The Mint reductions have their own thread, but here are some more worrying cost-cutting moves by Jetblue. For an airline trying to highlight how they're better than AA/DL/UA, they sure seem to be penny pinching more than the big three right now. It's especially interesting that they're cutting cleaning & reducing catering at BOS, considering that DL just announced they're making BOS their #1 growth market in the next few years and will be targeting Jetblue specifically. Two years ago I would've said Jetblue has too many loyal customers for Delta to make an impact, but this round of service reductions has to make you wonder how low Jetblue is willing to go...
The company is experimenting with reduced cleaning services for aircraft making turns at Boston. Rather than a pair of cleaners touching every A320 or A321 coming through the station the company is dropping that to one, focused on cleaning the lavatory. The second contractor that typically would vacuum the carpets on board is being cut. The company explained it to crew members as part of a drive towards improved on time performance, but also acknowledges the “major reduction in costs during this tough cost environment” that the cuts will bring.
The company is also experimenting with cuts to the overall volume of catering on board for some flights. Currently snacks and beverage carts are restocked at hubs. In some cases, however, JetBlue is hoping to get two round-trips out of a single stock rather than just the one round-trip. While it is rare that any single item will run out on a turn the odds increase significantly with that second round trip. That’s frustrating for passengers but also for crew who work to rebalance the stock between flights and are trying to find the items passengers want or apologizing for them not being available.
https://paxex.aero/2019/08/jetblue-mint-catering-cuts/
Recent Jetblue service reductions
2019 - Mint service reductions
2019 - Airplane cleaning reductions
2019 - Catering reductions - *now live for all short & medium-hall flights*
2019 - Change from Coke to Pepsi
2019 - Removal of bottled water
2018 - A320 refurb adds 12 seats, reduces legroom & adding awful SpaceFlex bathrooms
2018 - Jetblue increases checked bag fee (quickly matched by all other airlines)
2018 - Begin serving drinks via mini-carts
None of any one of these items is likely to lose customers, but taken altogether I'd say possibly. More importantly, this is a long list of service changes & reductions considering it only covers the past 18 months. Even bottom-of-the-industry AA hasn't made these kind of cuts in the past few years. I personally think the brazenness of some of the changes (and without communicating to Mint & Mosaic customers for feedback prior to making them) speaks even more to how much Jetblue currently cares about customer feedback. For instance, if they want to sync cocktail offerings between Mint & core to make things easier, I bet the vast majority of us understand that...but why not offer bourbon to Mint & core customers (as AA/DL/UA all do in Y), rather than simply remove it as an option from your top-tier customers without a replacement. Same thing for the Coke=>Pepsi switch--if they're going to make that move irrespective of customer feedback, at least offer the same products. Coke Zero was very popular on Jetblue yet they didn't bother to offer Pepsi Zero Sugar when they switched--they just removed it and (apparently) thought customers would be fine with Diet Pepsi. Now they apparently think customers will be fine not getting snacks they prefer or having their seat cleaned. At what point will loyal Jetblue customers start looking at booking the cheapest airline, instead of sucking it up and continuing to pay more for an airline that has fewer and fewer benefits? My guess is that if there are some nasty storms this winter, these changes combined with Jetblue's awful IIROPS will push customers away--especially their top-tier Mint & Mosaic customers.