JetBlue TrueBlue - So if B6 acquires widebodies... F/C class? VIP Club?

This is an addendum to the thread on rumored B6 widebodies. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/jetblue-trueblue/1355437-jetblue-thinking-widebodies.html

Would they have F or C? If so, and if they fly international, would B6 start VIP rooms?

Insolvency? Bankruptcy? Chapter 11 filing?

I'm only half-joking. When low-cost carriers deviate from the proven low-cost success formulae, things usually turn out poorly for the investors. See PeoplExpress, America West, etc. for illustrations.

jetBlue itself turned from profits to losses after Neeleman made the unwise decision to order 100 seaters, which began arriving in 2005, just when the legacies were finally turning things around in 2005-07.

My guess is that just like Spirit, B6 manages to make do with A321s and A320s for quite a long time.

jetBlue is still very much focused on O & D passengers. They don't need a club lounge. Clubs are popular with legacy carriers focused on getting large amounts of people through a hub city they never wanted to go to in the first place to get to their final destination. Having premium passengers sit around for hours in a crappy terminal didn't cut it.

If you are an O & D passenger, you want to get in and out of the airport as soon as possible. T5 has plenty of places to sit, eat, use the internet to amuse yourself. It is not worth the time, space, and energy to have a club lounge.

First class would not be a necessity. First class on international flights is going the way of the dodo bird with US based legacy carriers. If you are going to pay for first, you simply would not shell out the money for a US carrier if the fare would be the same on SQ/EK et al.

They are only talking about Latin America. Mexico/Central America/Northern South America are not much longer or in some cases shorter than a flight from California to New York.

There are only a few major cities in deep South America that would be a longer flight--GIG/GRU/MVD/SCL/EZE. Open skies between Brazil and the US comes into effect in 2015--hence the possibility of more opportunities available there. Premium economy and coach would probably work in an open skies environment to generate more traffic and keep margins at reasonable levels. Legacies that have been protected up to that point by limits to competition would be the hardest hit.

Insolvency? Bankruptcy? Chapter 11 filing?

I'm only half-joking. When low-cost carriers deviate from the proven low-cost success formulae, things usually turn out poorly for the investors. See PeoplExpress, America West, etc. for illustrations.

jetBlue itself turned from profits to losses after Neeleman made the unwise decision to order 100 seaters, which began arriving in 2005, just when the legacies were finally turning things around in 2005-07.

My guess is that just like Spirit, B6 manages to make do with A321s and A320s for quite a long time.

I think the 100-seaters will work out in the end, especially given the focus on O&D. But no, I really don't think widebodies are in the near future. (Could A320s/321s do Brazil from MCO/FLL?)

Also, isn't America West still around? :D
True, their first attempt at long-haul flights did lead to bankruptcy (who thought NGO-PHX was a good idea?!), with a little help from Ansett and drug-smuggling, but I'm pretty sure I took an America West flight TATL out of PHL recently.

At least, I think it was America West.
The callsign was CACTUS and the carrier code was AWE... and it definitely did feel like a low-cost carrier!

jetBlue is still very much focused on O & D passengers. They don't need a club lounge. Clubs are popular with legacy carriers focused on getting large amounts of people through a hub city they never wanted to go to in the first place to get to their final destination. Having premium passengers sit around for hours in a crappy terminal didn't cut it.

If you are an O & D passenger, you want to get in and out of the airport as soon as possible. T5 has plenty of places to sit, eat, use the internet to amuse yourself. It is not worth the time, space, and energy to have a club lounge.

There are only a few major cities in deep South America that would be a longer flight--GIG/GRU/MVD/SCL/EZE. Open skies between Brazil and the US comes into effect in 2015--hence the possibility of more opportunities available there. Premium economy and coach would probably work in an open skies environment to generate more traffic and keep margins at reasonable levels. Legacies that have been protected up to that point by limits to competition would be the hardest hit.

^ This.
I think Y+ would work well for B6 in Latin America.