B6Mosaic

BbTrumpet

How can you differentiate not listening vs. willing and able to make those changes?

I work in software... there's plenty of tech companies that don't prioritize (or don't have resources for) rehabilitating legacy systems. B6 is just an airline, an industry with thin margins and high overhead across the board. It's quite likely they don't have the budget to make all the changes we'd like (and I'm sure many of them would like to do too).

As far as Mosaic, of course I would like to get a free Mint upgrade certificate every year, who wouldn't? (EMS upgrades are more or less already in place, but for ~1000 points on a transcon, if I have to fly Y, that's a no-brainer for me to get an aisle seat for certain ahead of time).

But you gotta look at this from their perspective? The Mosaic program doesn't exist to hand out free stuff (don't forget how many people have comp Mosaic status through their company - that's a lot of handouts). I'm sure if they knew (or thought) that adding Mosaic tiers or more freebies would drive more revenue to the airline, they would make these changes.

Just my two cents.

(What I'd really love is a bigger west coast network so I can fly them instead of legacies out here. But that ship likely sailed when Alaska won the VX bid.)

MikeBOS

I disagree on Mosaic. I have lifetime Platinum on AA, and have been as high as 1K on UA. There were times when those programs were valuable for upgrades, but at this point if you are not top tier (EXP/CK on AA, 1K/GS on UA) the likelihood of getting an upgrade is close to zero on most longer flights. So the benefits that you are left with are free checked bags, lounge access on international flights, priority check in/security, and bonus points. Mosaic has those minus the lounge access, but adds waived change fees, which, if you change flights at all frequently, swamps the value of all the others. It also has near-free upgrades to EMS seats using points (without capacity controls), which, if the middle is open, are more comfortable than most domestic F seats (more legroom). On top of that the phone service is far more accommodating than even top tier at the legacy airlines; they are far more willing to make exceptions to keep people happy (like the old days on the legacies).

I consider my Mosaic membership significantly more valuable than my Platinum status on AA.

Often1

Why on earth would B6 go down the route of more freebies? If you think that freebies on UA or DL as a low-tier "elite" or sticker UG's on AA are likely, then you haven't spoken to people holding those statuses in a while.

But, if you find UA a better deal, you should switch.

TheIronWill

Feel free to stop flying JetBlue, but you'll likely be punishing yourself.

As someone who has flown legacy carriers (primarily United as a 1K) for 4+ years, I fly JetBlue when possible as I really like what they offer.

I'm based out of Boston, a JetBlue hub, and I'm kicking myself for not flying JetBlue earlier.
I would have saved thousands of Dollars on all those change fees and WiFi fees.
Some benefits that may not benefit you from Mosaic may benefit others.

Many of the benefits come even without status:

• Free TV (the movies offered by the legacy carriers is nice if you havn't watched them yet)
• Free WiFi
• Great legroom for economy
• Actual snacks instead of pretzels or Biscoff
• No credit card sales pitches
• Flight attendants that seem to be friendly (compared to United, which isn't probably saying much)

Mosaic:

• No change fees (those legacy carriers' $200 change fees)
• Same day change fees (not waived for lower level status for United)
• Free drinks (Only United 1k offers that)
• Isn't a pain to earn (requiring both PQD and PQM) by flying

joe_miami

No airline in its right mind would add upgrades to its FF program in 2019. Most other airlines are moving rapidly away from the upgrade model, which is a relic of a bygone era.

bkojote

I'm an Alaska Gold, United Silver, and I'm totally happy with JetBlue's Mosaic program. Mosaic's benefit is consistency, flexibility, and managed expectations - I know exactly what I'm going to get on a B6 flight instead of playing the upgrade lottery between sitting in the front vs. the last row middle.

1. No Change fees
The money saved from this alone offsets the nominal EMS upgrade cost compared to United.

2. Super flexible SDC routing rules
This is a killer feature, and JetBlue still allows you to same-day-change into city pairs, which Alaska did away with and United and AA doesn't allow- even at the highest tiers. This means I can book into San Jose but switch to SFO if my plans change, or even do LGA connecting through Boston.

3. Guaranteed EMS upgrades
On a 6 hour flight, and paying the equivalent of $14 to guarantee the seat I want rather than play roulette is something I'm happy to do. (Row 6 ftw.) Hell, that's cheaper than the cost of WiFi flying literally anyone else. Even though I get free upgrades to F on Alaska, I usually take B6 because I know exactly what I'm getting + the flexibility to change.

4. Free Drinks
Mosaics getting free drinks regardless of where I sit is doubly nice.

5. Free cancellation at any time on award tickets
You know who can't do this? Delta flyers.
--

Mint is an awesome product, but Mint's whole value proposition is that it's something -worth- paying for. That's why it's so much nicer than (and usually priced far more fairly) than PS, DL1, or AA's flagship Biz/F, to say nothing of Alaska F. Hell Mint tickets start at $399 on transcon routes, which is cheaper than the Alaska MVP Gold upgrade pricing.

CMK10

Well no. American Executive Platinum offers it too and anyone seated in Main Cabin Extra on AA and Comfort Plus on Delta receive free drinks. Delta also gives drink coupons at all status levels from Gold Medallion and up for rare times their elites are in normal Economy.

dtremit

Same here -- though of course those of us in BOS probably have an unfair advantage

I bailed on AA last spring after receiving one F upgrade in a year as PLT.

Free MCE was nice, but scarce on last-minute bookings, and the loss of free SDC some years back was rough. I often ended up sitting in the airport for hours coming home because changing flights would require paying $75 to sit in a back row middle seat.

I did my first travel as Mosaic this month, and the peace of mind of knowing I can cancel my tickets at any time is invaluable. And paying a small amount in miles for EMS doesn't bother me given there's often an empty seat next to me.

That isn't to say there aren't ways it could be improved. I wish there were an option for a mileage upgrade to Mint on a paid fare (perhaps even at a slight discount, though I wouldn't expect anything comparable to the EMS rate). And bonus miles for Mosaics booking Blue Plus fares would be nice.

But at the end of the day, I'd rather see B6 focus on expanding its route network and improving operational reliability (I'm looking at you, BOS-DCA flights).

Vincent Zuo

I literally save thousands a year with the Mosaic free same-day change and cancellation policies.

I rarely actually book the flight I need if I'm traveling alone. Instead, I'll book the cheapest flight for a city pair and then SDC to my desired flight (which often costs 2x-5x more than the flight I initially book).

Sometimes if I'm a few months out from a trip, and don't know which day I want to leave yet, I'll book one ticket for each day (let's say Thurs, Fri, Sat) while tickets are still cheap and then cancel the rest when I decide when I want to go.

joe_miami

diburning

Although they don't do it on every flight, they do still pitch them. Sometimes on red-eyes too.

CMK10

There were two separate pitches on my B6 CLT-BOS flight today. In fact they delayed snack basket service for the credit card pitch.

amonisis

i never noticed them before, but definitely remember the pitch and bonus points on both legs of my bos/dfw roundtrip this week

pWei

Same here. No need for free upgrades. Though point upgrades would be nice.

Importantly - keep the same service level for mosiacs. That's huge.