Three New Things to Know About jetBlue

by Gary Leff

jetBlue used to offer more legroom than they do today. They also offered a free first checked bag. Their flights still have a touch more room than American, United, and Delta do in coach. They have free wifi. But their goal is clearly to be just a little bit better than their competitors, while avoiding being substantially better.

Here are 3 new things to know about jetBlue:

  1. jetBlue eliminates free standby and increases the price for same day flight changes from $50 to $75 although this doesn’t affect elite members who can continue to make same day changes for free.

  2. JetBlue is tightening its price drop policy, you need to request a voucher when the price of your ticket drops within 5 days rather than the current 14 day policy. It wasn’t that many years ago when United Airlines gave vouchers whenever the price of your ticket dropped, just for the asking, no time limit.

  3. jetBlue flight attendants will vote on unionization early in 2018. Some seem to think this will ‘give them a seat at the table’ in merger negotiations. In most cases that’s only if they’re willing to sign a contract with a potential acquirer that they wouldn’t with their existing management, and that’s usually concessionary…

I do like jetBlue’s coach product better than their largest competitors’. But they want to be sure the product isn’t too good it seems.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. I flew Jet Blue for the first time in about 6 years last weekend and it left a LOT to be desired. I’d rank it just a tad above the Spirit experience. There is tons of legroom though, I was shocked at the pitch. Enjoyed the free Wi-Fi too.

    But when you pay $34 for a flight you get a $34 experience.

  3. @ORD Flyer- What was bad about you. You said it was a poor thing experience but only articulated two things you liked about JT.

  5. @Daniel

    Horribly dilapidated aircraft interior. Felt like it was ready to head to the desert.

    Seatback AVOD screens are ancient. But +1 for the DirecTV.

    Headphone jacks don’t work worth jack. I had to hold the plug half way in the entire time to get the sound to work.

  6. Never understood the fuss about jet blue its marginally better than legacy carriers
    But they have no club lounges and the JFK is simply ghetto even the 3rd party lounge is crap
    Air Space or whatever they call it
    It has an odd partnership with Emirates
    If you fly Jet blue are you really going to Dubai/Middle East likely on revenue or miles?
    Their ff program is poor in value in my perception
    would someone really use 95k to 100,000 miles points to go one way on MInt the one good thing about Jet Blue
    One can go business class on on other airlines for half the miles/points
    The best thing about Jet Blue is their pricing in business class
    Revenue tickets seem like a fair deal sometimes in Mint compared tp legacy carriers
    Good product if you can snag a single seat

  7. I will only travel this airline via Mint. Makes no sense, for me at least, to do anything other than that. I suppose I’m also bitter at the fact that mosaic is so diluted any dollar store Corp account can get it for free. Except me apparently.

  10. “We were warned about this three years ago.”

    Yup, Joe nailed it in that article. Most of the points of difference that set B6 apart from legacy carriers have disappeared. That said, AA still hasn’t got domestic IFE to save its life on so many flights … and B6 has had DirecTV at every seat for years.

    For me the death knell was watching the beleaguered ground crew at SJC last year around 10:30pm walk around to literally every passenger and ask whether they’d check their carry-ons. Such a sad and pathetic state of affairs.

    Unionization will be the death blow to B6.

  11. Aside from Mint, there is really nothing desireable or special about Jet Blue, and Mint is matched by the legacies on the transcons. I will fly JetBlue when it matches my needed route or schedule. But that’s it. In coach, Delta offers a better product than JetBlue imo.

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