Originally Posted by
Adelphos
I have a round trip to LA coming up in a few weeks. Flying out via AA. On the trip back, I had a decision between a 3:30 AA and a 3:15 Jet Blue Mint. I'm booking directly into business class. My first thought was to fly AA business class on the way back... But I then remembered AA is not catering its LA flights. I looked at the JetBlue flight and saw that one of the "solo" suites was available. Now I have a decision
Book AA and get
- Flagship Lounge
- 5,000 EQM and better redeemable earnings (B6 earnings are poor when booking via a corporate portal)
Book JetBlue and get
- Solo suite
- Catering on the flight
Price isn't really an issue here. AA would seem to be the winner, but... It's early in the year, I have other opportunities to earn AA EQM, and there is no catering on the flight. Eat in the Flagship Lounge? Well I'm doing omakase for lunch before my flight, so I won't be hungry when I'm at the airport... But I may be on the plane... Plus, the single suite is nice.
JetBlue it is. Flagship wasn't enough to pull me in on this particular trip. Maybe it will be on future trips.
We finally gave JetBlue Mint a try last year, and it was quite a nice surprise.
This was from the Caribbean, so some of the service might differ somewhat from cross-country.
All that was left were two of the suites, although we would have preferred to sit side by side.
They were great. Very private, and it helped a bit that because the rows are staggered (see seating plan), the suites are set back a bit from the aisle.
There was food service, and it was good, but small portions. They did give extra once everyone was offered the first time round, but it wasn't a full meal.
It was more like tapas... you'd get a choice of a few small plates. That might be different for the cross-country, but it's probably listed somewhere on their website.
We'll definitely be considering Mint for cross country in the future. The pricing can vary considerably (I suppose that's no surprise).
GC