Lots of Changes (165 seats per Airbus, and more)
 

http://investor.jetblue.com/phoenix....dWJzaWQ9NTc%3d

All of the slides from the presentation starting in 4 minutes can be found above.

165 seats per Airbus, while still maintaining the most legroom in coach.

3 fare families...including 0 bag family, 1 bag family, 2 bag family.

Looks like JetBlue will add 15 seats to its A320 planes. Pitch drops to 33".
Also, on slide 20 it mentions "Fare Families", with 1-Bag and 2-Bags mentioned at the higher $$ and $$$ levels, respectively. I surmise this implies the standard free bag will be gone?

Sounds like it. I am curious if they will be adding seats to their 190 fleet, or if those will stay at 100 seats? If so, I'd definitely fly routes served by the 190 over the 320.

I doubt this will be a good move for JetBlue. They will no longer stand out from the other airlines if they implement these changes.

Lovely. The "We'll attract more customers by being exactly like every other airline" move.

This'll make next year an interesting year for me. Almost five years running I've always flown B6 over the competition. Might be time to just start buying by price.

I feel the same way. I actually just booked two RTs in April on Southwest after planning on going JB all 4 trips that month. Now, especially if I have a bag, Southwest will be the way to go...and I hate Southwest.

I know the feeling. I haven't flown WN in over 10 years, and didn't like it then. But perhaps it's time to give them a try again.

I'm actually closer to MHT than BOS, and the parking's cheaper there, too.

I go to college in Indiana and live near DC, and flew B6 through Boston last month, because I usually pay a small premium to fly them. But looking at upcoming trips, and especially in the future when these changes happen, $86 direct from IND-IAD on WN, with 2 bags (I'm a heavy packer, especially on long breaks so I can do laundry, etc!), or ORD-BOS/JFK-IAD for 120, with no checked bags, I'm not footing an extra 40-75 each way to fly them...especially with out of state tuition costs. My roommate said Frontier was actually pretty nice when he flew them home last week, and I have two trips upcoming with them, so we'll see how they are. Even with a checked bag fee of 25 on them, fares would be almost $100 less than B6.

The new seats are very nice though--they are already on the A321s-- with in seat power, bigger TV screens, more channels, better map, and they are comfortable. As they are slimmer than the current ones as well the amount of leg room will be about the same as it is now plus free wifi will continue so not all that bad. I actually prefer the A321s and living in a mint city means I will be on them more often, so no real complaints here.

We can thank the obsession with quarterly earnings and pandering to "analysts".

If B6 is moving to the same commoditized product every other airline sells, what's this really going to do for them? I get that their investors think their differentiators weren't profitable enough, but if they're going to pack 'em in like everyone else and not have a decent elite program, I'm not sure why I'd choose them.

As an investor, I'd compare them in footprint to an east coast version of Alaska. Alaska basically flies the same interiors everyone else does, but differentiates on the strength of its west coast network and (IMHO) the best FF program. Jetblue previously differentiated on seat pitch and baggage, while having a strong east coast network. Then they added Mint on a couple of routes, which I think has to be the best hard+soft product combo domestically but is very narrowly focused, and are taking away the leg room and bag benefit, which were broad by nature. They'll now fly what everyone else flies, without the network of the legacies, and with a lagging FF program as well.

This seems like a short term fix to increase the stock price. It doesn't send a good message to leisure travelers, and doesn't do anything to better the already lagging message to business travelers. If anything, this tells me not to buy a ticket on B6 unless it's the cheapest, and not to buy JBLU stock if I didn't hold any ahead of this announcement.

Who's winning here?

Lots of Changes (165 seats per Airbus, and more)
 

wall street is winning here for as long as it takes to pump and dump the stock. I guess the ceo is winning for the next year until the dump and everyone bails on jetblue. extensive discussion in the "goodbye dave" thread...

Charging for bags and a crappy FF program? What a combo!
Seriously though, they've completely lost their appeal. May as well put up with the legacy carriers or SW for the bags.

The FF program is a zero factor. I don't check bags. If cabin comfort is compromised it removes JetBlue's key reason-to-choose differentiator.

The fact that you don't check bags makes this an important factor to you, too, though. Guess what happens when bag fees come along? Just like the legacies, you'll fight for the overhead bin if you don't board first.

They're essentially betting that they'll extract more profits from the additional seats in their newly commoditized product than they will lose by turning off a portion of their customer base. I'm not an airline analyst, but that may be true in a consolidated industry that is otherwise unwilling to add seats.

Now they have to compete on price, though. There aren't really any positive differentiators left for them - only some negative.