Private Mint suite: so so experience
 

Recently flew SFO-BOS in a private Mint suite by buying up online for $200.
After experiencing the flight, I have mixed feelings about the product and I am not sure if I would want to pay for it again sometime.

The good:

• Spacious suite
• Large bed
• Excellent FA service
• Food is ok

The bad:

• Amenity kit is a joke
• Lumbar support hurting my lower back. Impossible to turn off. Needed extra cushion just below shoulder height.
• No recline. Seat moves forward, then flat.
• No VOD. The movie starts when it starts.

Depends on what you want, I suppose. If you just need another toothbrush and comb then the legacy kits are fine. I like the variety of other bits to play with.

There is a middle spot where it is slightly reclined but not flat.

Sure, but streaming anything you want online works and is also free. Win some, lose some.

I did get the shaving foam and toothbrush :rolleyes:

= fail.

You can do that from any seat.

I think Mint has been hyped too much by bloggers. I expected something like TATL J/F. No way it is like that. Sure, it's better then domestic F, but at least my back does not get hurt from a domestic F seat.

Of course it's overhyped and B6 has gotten away with a cutsie name rather than designated it as J.

Bottom line is that it's at a price point which many people seem to like.

But. it's a tradeoff.

:confused: How so? There is a reclined position, just like on the B/E Diamond seat used on AA, UA & DL in biz for most of their transcons. The few that don't have that are on DL and are very similar to the Vantage seat B6 uses IIRC.


Not with multiple plugs and space to set a laptop up on the side like that.

It is, at worst, a comparable seat to all the other TCON biz products. I like the food service setup better than what I've had on DL/UA TCONs; haven't flown AA in long enough that I cannot reliably compare. I'll trade AVOD for fast, functional, free wifi. And I think the service is WAY better on B6. It comes up short on the ground experience, assuming lounge time is something you care about.

What TATL products would you be comparing it to? Because UA, DL & AA have very similar seats and meals on their TCON and TATL J products. AA still has a ton of angle-flat and recliner seats flying TATL.

The fact that it brought the price down to something I can afford from time to time also helps, but I do not believe it is worse than the others at comparable price points.

Forgot about all those things. If I cannot sit still in a seat because it hurts my back, fancy meals or stellar FA service won't matter one bit.

I agree that if you don't like the seat all the other stuff is inconsequential.

I think it's difficult to reconcile a $200 buy-up with international J/F expectations... Mint is cheaper than most t-con J and comparable/better depending on preferences.

That being said I do agree the Thompson Vantage seat is a horrible J product, but I've suffered through it on DL's 767 for much longer flights than SFO-BOS.

Also, does anyone else offer scheduled lie-flat on SFO-BOS?

Nope.

FYI, UA has been scheduling a significant number of lie-flat 752s and BarcaLounger-equipped 772s each way, generally one per day. They appear to be doing so through at least the holidays. I'm booked on a lie-flat r/t over Veterans' Day weekend in November.

Yes, I realize this isn't regularly scheduled service, and I'll be SOL if they make an aircraft substitution. But I thought folks should know, and if you can snag a seat at $499 each way as I did, it's even cheaper than Mint. Plus, if you're a regular UA flyer it offers almost 11K PQM, which is substantial.

I've been saying this for a while now but as much as I love the A321s, I hate the seats. Especially on flights longer than 2.5 hours. This goes for all seats, not just Mint. They hurt my back as well and I don't typically have back problems. I will not fly on an A321 without an EMS seat.

That said I had my very first Mint experience last Thursday. I probably made a mistake but I booked the window seat in the section of 2. If I ever fly Mint again, I will book the suite. Long story short, I boarded first. Within 2 minutes, a guy and wife board and he was immediately confrontational(no hello, no good morning) with me and asked if I'd move so they could sit together. They had 2 aisle seats right next to one another. I kindly declined and said I booked and preferred a window seat. It turned out the window next to him was unoccupied so she moved anyway. He ended up glaring at me for the entire flight and/or complaining loudly in another language. I did discuss it with the FA and even he said I did nothing wrong. I like to keep my windowshade up so he also complained to the FA about the light. So several times I had to put up the trays to block out the light. Meanwhile this guy never even bothered to put on his eye mask or sunglasses. he was just looking for any excuse to pick on me for 5 hours. So it wasn't a very positive Mint experience for me but had nothing to do with the service.

As for the amenity kit, there was one item alone inside that was worth at least $50. And I thought there were some cool items inside like eye gels. So I had no complaints. I enjoyed the food except I thought the french toast was iffy. I probably didn't explore the seat features enough but I did recline fully for a bit. I agree it would be nice if the seats reclined in a seated position too. I could barely feel the massage feature when I tried it. Overall, a good experience aside from the crowd.

