Thanks for the replies. The "pro-forma" guess about sometime around July makes sense, since the JetBlue website says booking are "currently" being allowed up to 8 months out, which would make July the time when February '08 schedules open up. But I understand the random element, so I guess this boils down to ongoing, regular checking of their website.

The other interesting issue here is pricing. From what I can see, JetBlue knows their markets and definitely changes prices on an hourly basis depending on projected demand.

Since we want flights during the President's Day week in Feburary (from New York to Florida), -- a high demand school vacation period in the northeast -- I just did some comparisons on the Jetblue website to get a sense of how much they might jack up pricing then.

Specifically, I looked at some currently bookable holiday periods (week of July 4th and the Labor day period this year). In both cases, Jetblue is significantly raising prices on those itineraries for flights leaving NY towards the beginning of the holiday period and returning from Florida towards the end. That suggests their "standard $99 each way" pricing I could get for a flight during a lower demand period will likely be as much as $189 for the periods I want to travel in 2008.

I know, that would appear to be airline piricing 101, but -- as I put it to my wife -- also raises the issue of whether JetBlue is worth waiting for, given I can book a comparative itinerary on a "legacy" line for not much more than that right now (the 330 day out booking windows are just now hitting President's Day week '08). And if I was willing to go with non-direct flights (which frankly I'm really not, adding connections is just asking for trouble when flying out of the northeast during the winter), I could get round trip pricing down to about $240.

The classic case of whether to go with the bird in hand.. or wait.