Virgin vs. JetBlue
Mar 14, 2015, 6:11 am
#2
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Boston, MA
Programs: AA EXP, B6 Mosaic, UA Plat, Bonvoy Plat, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 1,774
I fly both regularly. Briefly...
Advantages of Virgin:
- Order food from your seat
- More reliable from Boston (JetBlue is chronically off schedule in Boston)
- Nice first class option which you can upgrade into for reasonable prices if you get very lucky
- Food offered is better than JetBlue
- Bad but somewhat usable Wifi on every flight
Advantages of JetBlue:
- Regular coach seats have much more legroom
- Even More Space seats are readily available and inexpensive; there is only one coach exit row with extra space on most Virgin planes, and Main Cabin Select, which has about the same amount of space as an Even More Space seat, is much more expensive most of the time.
- Free snacks
- Much better wifi but no guarantee it will be on your flight
For me, I am currently choosing Virgin over JetBlue for BOS-SFO, but as soon as JetBlue finishes installing wifi on all its planes, I will be switching. The upgrades on Virgin are nice but just too hard to get (maybe 1 of 10 flights for me, even with status).
Advantages of Virgin:
- Order food from your seat
- More reliable from Boston (JetBlue is chronically off schedule in Boston)
- Nice first class option which you can upgrade into for reasonable prices if you get very lucky
- Food offered is better than JetBlue
- Bad but somewhat usable Wifi on every flight
Advantages of JetBlue:
- Regular coach seats have much more legroom
- Even More Space seats are readily available and inexpensive; there is only one coach exit row with extra space on most Virgin planes, and Main Cabin Select, which has about the same amount of space as an Even More Space seat, is much more expensive most of the time.
- Free snacks
- Much better wifi but no guarantee it will be on your flight
For me, I am currently choosing Virgin over JetBlue for BOS-SFO, but as soon as JetBlue finishes installing wifi on all its planes, I will be switching. The upgrades on Virgin are nice but just too hard to get (maybe 1 of 10 flights for me, even with status).
Mar 16, 2015, 11:53 am
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 10,904
From looking at SeatGuru (I fly VX all the time but I have never flown JetBlue) it looks like the main difference is that the economy seats on JetBlue have an extra 2 inches of pitch, which is a big difference (although pitch doesn't necessarily equate to legroom, since they can play tricks like making the seats thinner). On the other hand VX has a first class, and JetBlue does not.
So I'd probably pick JetBlue if I wanted to fly Economy, and Virgin otherwise. "Even More Space" looks like MCS without the free food and drinks.
So I'd probably pick JetBlue if I wanted to fly Economy, and Virgin otherwise. "Even More Space" looks like MCS without the free food and drinks.
Mar 31, 2015, 7:38 am
#4
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hong Kong & New York
Programs: AA EXP/CK, UA1K
Posts: 131
JetBlue does have a very nice first class cabin (called Mint) on flights from JFK to SFO/LAX. The seat is a fully flat bed, some have doors, and can often be had for a relatively reasonable price, when compared to similar products.
Apr 1, 2015, 2:47 pm
#5
Join Date: Apr 2003
Programs: B6 Mosaic, Bonvoy LT Titanium (x SPG LT), IHG Spire, UA Silver
Posts: 5,844
Otherwise, VX is obviously a better choice for many flights within the Western region of the US and B6 serves a lot more places in the East and flies to the Caribbean, etc that VX does not serve.
Really depends on travel patterns. I use VX for mostly short flights and jetBlue to get to JFK.
Apr 1, 2015, 8:32 pm
#6
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 5,814
I hear good things about the B6 mint and would guess that i'll ending up preferring Mint > VX F when I try it.
However, the one thing VX does have going for me is consistency -- I know what i'm going to get on every plane (because its pretty much the same). B6 isn't too bad though (especially compared to the legacies).
However, the one thing VX does have going for me is consistency -- I know what i'm going to get on every plane (because its pretty much the same). B6 isn't too bad though (especially compared to the legacies).
Apr 2, 2015, 12:23 pm
#7
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: SFO, LON
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, Bonvoy Tit, Hilton Dia etc etc
Posts: 2,354
Mint is streets ahead of VX F even food-wise. VX F food is nice, but minimal in quantity for the long flights. Tiny salad doubling up as appetizer by adding two slices of prosciutto. Well now ... Mains are on the small side, tho' much better quality than what you get on legacies, but not much better than Mint. Dessert is a small, sometime stodgy cake. Wine is OK. Seating is miles worse than Mint and AA F and still a lot worse than AAJ/UA F/ DL F on transcons. The VX product is deeply uncompetitive on the premium markets right now.
On BOS-SFO, as MikeBOS says, you can't buy upgrades for the simple reason that VX F is competing with UA crappy old 737/757s on direct flights. Being in SF, I really want to make VX work for me, but on the JFK market they fall far behind. If they aren't my obvious choice for SFO-JFK then I'll never fly enough for gold status, so I may as well look somewhere else across the board. That's my conundrum right now.
On BOS-SFO, as MikeBOS says, you can't buy upgrades for the simple reason that VX F is competing with UA crappy old 737/757s on direct flights. Being in SF, I really want to make VX work for me, but on the JFK market they fall far behind. If they aren't my obvious choice for SFO-JFK then I'll never fly enough for gold status, so I may as well look somewhere else across the board. That's my conundrum right now.