The lumbar support was inflating and deflating, so it was punching me in the back when I flew in Mint. :eek:

I really like mint, but I agree the seat is not that comfortable. I think it has something to do with the air cushioning system. I personally prefer the UA and AA transcon "Diamond" seats. It's a shame because on b6 mint planes the FAs are great, and the food is extremely good. Also love the privacy of the "suite" seats.

I reported similar a couple of months back:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/jetbl...-legacies.html

The food really is quite great. Agreed on the seats. Interested to see if they'll upgrade them at some point.

I also tried Mint for the first time 6 weeks ago on JFK-SFO. I thought the seat (I don't mind the lumbar support as I prefer a firmer mattress), privacy, food, and amenity kit were great, but I couldn't help thinking about IRROPS situations, lack of lounge access, and relatively poor JFK T5 access via public transportation - it's like a good 10 minutes from the AirTrain to the Precheck line). Flew back on UA p.s. to compare and after considering all the factors, I would say they're pretty equal.

How is Mint better/worse as a name than "Delta One" or "p.s."?

And if you can find your booking class (which B6 makes difficult) you'll see the traditional booking codes. (My last SFO-JFK run booked into "I".)

I agree the lack of VOD at this point makes the system look embarrassingly dated, and I don't find streaming an acceptable alternative.

I think all in all B6 has a slightly better in flight product and the legacies have better (in some cases significantly better) ground operations. That said, I too consider them roughly equivalent overall and tend to book first on price and schedule.

You can make the seat recline by tapping on the relax button. It will go back an inch or two with each tap and you can still keep your feet on the ground.

You can also use the relax button until the back starts to go back and then just lower the leg rest

Considering how recently the A321s were delivered, I do find the looped video baffling.

That being said, for me, the free wi-fi (that often works better than paid Gogo on other airlines) more than makes up for that.

AVOD is really not that important on a 5-6 hour flight. Free, usable wifi is way more valuable and useful to the majority of flyers. Plus as Amazon is sponsoring the wifi, I am sure Amazon would prefer people to login using their Prime account to stream content.

Mint is still a major disruptive force. The value that is offered is very high-especially for the market they set out to capture. Remember that Mint was started to capture small business customers that did not have the size to get corporate discounts and leisure travelers willing to pay somewhat more for a better product. The fact that more than 2 years later, Jetblue has reached a far bigger audience is a great testament to the success of Mint.

I was previously a Jetblue customer but would book the cheapest possible flight. Occasionally I would also use Virgin for transcons when I wanted to fly in first. This year I have taken all my JetBlue transcons in Mint and achieved Mosaic in February. It is a win for me and Jetblue is getting more out of me as well. It has transformed the travel experience for many people that I know and for whom I book travel.

For this business traveler, being able to spread out and work (suite is great for spaciousness + wifi makes work doable on the flight), sleep (don't care about intermediate seat settings), and decent food, Mint really has the keys to what some of us are looking for. Others, I'm sure not so much.

You paid $200 for all the good things and think that's not a bargain? Even if you take away the amenity kit and IFE completely.

$200 on DL/UA/AA won't even get you MCE/Comfort+/Econ+ on some flights.

that was a buy up fare. You don't know what he/she paid for the original cost of the ticket.

For $200.00 on DL, I can buy a one way coach ticket on JFK-LAX, use a GUC/RUC and wind up in business class, better food, seat, service, lounge, private check-in at LAX, DL 1 is leagues ahead of MINT...While Jet Blue might do there best to compete with the big boys, the one thing they will never compete with is the Porche service that DL offers at LAX, JFK, ATL etc. More than once, while making a tight connection at JFK, I was greeted by DL staff who whisked me off the plane, down the stairs, into a waiting Porche and off to my next gate. Lets see Jet Blue match that. Jet Blue can keep all the penny pinching flyers they want, but when someone wants to fly a quality business class, they choose DL, AA or even UA.

$599-$200 = $399 ;)

You only need a Porche because DL's Terminal set up at JFK is so much worse than jetBlue's. JetBlue is going for the O/D traffic so I could care less about riding a few feet in a Porche. I would rather get through security in 30 seconds as I did over the weekend at Terminal 5 and not wait around in a lounge for an hour. I don't need to play the upgrade lottery and I can order my vegan meal in advance and have a good meal meal on the plane for a reasonable fare.

The vast majority of people do not have GUC/RUCs and would not want to fly on DL that much to get them. Mint is accessible to far more people and without the presence of Mint in the market the J fares on other carriers would be much higher.

Great that DL works for you but I would never pay the premium they often ask for given that we are a small business with no access to corporate discounts. I would take Mint any day over DL.

Well said. :)

ETA; I added emojis within "sfozhfco" post. My bad. Will work on multi quoting. :o

Are you kidding me?

