OhDoctor

Was scheduled to fly JFK-SEA on B6 in Mint in June departing 0900ish arriving noonish. Got an e-mail that the flight had changed, and to my surprise, the times were almost the same, but they had swapped out for a non-Mint plane. Cancelled our tickets (as the entire impetus of flying B6 was to finally try Mint) and took a look at the schedule -- they apparently are now flying the Mint plane on the JFK-SEA evening route (~1600-2000 slot).

Anyone understand the reasoning behind this? Few people (if any) are getting upgraded to Mint, and you'd think the bigger market for revenue Mint flyers would be on the primetime 0900-1200 route, rather than the awkward east-west flight departing at 1600.

Brandinho1

I believe so they can have that same plane that arrives in SEA turn and do the redeye back to JFK. I’m no revenue management expert but there must be something telling them this makes more sense for the utilization on MINT on this route.

happyvoid

how do you know if your plane is non mint? i can't tell on my ticket?

MSYtoJFKagain

It says it in a number of different places. Seat map, ticket page, confirmation email.

OhDoctor

Ah, that makes sense.. although it strikes me as the type of thing they would have worked out logistically in advance, and not changed in medias res. Unless something unexpected has come up.

Well, if you start out on a Mint ticket, and that turns into Main Cabin, they probably swapped out your plane!

Often1

Scheduling more than 30 days out is purely notional these days. Not just for B6, but most carriers. The issue is aircraft utilization. Whenever OP scheduled, the most efficient use of the aircraft in question was likely the AM departure from the East Coast with ground time in SEA before a red eye back East. Now, presumably there is a more efficient use of that aircraft and that is what B6 has done.

The only reason anyone would even know that there has been a change is that B6 las limited Mint-configured aircraft and thus a determination has presumably been made that the swap is more efficient.

Given that OP is not flying until June, this may well change again.

moondog

Were you planning on sleeping between 9a and 3p EDT?
Would you be likely to sleep on an SEA-JFK redeye?
If you were B6, where would would send the Mint plane (to and back) between noon and 10p?

tphuang

I believe it is utilization. They are currently scheduled for around 47 daily R/T on 36 mint aircraft. That's really heavy utilization and require a lot of red-eye flying.

OhDoctor

I get that. I was hoping for more specifics on why that determination was made, although I guess no one here works for B6 and can really answer that for me. Essentially, it feels like the plane is waiting at SEA to turn around anyhow, so the question seemed to be about how long it was going to be idle. Could it be a crew timing issue?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the plane is going anywhere else in the interim, which means the first two questions aren't mutually exclusive.

So to simplify:
Scenario A: 0900-1200, idle at SEA for 9 hours, turn around 2100-0530
Scenario B: 1600-2000, immediate turn around for the return.. but then idles at JFK for ~11 hours before going back west.

My inclination was that revenue J pax are more likely to be found on the earlier flight, instead of the awkward E-W 4pm departure. So am I wrong? Or is there a crew issue? Or something else entirely?

Repooc17

Very few planes stay on the same route for more than one turn. B6 has more than enough MINT planes to send the plane in scenario B to the Caribbean or even to another west coast city after the red-eye arrival. Possibilities are endless but B6 is not sending the same plane back and forth to the same origin and destinations. If you are interested, check the tail registration of any given commercial jet currently in service, and you can see it in works.

OhDoctor

Thanks; I know that individual planes don't often stay on the same route, but some do, and given how sporadic and seasonal Mint service is to the Caribbean, I didn't think they would be flying this back to SFO/LAX or even LIR.. but you're right, I don't actually know what the plane is doing. I don't have a paid account on Flightaware or the like, so I can't check the tail (B6 263 on 6/13).

Repooc17

You won't know the registration number of the future plane; certainly not one two months from now. Flightradar24, for example, actually provides the registration number for past flights, today's flights, and the next few days.

I pulled up recent flight history of a B6 plane, tail number N942JB, having landed in JFK last night from Seattle, below is a sample of its flight within the last week or so:

aviators99

You paid for mint? Had they refunded you the fare difference prior to canceling?

OhDoctor

Yup, refunded in full. Booked DL instead.

rogo

I've had to do the same.

And now have ruled out flying Mint SEA --> JFK.

I still have one booked on the return. But to say I hate the ground experience at JFK with JetBlue understates my loathing.