Originally Posted by
bedelman
I see no Mint fares for most of the connecting city pairs I looked at. E.g. DCA-SEA has no Mint fare filed, though there are obvious B6 routings via JFK and BOS. Odd! What do you make of that?
That means that there's an Economy fare published, but not a Mint fare. As odd as that sounds, it's not at all unusual even on other airlines.
Originally Posted by
bedelman
Even where mint fares are filed, they are sometimes totally uncompetitive. Example: PHL-LAS, an example mentioned upthread, has an I fare at $1154 one-way. Obviously PHL-BOS coach plus BOS-LAS Mint would cost much less.
What is JetBlue thinking here?
They're thinking that maybe they can get someone with deep pockets who doesn't know or care that booking separately would cost less. In addition to this, back when that example was posted, BOS-LAS was often priced at $1099 one way in Mint, so $1154, although normally an unreasonable fare, makes sense.
Originally Posted by
bedelman
SBM12 attributed the problem to combinability. One might imagine the Jetblue.com site failing to combine dffering fare types, and OTAs able to do so. When that happens, what is the consequence? That Jetblue.com can't sell the mixed-cabin ticket at all? Or that it quotes a needlessly-high price?
JetBlue.com can't sell the mixed cabin ticket without a through-fare. I think it might have to do with their implementation of Sabre or their implementation of Mint, because if you call in, their agents can't plate the ticket either. The consequence of this is that you'd have to go through an OTA who would plate the broken fares, possibly on another carrier's ticket stock, and you'd only earn the 3 base points per $ spent, with no bonus. If it were bookable on JetBlue.com, you'd receive at least another 3 points per $ for booking directly through JetBlue.
JetBlue often publishes "needlessly high prices" because they think someone will pay it. When that doesn't work out, they will lower the price.
I'm sure they're working on the combinability issues, because they know they're leaving money on the table if they don't.