First of all, GUC/RUCs aren't free. And Porsche transfers are hit and miss. I've been Diamond for 3 years and I've never received a single Porsche transfer.

And I do believe JetBlue service can match DL Diamond. I've had FAs personally greet me and check up on me for being Mosaic. I've had gate agents call my name out personally at the boarding area to tell me to board, because I was the only Mosaic on the aircraft.

That's something Delta can't match, whether they have Porsche transfers for the 360s or not. :rolleyes:

I had this happen while boarding flight recently, the plane was nearly empty but I really enjoyed the solo treatment.

I'm not Mosaic but my last flight seated in 11A Exit was called by name on board by the FA and was offered to move to 10A exit saying I would have the entire row to myself instead of full one in 11.
Of course this was the FA making sure there was at least one person sitting in in each exit row willing and able to assist.
The FA had some type of tablet with the seating chart and names of pax on it so I assume this can be done for any passenger Mosaic or not.

1. As you know, PMs (75k miles) get max 4 upgrade certs, DMs (125k miles) get max 10, and of course there's no guarantee that you can use them
2. DL food IMO is not better, and up until recently hadn't even changed in like 5 years
3. Whether the seat is better depends on the seat and the plane (IMO: Mint suite > DL A330 > DL 767 > Mint pairs = DL 757)
4. Private check-in is nice, but not a decision maker for me
5. Very few people get the Porsche transfer, and as you know its purpose is "surprise and delight" -- not something that can be relied upon

And if you look at the actual pricing available, the "penny pinchers" are on AA and UA, which IME regularly beats Mint on pricing.

Love Mint and also agree with the JFK to AirTrain hassles. Made worse since JetBlue shut the exit nearest AirTrain. I've spent a lot less on B6 since then. They usually are spot on with customer experience, but have dropped the ball completely with the ground experience from both in and out processes.

In terms of the onboard product and service, JetBlue Mint is far the leader in the transcon market. This opinion from the guy who commutes weekly btwn LAX & NYC. I've expereinced them all, far too many times.

Love my AA CK entrance and knowing I can be inside sterile area within about 3-5 min. Wish B6 understood the importance of what regular high-rev customers really want with regard to their ground product instead of the intense focus on the occasional customer. It would be unstoppable leader.

For the price Mint is great. I still prefer Virgin America's first class seat more--even though it's only a recliner.

I can't quite find the comfort sweet spot for the seat with the seat completely flat on JetBlue. Maybe it has to do with the limited space footwell.

I'm one of those small business customers B6 is trying to court. Been flying on B6 since 2004 out of BOS. I've flown in one of the suites 3x to SFO and loved them. I can stretch out, setup my suite as an office and get work done. For what I've paid, it's been a tremendous value.

Of course, unlike New York, in our market, there are no transcon flights that offer flatbed seats. Most are 2/2 configuration with 38" of seat pitch at best. So for BOS, Mint is a game changer. I've already noticed that prices for business class seats on legacy airlines have dropped to $750 RT down from probably $1,100 a year ago. Gotta love competition.

That's the key point right there. I hope to see JetBlue expand their route network.

They will be expanding the Mint product significantly in 2017 and beyond. Average transcon premium fares have gone down 50% or so according to Virgin America's CEO which is obviously a great benefit to consumers.

I've had this happen a couple of times as well. Totally dependent on the GA though.

As a Mosaic, this was precisely my impression of flying Mint. B6 didn't care that I was Mosaic and spend thousands of dollars a year with them. In fact, the post flight survey didn't even include the usual Mosaic section nor did the FAs acknowledge me as Mosaic. The FAs were great but they were focused on delivering their cookie cutter Mint service.

Ignoring your most loyal customers is not a way to build a sustainable business model in the long run.

Providing great service to everybody is far more important in building the sustainable business model and that is what I have experienced with every Mint flight. If I am on planes every week I could care less if I have the flight attendant come up to me every time to thank me for my business. Once in a while it may be nice but by the 10th time in the month, is it really necessary?

I know the routine, I get great service, and that is fine for me. On many non Mint flights I am the only Mosaic passenger anyway so at times they just announce it is time for me to board. Being based on the West Coast there are not a lot of Mosaic people anyway. It is nothing like the being an "elite" passenger on a legacy carrier out of SFO where it is entirely possible to have the whole plane full of "elite" passengers.

Yep, this is also painful at SFO where the bag drop in the international terminal is an utter disaster. It's incredibly overcrowded and slow, and almost always guarantees a 1hr+ wait to get your bags. Unacceptable.

I didn't say anything about the Mint service not being great. The service was great and I'm sure it was consistent though this was my first Mint flight. I've worked in the loyalty space for over 10 years now so I know it is indeed important to acknowledge your most loyal customers. That is far more important long term.

I'm on the East Coast and have never been on a flight with more than 5 Mosaics. And that was a really extreme case.