moulder3

I just flew my second SFO-BOS Mint flight and was pretty disappointed with the service. I'm hoping this was just a singular bad experience and not a new JetBlue reduction in service to core customers traveling on Mint flights.

First off, while I knew one FA was dedicated to Mint, a second FA was there for ~80% of the flight. That left 2 FAs for the 143 people in core. It took almost 90 minutes after take off before we all got drinks and another 20 minutes after that for snacks. Afterwards, there were two separate FA announcements to get snacks & food mid-cabin. While I agree that's a great feature, you (obviously) can't get cocktails from there. And it was very disappointing when there wasn't a second drink service. Did B6 do away with second drink service on 6hr+ flights? I felt bad that 2 FAs had to deal with almost 150 passengers, and it obviously meant the service suffered. Why should core customers get less service on Mint flight, while (apparently) subsidizing a second Mint-only FA? Also, the plane quickly ran out of whiskey and beers and the FAs blamed it on a new ordering system. Is this true and how can B6 fix this?

At the very least, I hope B6 adds touchscreen drink & food ordering on IFE (like Virgin) for A321, and A320 (after the IFE improvement). That would at least make things a bit easier for customers wanting cocktails after a long week!

sbm12

I think the 2/2 split for FAs has been around since Mint started. For a premium cabin product you need one working in the galley setting up meals and the other out in the cabin taking orders and serving. I think that one is supposed to help out in Core after the work up front is done but that can take a while.

I doubt the missing second drink service is on purpose (i.e. a policy change) but I don't know for sure.

MSYtoJFKagain

Yeah, I've seen 2/2 since Mint was added.

JetBlueFA

Not an excuse but just more of an FYI. We JUST changed the way we provision our aircraft. Everything was moved and changed around and it's taking a while for the crews to become familiar and work in the reorganized galley with try service. It will get faster as we become more familiar with the service and the layout. This entire new set up was in preparation for wheels in the aisle which will solve 95% of the speed issues.

MSYtoJFKagain

Is wheels in the aisle still happening? I hate to see the current service go. It was one of my favorite non-standard B6 things.

JetBlueFA

Yes it will be happening. We aren't going to start it until late in 2017 or early 2018. We won't be using full carts like other airlines but instead will be using half cars which will allow us to maneuver around and allow customers to still access the aisle in the restrooms well we are conducting service. A lot of the crews are excited to go wheels in the aisle because it will allow us to interact on a personal level with the customers while we are serving them their drinks of choice. The tray service will be going away but I think you will like how we are going to do wheels in the aisle.

sbm12

That just means they're shorter, not narrower. Still will be hard for a lot of folks to "slip" by between the seat and the cart on full flights.

jay_dubya

Do you know that?

sbm12

Cart width is defined by the slots in the galley where they are stored. I've yet to see one narrower on any plane anywhere in the world. I'd be very, very surprised if JetBlue launched such a product in the next year and it hadn't been shown at any of the trade shows the past few years.

diburning

I'm assuming that JetBlueFA meant that the shorter (in length) carts would presumably be able to be placed in such a way that it's between seats and doesn't block a row and a half like a full sized cart would. Pax still wouldn't be able to get past the cart in the aisle, but all of JetBlue's aircraft have a minimum of a front and rear lav so it should not be an issue unless there are two carts out in the aisle at the same time. (which can be an issue since they start serving from two points on every aircraft)

moulder3

I'm a bit surprised this doesn't bother people more that being stuck on a Mint A321 means significantly less FA service for 90% of the passengers vs. if they were on any other non-Mint JetBlue plane. Why accept almost 50% worse service (about 72 passengers per FA, while every other flight is 50 passengers per FA)...and, more importantly, why wouldn't JetBlue think this ruins the consistency of their product?

Heck, when the reconfigured A320's start coming out (with the terrible, tiny bathrooms likely to damage JetBlue's image), those planes will have 4 FA's for around 162 passengers--that's almost double the passenger to FA ratio of a Mint flight!

MSYtoJFKagain

I think it doesn't bother people because in my experience the service doesn't suffer at all.

jay_dubya

The biggest service problem is the speed of the first service, which will be remedied when they switch to carts. Otherwise, 2 FAs is fine

jay_dubya

JetBlueFA can you clarify about the smaller carts? Thanks for all the info!

JAX2BOS

There should have been a second service. Some crews just go out with a tray of water and take orders and some just go out and take orders. If neither of those happened then the service did not occur. No changes to second service offering, hopefully just a one off.

Also be advised we have a substantial amount of new hires going to BOS as of late. The speed and lack of second service may have been an oversight and hopefully just that. Sorry for the experience!