Like in New Orleans, we might have gone to one place on Bourbon Street. We got the local New Orleans, the real music,” he said.

Not everyone thought the pair could pull it off.

“Most of our friends were, 'This is the worst idea ever. It's going to be hilarious. I just want to watch so I can see it explode,”' DiNardo said.

JetBlue spokesman Sebastian White said the Buffalo travelers were among several people who took great advantage of the promotion. The airline did not disclose how many passes were sold.

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