Just flew out of LAX to JFK this morning. The gate area was packed with Spirit and B6 customers (so much for social distancing). All of the gates at the end of the concourse that B6 uses are jammed together causing a lack of seating and congestion (reminds me of the old Southwest gates at SLC). Not a great look when you are trying to attract a Mint full fare customer and they cant even sit in the terminal because Spirit is packing out the gate area. B6 is going to have to do something about this if it wants to keep those Mint customers off D1/Polaris/Flagship products. The terminal side product at JFK is superior.

A good solution for this would to take-over the AA Admirals Club at T5 from American and brand it as a Mint Lounge, allow access for all Mint customers for free, provide decent food & beverage, and workspace, and encourage people to go to their gates just before boarding starts.

But but but JetBlue WiLl NoT hAvE a LoUnGe!!!11

If there's one thing that's just terrible across the board at JB it's the terminal experience. MCO, FLL, PBI, LAX (and we thought T3 was bad), even BOS is just disgusting. There are more mice in BOS than there are paying customers, and the mice were probably there long before JB moved in.

You have a nice idea about a lounge but I just don't see it happening, at least not until TATL service begins. And even then I don't think LAX will have a lounge unless they fly to Europe from there. Maybe a Priority Pass lounge could open, but even that is unlikely.

-J.

The lounge idea is creative, but I don't think B6 carries enough Mint seats and routes to justify the cost of taking over the Admirals Club and staffing it. Maybe a smaller version of the Admirals Club would work that their Mosaic's could also use. The terminal side experience at LAX needs to be reevaluated. It is definitely a step down from LGB.

Hahahaha, yes, B6 may not consider opening lounges but I am delighted to give them good suggestions.
By the way, add Newark Terminal A Concourse 1 to the bad terminal experience list. Almost no facilities post-security and horrible security wait times, even worse than the Spirit Terminal in BWI.

If I don't recall false, AA's T5 club is a small club and would perfectly fit JetBlue's daily 20-25 Mint flight model when they increase flights but yes, the rents in LAX may be high and may not cover the operating costs of JetBlue.

Also, I agree that the experience in LAX Terminal 5 should be reevaluated; it is one of the worse terminals in LAX alongside with Terminal 4.

There is not much they can do right now about T-5. MSC should open soon. The ULCCs will move out after that opens. They will then simply be fighting for space with AA Eagle flights. B6 will be able to put some money into improving T-5 experience once that happens.

Remember, they could've moved to MSC and got as many gates as they got in T-5. They chose to stay around in T-5, because they didn't want to be at a disadvantage of having their customers having to walk so far to their gates. It's hard for me to imagine things won't look a lot different once ULCCs and possibly HA move out.

If JetBlue keeps expanding at T-5 and AA keeps cutting flights, T-5 might eventually become the JetBlue terminal. A big step up from where they are right now. They should be ready to spend more money to improve the terminal experience. AA sure isn't going to spend more money on T-5 at this point. Who knows, AA may eventually decide that keeping a presence at T-5 is not worth it and sublease the gates to JetBlue.

As for lounge space, I would say that LAX is an obvious spot to get a lounge if they ever get into that game. I'm estimating 30 or more flights a day will be mint by 2025 (10x JFK, 6x EWR, 6x BOS, 5x FLL, 2x IAD, 2x HNL, 1x OGG). That seems to warrant the cost of a small lounge. Especially if they want to capture some of the LAX->BOS/JFK->Europe or East Coast->LAX->Hawaii premium traffic. I would put a lounge in LAX long before I'd put one in FLL or MCO.

Again, let's see how serious JetBlue is about capturing the top end customers. Do they keep pretending that they are a LCC and offer that type of experience? Or do they try to compete against legacies?

Oh yeah, how could I forget. Newark is my least favorite airport in the country. And now they have Mint out of that, umm, shack.

-J.

You should have seen the North Terminal with People Express in the 1980's. It was like a Caribbean airport without the climate.

Where they can go next?? HNL, OGG, KOA, LIH, JAX, ITO, MSP, ORD, CLE, EUG, BOI, GEG, ANC, FAI.

let the speculation begin!!

Considering the strong partnership with HA, I just don't see HNL/Hawaii happening anytime soon. Sure, they will have planes that can fly there (hell, the Mint A321 should have no problem getting there). They are developing ETOPS for London flights.

I could totally see MSP and ORD getting LAX flights eventually, especially when the A220 joins the fleet. I don't think ANC will happen considering they just closed it down permanently and noting it was not profitable without cargo.

-J.

If we go with the VX model.

Given some of the rumours I've seen, I think HNL is a given at this point. Maybe OGG on top of that?

As for other transcon or near transcon, I think JAX, PIT, HPN and PVD are all quite possible. I do expect them to re-enter IAD at some point and fly mint on IAD-LAX.

For middle of the country stuff, I think ORD will happen but probably nowhere else.

In the western part of the country, I think they will stay with the major airport. Which means they will probably add SMF, PHX and DEN. I guess PDX is possible too, but they did make the choice of not moving it over from LGB. I don't think they will try ANC again.

And then international markets, they can add some markets that don't quite work from East coast. I think YVR would be a good choice and so would be Mexican resorts like SJD and PVR. I'd love to see PPT after they add XLR. Aside from that, a couple of more VFR markets like SAL and GUA maybe.