Yes this is relatively recent(i.e. within the last 6 months-1 year) and has been my experience there as well. That's why I mentioned checking in at the desk.

can you purchase the EMS upgrade with true blue points?

Only if you're Mosaic.

Never flown JetBlue, flown hundreds of times. Flying with a friend for his 30th bday. Do we need to pay these 8-13 dollar seat advance fees to sit together?? Is there a good chance we will be assigned these even more space seats since many show open (flight is LA to NYC on Thursday on a neo plane) ? or can I at least just pay attention to seat options in the last 24 hours? Normally I fly solo... and I almost always find myself a free aisle seat or even better. But a JB newbie!

Yes, if you bought Blue Basic. You can choose your seat as you purchase your tickets unless you do not purchase the cheapest fare option (Blue Basic). You can do the T+24 seat check, but IME those TCON flights tend to fill up with less Basic fares than my usual routes so you may be very starved for a choice of paired seats anywhere but the last 4-5 rows.

I had one drop from $37 to $30 recently (Sept flight booked just after schedule opening earlier this month).

On a couple of occasions, I have had the EMS seats drop by $10 a couple of days before check-in. However, I did notice that they went back up to the regular price a couple of hours before those flights departed.

I was wondering, right now due to you know what there are only like 30 passengers on my transcon flight on Friday. I was wondering, if I asked nicely, will the FA let me sit in an EMS seat?

Why bother? Just lay down across your whole row.

Yes, for $90.

It wouldn't be fair to those who actually paid for it to let you move for free, would it?

As MSYtoJFKagain said, better to just stay where you are and take advantage of your 3 seats. I say, better to stay home :o But that's none of my business.

-J.

Not likely lol. But having a row to yourself is the next best thing.

I've been on plenty of flights that were "full" yet had empty EMS seats. It's not fair to the people who paid for them. It's one of the reasons I hate unassigned seats and such but I digress.

The transcon EMS seats on my upcoming flight are $164 - more than the price of the ticket. Insanity imo. And don't hold me to this, but I believe they were in the $180s when I first checked.

I just pulled up an old itinerary from 2008: OAK-JFK.

Even More Legroom: $30