How to make a great airline perfect??
I just PM'd JennyD from the PR department of JetBlue. I am a recent convert from AA but am now addicted. Anyhoo the point of this thread was to kick around an idea or two for the folks at JetBlue about sensible ideas that might improve the airline, maybe re-thinking "accepted" ideas shamelessly taken from less nimble carriers that actually make little or no sense.
I will go first: lounges. One think I like about AA is that I can use airport lounges. The lounges may not always be great and sometimes are dreadful, but they are consistently quieter than the main terminal. JFK is, let's face it, a zoo. A lounge at the JetBlue terminal would be nice. It wouldn't need to be much - quiet is the main thing, so I can keep working while I wait for my flight. Some desks and comfy chairs, work stations, and a zone where you could make a business call without being drowned out by passers-by, announcements, and the like. I would strongly advocate that JetBlue stick with no elite status in TrueBlue, but that it reward its high-rev (usually business) travelers with access to a quiet lounge at JFK (and if it made sense, other airports too). And to make it make sense, "high-rev" as defined would mean you paid a bunch of money for the ticket in your hand. Not last week or last year, this time. So if for instance the capped price is $399 on a route, if you paid more than say, ooh, 75% of that ($300) then you are "high rev" and get to access the lounge. Incentivizes some (like me) to buy up the ticket while not costing JetBlue more in terms of mileage-earned premiums, keeps the cash flowing in (always a good thing) and keeps the foot traffic to a minimum. No membership tracking, no cost tracking, no nothing other than a simple fare query at the front desk. A box on the booking page on the website to show lounge-eligible fares and I would be in heaven.
Anyone else?