JetBlue TrueBlue - Refundable Fares are here!

Starting Monday 01/28/2008 we will begin offering Refundable fares via www.jetblue.com and 1-800-JETBLUE. These fares will also be available via Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, CheapTickets, and Priceline. Companies with Corporate Accounts will also have access to the Refundable Fares.

Also starting 01/31/2008 we will begin testing a new pillow and blanket pack. The new Comfort Packs will contain an inflatable pillow and a fleece throw blanket. The testing will be done on flights running BOS-MCO and JFK-LGB and last approximately 2 weeks. 26 Comfort Packs will be loaded onto the aircraft. The Comfort Packs will cost $5, can be purchased using any major credit/debit card. The inflight crew will be selling them in the cabin prior to the inflight service. The Comfort Packs will be yours to keep and take with you for use on another JetBlue flight! All other flights will still continue to recieve free pillows and blankets, if available, until testing is complete and a final decision is made whether to continue selling them based on the feedback from customers.

If you have thoughts, complaints, or any other comments you are encouraged to go to www.jetblue.com and share your thoughts via the Speak Up button!

Thanks for the info, I never realized that there were pillows and blankets onboard. I am not to keen on a blow up pillow though.

Hmmmm....pay per pillow and blanket. Just another of the "regular" B6 ammenities that is no longer free.....

I've never seen pillows or blankets on jetblue. I'm always on the 190's, does that make a difference?

I have never seen them on either 190 or 320 but not that I am really paying attention.

I have never seen them on either 190 or 320 but not that I am really paying attention.

I believe they have been by request only for some time now. You're likely not to see them on a day time flight. Redeyes will be the more likely flights for the pillows and blanket kits to be selling.

I am usually to involved in watching my 36 channels of direct tv, and enjoying my 36 inches of leg room ;)

It's monday everywhere B6 flies, where are the refundable fares?

Checked SEA-JFK for 2/16-2/23 and it only showed the normal, non-refundable fares. I want to see how much more money the refundable ones are.

As a side note, when I go to book the flights the website gives me an error (error message bolded)

Sorry.
There has been a communications problem.
Data lines may be congested right now, or
another issue may exist. Please try again
later or contact Reservations.


Case Number: L1083241704

Right at 0320 EST the website is "congested" :(

I will not contact anyone because this is just a dummy booking to see how much the refundable airfares are. I actually am going on those dates but on AS and CO (award tickets given to me by family, not choice)

Looks like they're updating the booking engine now - if I try to book a flight, it gives me an error message.

Wonder what the refundable fares are going to be like, price-wise....as well as how they'll affect the current fares.

Right at 0320 EST the website is "congested" :(



Haha, well, this website is certainly congested now - we both posted at exactly the same time :)

Fares are up, but prices are really high... a $179 discount fare turns into $549... which doesn't make sense since the $50 cancellation penalty on the discount fare is still much cheaper than the refundable difference. At these prices I'd rather buy a YUP fare on traditional lines.

The difference is that when you cancel a nonrefundable fare, you incur the $50 fee, and the balance goes into a credit to be used on jetBlue within one year. Presumably, the refundable fare will be refunded to the original form of payment when cancelled.

I realized what I did wrong earlier today. B6 doesn't show a matrix like WN or FL, but make us determine which type of fare we want. I think that B6 should not make us chose between the two in the begining, but wait until thye determining flight part. I appears from SEA-JFK that nonstop TransCons are $549 one way, through BOS is $599.

I did not see it posted here yet, so here is a link to the PR:

http://investor.jetblue.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=131045&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1100715&highlight=

Also, looks like B6 is offering 4x TB points on flights booked under the new refundable fares through 2/13. Expensive fares, but not too shabby for biz travelers who can take advantage of the quadruple points.

Any legacy airline FFers reading this might care to share how these fares and associated fare rules compare to your carrier of choice on similar/competing routes? I am a frequent leisure traveler, so I am not familiar with the general structure of refundable fares.

woooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeee those fares are high!

I did not see it posted here yet, so here is a link to the PR:

http://investor.jetblue.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=131045&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1100715&highlight=

Also, looks like B6 is offering 4x TB points on flights booked under the new refundable fares through 2/13. Expensive fares, but not too shabby for biz travelers who can take advantage of the quadruple points.

Any legacy airline FFers reading this might care to share how these fares and associated fare rules compare to your carrier of choice on similar/competing routes? I am a frequent leisure traveler, so I am not familiar with the general structure of refundable fares.

