There has been additional discussion of this purchase in the JetBlue forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/000127.html

I am sure that Airbus would like to get full list price for its planes. However, at a time when there are lots of fairly new planes being parked in the desert, I think that JetBlue had lots of bargaining power to get a substantial discount. I can picture JetBlue execs saying, "sure you won't make much profit on this deal up front, but we'll be buying spare parts for them down the road. And besides that, what is the cost to you of having to shut down assembly lines due to lack of orders?"

I have seen newspaper articles that state that JetBlue's order is largest of the year for either Boeing or JetBlue. Airbus' press release notes that many American subcontractors will get a piece of the action from JetBlue's purchase.