Originally Posted by
cjgibson
CO does have reasonable fares on this route, as long as you book more than a few days in advance and you're staying at least 3 days (I see lots of $158 round-trip fares in October, for example). The expensive fares only show up when you book close-in tickets, or if you're trip is less than 3 days. I'm sure CO will match whatever fare rules B6 uses on this route, so that will probably be a good thing for consumers. But I'd also bet that CO will do its best to defend this route by adding extra seats. They could add lots of seats by simply replacing the 735s with 738s.
I just checked. Any reservation booked less than a week in advance or for a trip of less than 3 days is $810 round-trip. That is quite a bump from $158. I looks like they are trying to milk the business traveler for every possible penny on this route.
But I agree with you that Continental will add a bunch of seats and match JetBlue's fares. In response I expect that traffic on this route will at least double and CO will get much of the growth. But JetBlue has enough loyalists (in Boston if not in Jersey) to do OK for itself.