The 2x points (2x for full fare and B6 offers 2x for online booking) is pretty consistent with other carrier's, though more generous for the most part. CO offers 2x EQPs and 1.5x EQMs. I believe AA is similar.

As for fare prices, $550 for a transcon in full Y is a slight increase on what the fares were a couple months ago (I paid $450 SEA-EWR on CO in Y) and slightly more than what CO charges today ($469). It looks like DL is charging $742 for their Y fare from JFK-SEA, so B6 is actually a nice discount.

The fares are higher than the bottom of the bucket fares that we all wish we could fly on all the time, but not unreasonable for last minute purchases for business travel.

That being said, the Y fares on CO book into first class for their elites, assuming that an F seat is available for sale. DL might or might not. I don't think that UA/AA do. For $80 less and the F seat with a real meal, free drinks and LiveTV starting in 2009 I'll book CO every time.


Edit to add:
Just checked NYC-SFO/OAK/SJC and B6 is at $559 o/w. VX is $459 in "Y" but non-refundable. CO is $619, DL is $839, UA/US are $1167 and AA is $1381. AS has flights at $829 and $1381, depending on whether you choose the AA or DL codeshares.

B6 remains competitive, even with the refundable fares.

That being said, the Y fares on CO book into first class for their elites, assuming that an F seat is available for sale. DL might or might not. I don't think that UA/AA do. For $80 less and the F seat with a real meal, free drinks and LiveTV starting in 2009 I'll book CO every time.

UA gets you a free upgrade into F if you book full Y for certain elite levels, can't remember which. 1K certainly.

I realized what I did wrong earlier today. B6 doesn't show a matrix like WN or FL, but make us determine which type of fare we want. I think that B6 should not make us chose between the two in the begining, but wait until thye determining flight part. I appears from SEA-JFK that nonstop TransCons are $549 one way, through BOS is $599.

Southwest's traditional fare matrix has been scaled back to three columns. You see the minimum price for each flight, but you can't immediately tell what fare categories are sold out and might become available later or whether the discount requires a particular advance purchase time that you won't get if you delay your decision by a day.

JetBlue is in its own way trying to do the same thing Southwest is trying to do: To provide better value to customers who pay the highest fares. Given the 12-month expiration period for TrueBlue credits (which really ought to be doubled), offering 3x or 4x credit for online purchase of the highest fares is entirely warranted.

Is some sort of elite program next for JetBlue? Southwest has its new A-list, offering early boarding for people who have flown 32 one-way trips within a year. Perhaps JetBlue could have specific aisle and window seats set aside for its TrueBlue road warriors. Or maybe just a plastic card that lets you board first. I'll bet JetBlue people have already made a list of the possibilities and they are thinking about it.

UA gets you a free upgrade into F if you book full Y for certain elite levels, can't remember which. 1K certainly.

Is that for wveryone (Q-UP fares) or for any Y for their elites. Not that it really matters, but I'm curious.

Southwest's traditional fare matrix has been scaled back to three columns. You see the minimum price for each flight.

Which is exactly what I want, a B6 "BS", refundable, and lowest price. At the moment I just want to see the two colums to compare prices. If I need to book last minute and refundable is $50 more than non-refundable I may book refundable for 4X TB credit.

$299 for a refundable BTV-JFK (266 miles) one-way? For the longer MHT-BWI (377 miles) flight, $114.00 w/Southwest, $129 for business select, full fare, fully refundable.

-A

Is that for wveryone (Q-UP fares) or for any Y for their elites. Not that it really matters, but I'm curious.

AFAIK it is for full fare Y fares only. So if you book W class, for instance, you don't get an upgrade for free even if you are 1K/UGS.

Was that your question?

$299 for a refundable BTV-JFK (266 miles) one-way? For the longer MHT-BWI (377 miles) flight, $114.00 w/Southwest, $129 for business select, full fare, fully refundable.

-A

Since when have airfares been about how far the flight is :rolleyes: WN doesn't fly JFK-BTV, so there is no need to compete with them on that route.

If you want to do per mile costs the JFK-SFO flight is almost 10x longer than BTV-JFK but only 2x more expensive. Does the Y fare for JFK-SFO need to quintuple to catch up :confused:

If you want to do per mile costs the JFK-SFO flight is almost 10x longer than BTV-JFK but only 2x more expensive. Does the Y fare for JFK-SFO need to quintuple to catch up :confused:

This pricing example illustrates that short hauls tend to be more profitable than long hauls, especially as fuel costs rise rapidly. I suspect that the underlying reason is that the value of a short haul flight to the customer is nearly as great as the value of a much more costly long haul flight.

