Originally Posted by
seldnflyer
I'm with you here - despite no lounge B6's product is phenomenal for a transcon
I'm going to disagree with you, here... Personally, I find AA Business Transcon a better product than Mint, especially if you're sleeping. Personally, I'll pay up to $50 more to fly an AA J Transon over B6, up top $100 if it's a red-eye. Reasons:
a. Hard Product, the 2+2 in Mint is not as comfortable for me as AA J Transcon whether sleeping or on a day flight.
b. Mard Product ctd. the "Mint Suites" aren't that great if sleeping. Sure, they're more private, with the door but the actual seat is way less comfortable when flat and the footwells are tiny. (I have small feet and yet I have to flex them to fit in the footwell.)
c. Food and Drink, in my experience has typically been better on AA J Transcon. (Not always, but often.)
d. Lounge Access: This fare on AA gives you access to the Flagship Lounges at LAX and JFK. B6 give you access to the Mint lounge... Oh, wait... there isn't a Mint lounge.
e. Status: This earns 2x EQMs on AA towards status, but only the normal rate for Base Points on B6 towards Mosiac.
f. Upgrades: Because AA flys 3-class on this route, there are various paths to upgrade to first (1+1 and the single most comfortble transcon red-eye out there).
g. YMMV
That said, B6 has way nicer amenity kits right now, despite having been downgraded last year. Of course, they seem to forget to cater them on about every fourth Mint flight I take...
Don't get me wrong, I fly plenty of B6 Mint flights, either because they're on routes where the competition is a standard domestic F (Like SEA-JFK) or they're more than $100 cheaper o/w than AA (The point at which the savings are worth more--to me--than the reasons above).
Besides, there's only about 6 days in all of July where B6 is less than this fare.