MSYtoJFKagain

Did you really think it would be any faster than that? They haven't even started building the planes.

MSYtoJFKagain

I was fairly close on my guess.

I'm excited to see what the fares/miles are going to be.

wjbesh

The pricing on the JFK-LHR route is crying out for disruption. Flexible business fares up to 16k and discount/restricted business fares around 8k RT, the legacy carriers are squeezing mega dollars out of that route. I used to fly SFO-JFK a lot on UA before B6 introduced Mint, and the SFO/LAX price cratering afterward was so enjoyable to watch (and save with), so I'm hoping B6 can introduce a competitive product and bring down the oligopolistic pricing. Oddly, even though the pricing is outrageous, DL and UA still fly with some pretty old and shabby interiors on those routes (and AA used to with the old 772s until fairly recently), so B6 introducing a new Mint seat might also force the other carriers to up their offerings.

MSYtoJFKagain

Demand is so high on the route that they can run sub-par products.

Doesn't hurt that it's a pretty enforced monopoly on the US side as well as at LHR.

3Cforme

You may not know what corporate discounts are on TATL routes. I knew of a big U.S. firm (with many brown trucks) that had a contract rate in Business for less than $2K r/t.

N830MH

It's official!!!

B6 announced JFK/BOS to London & Paris to start. Manchester, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Dublin will added later by operated A321LR.

Convert 13 A321LR.

Here's a link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/t...rk-boston.html

sfozrhfco

...and how many smaller businesses and leisure travelers have access to those rates?...yeah--pretty much none. JetBlue does not need to get every large corporate contract to succeed and many contracts are based on a discount off the actual rates so bringing down the walk up fares will also also negate the benefits of many of those contracts.

MSYtoJFKagain

Fixed that for you.

DCP2016

I am so underwhelmed by this "announcement" it's not even funny.

WN to Hawaii was more exciting than this.

MSYtoJFKagain

I think we were all very much expecting exactly what happened so there's little fanfare.

Although the partnership announcement that Vincent hinted at earlier seems to have been a miss.

wjbesh

Good for them if that's what they negotiated, would be a huge amount of savings if you're sending people there on a weekly basis (which I imagine some of these companies are). But my assumption is that those types of rates are negotiated with larger companies with thousands (or more) of employees who travel in J/F, and usually on a dedicated airline, which I don't think accounts for the majority of the cabin on any given flight.

I don't work for a large company but I've flown those routes for a number of years, and invariably every few trips the topic of just how ridiculous the cost of flights are comes up in a meeting or at a dinner. In my last handful of roles, we've used Concur and TAG, which don't have special negotiated rates. The only real difference I've been able to find among friends/colleagues who also make a few trips to London is whether travel policy requires a flexible fare (so 16k vs 8k). I no longer wonder how so many finance folks out of NY have GS on UA or CK on AA given the level of spending required for multiple TATL flights each year.

bennos

DL has historically put its better products on the LHR routes. When the 764s were among the first DL planes to feature direct aisle access LHR went to pretty much all 764s. Most flights are now A330s which are considered by most to be the best DL seat (depending on how you feel about the A350 config).

And that was pretty much their (public) business case bring Mint to the TCON market in the first place.

wjbesh

I personally like the suites on the A350s better. But, there's no question they've been offering a better product than UA, but after a few trips I stopped flying Delta TATL because those planes just feel so old and worn and AA was flying its entire fleet with a newer reverse herringbone seat.

cmd320

WN, with it's all Y 737s flying to Hawaii was more exciting than B6 flying Mint TATL? Not sure I follow.

IMO this is very good news. Most of the TATL products to London suck. BA is garbage. AA isn't much better. DL is generally okay but nothing more and considerably overpriced. If B6 can offer something better and cheaper, then this will be a success, just like TCON Mint has been.

N830MH

JetBlue official release:

JetBlue | JetBlue Readies to Roll Out the Royal Treatment for All with Flights to London as Airline Strengthens Relevance in New York and Boston with First European Destination