bennos

Agreed. Half the time the DL heatsets are broken anyway, and the other half I just use my own. I do like the DL product, but a $200 price difference isn't worth it just for a better headset. (And anyway, DL still starts at $999 for my travel dates later this year, so it's really a $400 difference.)

If DL matched the $599 pricing without playing games with upgrade inventory, that would be compelling to me, but mostly because I've already got Medallion status.

JetBlueFA

We've been told that BOS-CA will eventually be Mint as well. This is our first ever forte into any type of premium service so we have A LOT to learn. DL, UA, and AA have been doing this for DECADES so we don't expect to get it completely right on the first try so rather than launching several routes at once and having us fall flat we are starting with one route in order to get it right and find out what we need to change and fix before rolling it out to other bases and other routes.

WheelsFirst

I really wonder what's going on at VX, every other LAX/JFK J/F product is lie-flat.

JetBlueFA

In the past we have been told that our competition is not DL or UA or AA. We currently don't have the exposure or the frequent flier catchment to even try to pull frequent fliers from them. I think we would be kidding ourselves if we even remotely thought that we could go head to head with the likes of DL or UA or AA with what they can offer. The customer that we are going for is the customer that travels frequently but not frequently enough to attain top tier elite at DL or UA or AA. We want that business customer who has a few hundred extra to spend on a round trip flight and doesn't want to fly in 6 abreast seating. We want that business customer who wants a little extra attention and comfort on a transcon flight but who can't afford a couple thousand on the majors. Sure DL and UA and AA will lower fares to pull those customers back, it's only business sense to do so. Before yesterday we were the only airline in the transcon market without any premium service. Yesterday that changed and we will continue to make improvements to our offerings.

I think our major competition and the customers we were going after are the customers who would have flown Virgin America before we launched Mint. I personally think that's our target market.

trigleek

Does Jetblue put a "priority" baggage tag for Mint customers' luggage so those bags would be the first to arrive in baggage claim?

dhuey

Thanks for the info.! Best of luck to you folks.

As someone posted upthread, it looks like there is a substantial market willing to pay $1,000 - $1,500 RT for a quality premium cabin product between SFO/LAX and JFK/BOS. I've effectively been doing that with VX and the 6-hour F upgrades.

ETA: I get how the pricing is tricky for the carriers. There are some expense account types who don't mind paying the $2,500 - $3,000 RT fares. You'd hate to leave that money on the table.

bennos

The majors are somewhat constrained in their ability to match fares due to contract pricing. If they matched B6's $599 fare, they'd actually end up with something like a $479 fare. B6 is established enough now that the majors couldn't just flood the market with low fare seats and hope to drive it into bankruptcy, so it'll be interesting to see how they respond.

To some degree, the majors can match fares using upgrade instruments, since those don't directly change the published premium prices. But as a customer, playing games with instruments and inventory gets tiring fast.

Anyway, as the customer Mint is aimed at, I'm happy for the competition

dhuey

Wild idea for JetBlue: make an offer to the likes of me. We pay something like $5,000 now for four RT transcons in Mint, SFO/LAX to JFK/BOS. Must be used within four years, else they expire.

JetBlueFA

We just started putting priority baggage tags on mint and mosaic check bags so they will be offloaded onto the carousel first. Again it's a new concept for us so there have been some kinks but Mint and Mosaic should be receiving priority baggage tags at most stations.

bmg42000

Thanks for your comments. I look forward to trying it on Wednesday (and on Thursday I will try the AA 321 transcon F seat).

Orwaid

I am looing forward to trying Mnt on July 9. I wanted to give B6 a little time to shake everything out.

But from what I see and read, I think B6 will have a huge winner and I hope they extend it to ALL their transcons, including from SEA/PDX/SFO/LAX to BOS/JFK. The redeyes would be fabulous - a quick snack of small plates right after takeoff and then 4 hours of sleep is something I would take over and over.

Hey, a guy can dream, right?

mpc7488

Another vote for SEA

djibouti

I'm an AA Executive Platinum and if there was Mint on SFO-BOS for the pricing it's at right now (which I realize is introductory) I'd pay that over AA with a connection in JFK/BOS, especially during peak business travel (when upgrades are difficult) or for family members who are traveling without me.

And if you force AA to rejoin the SFO-BOS direct market, I would thank you and might still fly JetBlue just for the superior hard product over AA's 757s.

WheelsFirst

It will be interesting to see if LAX/SFO-BOS can support a premium lie-flat product. The legacies have clearly decided it can't but maybe B6 will prove otherwise. Classic chicken and egg dilemma?

bennos

BOS-LAX had 3293 PDEW in 4Q14, with an average ow fare of $291. BOS-SFO has 3617 PDEW @ $327. For comparison, NYC-LAX had 11617 @ $355 and NYC-SFO 8815 @ $359.

While the BOS markets clearly can't support the same volume of premium traffic as NYC, it doesn't seem unreasonable that one carrier with a lower cost premium product (ie: B6) could potentially make a go of it, with SFO perhaps being the more promising (more traffic, higher fare) market. At 3 flights a day each way, that's just 48 premium seats to sell (compared with a couple of hundred on NYC-SFO).