michael1023

well surprise surprise...b6 469 to GYE is a red eye, pushing back at 11:45pm. so now the question is, which is the better outbound flight? b6 1769 has a better departure time, but never pushes back on time, weather it be weather, ash from the volanco near gye, slot position, whatever the reason, never leaves on time...will b6 469 leave more on time later at night? but a red eye on a 3x3 seat assignment even with EMS is a tough one for me...

and i dont see a second inbound flight...was this only an outbound addition? jetblue your killing me!

update: i did find a second inbound flight, b6 470 pushing back from GYE at 7am...not tooo bad, probably better then that red eye b6 1770..decisions...

GW McLintock

Not to beat a very dead horse, but I would expect both flights to be equally late.

-J.

michael1023

you're probably right, my last option direct would be eastern, but i dont trust them either. i hope latam comes back, but doubt that too...

GW McLintock

LATAM will come back at some point I'm sure. I would almost always take a 767 over an A321... but with it being Eastern, it's really a toss-up. Take whoever's cheaper and accept the fact that you'll get there when they feel like getting you there.

-J.

tphuang

Have you been following what's happening with Latam? It's most likely not coming back. Even their Brazilian operation is in doubt with the recent news of Azul takeover bid. Their Argentinian operation is done. Before you know it, they will back down to just Chile.

Eastern got to have one of the highest cancelation rates out there. Not good.

michael1023

yikes, so basically down to JetBlue for a direct flight. :/

michael1023

im trying to book a flight in the next month or so for December 2021...i see only one inbound and outbound flight to GYE, now leaving at 4pm from JFK and midnight from GYE!

ugh...LATAM come back!

michael1023

does anyone know when b6 would show the new routes for a trip i am planning for mid-october? when i try to book, it still only shows the only direct flights are 1769 and 1770, not yet 469 and 470. is 2 months still too far away for them to post this?

tphuang

I think the 2nd flight might only be available during summer months and holidays. The got the frequencies transferred over from FLL-UIO flight, which was only for summer months if I remember correctly. There are no additional frequencies available for US based carriers at this point to Ecuador. Now, if Eastern was to give up their frequencies, then things might be different.

michael1023

yes, i am booking a flight for a family member for October roundtrip GYE-JFK...i will have to apologize in advance for the delay she will incur, even though this flight is 2 months away

tphuang

They had a lot of operational issue when the summer kicked off. I think at one point, they were under 30% in OTP. Basically, as they were bringing planes back into service, they weren't in great shapes. And they didn't have enough spares around to cover all the flying. Add that to not being adequately staffed, it was a terrible combination to have. Fortunately, they never got into the whole system meltdown we saw with NK or even the 5 to 10% cancellation rate we've seen with AA.

things have gotten better now that we are in August. And I think it will continue to get better as get to fall, since staffing levels will go up and aircraft breakdowns should come down to a more reasonable level after they go through heavy checks. Once you get to Q4, they will probably just be at normal JetBlue OTP level at JFK. Pre-COVID, they were probably 2 to 3% worse than overall average at JFK (about the same as AA and quite a bit worse than DL mainline). Also, the late night VFR flights normally do have worse OTP than early morning or mint flights.

michael1023

is it me, or are the current prices for B6 to GYE in December a bit exorbitant...its like 600+ one way, ~1,200-1,300 per person for a round trip (not even including EMS seats, which i would pay for and get credit back using AMEX platinum.

thoughts? should i wait until someone in october to book? isnt around 90 days out for international usually the sweet spot for booking?

thanks

GW McLintock

Could it be the holiday price bump? That does seem like a lot.

Maybe wait one more week, but I wouldn't wait any longer than that. How are the loads? If the flights are full then this may just be how it is.

-J.

michael1023

the flight, according to the B6 website seatmap, is empty. I don't fully trust that anyway, i remember last time we flew, i took a look at the seatmap and it was pretty empty like 2 days before, only to be an extremely full flight the day of, I am thinking from what I saw, it was a lot of standbys, etc...way more then what the seatmap showed. unless there is another way to check the load for the flight?

im perplexed

GW McLintock

ExpertFlyer may be more accurate.

-J.