Yikes, $199 between LA and the bay area :( while it's only $120ish on southwest.

Yikes, $199 between LA and the bay area :( while it's only $120ish on southwest.

This makes no sense to me. How can they expect to sell LGB-OAK for $200 when Southwest will sell you LAX-OAK, with hourly or half-hourly flights to choose from, for $130? I don't think even quadruple credit can close that $70 gap. And a long haul fare over $1k is even nuttier.

It's almost as if the people doing the pricing were trying to prove that refundable fares can't work. But then again, what do I know? I don't run an airline; I only buy tickets.

And a long haul fare over $1k is even nuttier.


There isn't another carrier out there selling them for less. You might not want to pay that much, but there are those who can, will and do. I think that the free upgrades, better frequencies and a few other things work in those other carriers' favor, but B6 will sell some seats at those prices.

I agree that they will get to sell - any price there is always takers due to their circumstances.

Coming with non-refundable fare is the non-show game, we will see how well JBLU manage the no-show, it got to do some oversell to make sense out of it.


There isn't another carrier out there selling them for less. You might not want to pay that much, but there are those who can, will and do. I think that the free upgrades, better frequencies and a few other things work in those other carriers' favor, but B6 will sell some seats at those prices.

Does this have any additional effect on the seats they hold back (from what we have previously discussed) -

Our A320 aircraft seat map has been modified to make sure our highest-paying Customers have the first opportunity to book certain seats. The following seats may be available to assign when a Customer books a Y, H or K fare on an A320. When a Y, H or K fare are not booked or the seats have already been reserved, the normal reserved indicator will be displayed.

2 A, DEF
3 ABC, F
4 CD
5 CD
6 CD
7 AF
10 ABC, DEF
11 ABC, DEF

Our E190 aircraft seat map has been modified to make sure our highest-paying
Customers have the first opportunity to book certain seats. The following seats may be available to assign when a Customer books a Y, H or K fare on an E190. When a Y, H or K fare are not booked or the seats have already been reserved, the normal reserved indicator will be displayed.

3 AB CD
4 AB CD
5 AB CD
6 AB CD
12 AB CD

We have done this as our business travelers frequently are notified they have to travel the last minute so they end on paying a higher fare. In fairness to our loyal business travelers we want to make sure they don't always end up in a middle seat. Hopefully this explains the new guidelines for the seating.

Does this have any additional effect on the seats they hold back?


I doubt it. No need to, really, as those seats will mostly still be available unless a lot of people start buying the Y fares. If that is happening so much that all the "good" seats are gone one week out then I'm sure they'll revisit the situation, but I can't imagine them actually selling that many of the Y fares to make it necessary.

For a more fair comparison, lets compare routes where WN and B6 compete directly.

FLL-BUF
B6 refundable $399 (with a non-refundable comparable to WN's Business Fare)
WN refundable $256

FLL-RDU
B6 ref - $399
WN ref - $181

For a more fair comparison, lets compare routes where WN and B6 compete directly.


Yup...WN is way cheaper. I'm not sure that makes it a "fair comparison" since there are a number of airlines that B6 is competing against, not just WN, but I do agree that the refundable fares are not competitive in every market.

I also think that B6 is completely happy with that. They don't really want to sell refundable fares so much as they want people flying their planes. A refundable fare is a higher risk for them, as there is the chance they get zero revenue for that seat - remember that they don't overbook flights.

Yup...WN is way cheaper. I'm not sure that makes it a "fair comparison" since there are a number of airlines that B6 is competing against, not just WN, but I do agree that the refundable fares are not competitive in every market.

I also think that B6 is completely happy with that. They don't really want to sell refundable fares so much as they want people flying their planes. A refundable fare is a higher risk for them, as there is the chance they get zero revenue for that seat - remember that they don't overbook flights.

And jetBlue's refusal to overbook makes absolutely no sense now that it sells refundable tickets combined with the now much lower load factors B6 has been experiencing over the past couple of years.

In reality (as opposed to jetBlue world), refundable fares don't represent "risk," they represent high revenue as flights sell out. I hope that Barger figures that out and issues marching orders to the staff consistent with that reality.

A refundable fare is a higher risk for them, as there is the chance they get zero revenue for that seat - remember that they don't overbook flights.

You're right: refundable fares and zero overbooking are not compatible. I really don't understand why JetBlue established the zero overbooking policy and why they retain it. Overbooking helps a lot on the revenue side, and properly executed it costs very, very little in customer inconvenience. This is not an issue on which the rest of the industry is wrong.

What happens if you buy a refundable fare with B6 credit and later cancel the ticket?