Newbie Question: Mint for longest leg?
 

Hi! I'm new to flyertalk and JetBlue, but would appreciate your guidance! Feel free to tell me I'm crazy or misunderstanding something or going about this wrong too!

I'm trying to get out from SFO to RDU (SFO-[BOS/FLL/etc.]-RDU and vice versa) around Thanksgiving, and found that it was cheapest on JetBlue. I then did some research here, and it seems like folks greatly suggest upgrading to Mint for the longest leg (for me, SFO-[BOS/FLL/etc.]), and getting EMS for the shorter leg (for me, [BOS/FLL/etc.]-RDU). I recognize that for the time when I want to fly prices will be insane, and I'm so jealous of the posts on here of the difference between Mint and Core being under $1k! While I know I could wait for the opportunity closer to flight time, I doubt that it'll be available since it's thanksgiving...I'm still debating whether upgrades are worth it but it's a lot of travel during peak travel time...

I noticed that on the website when I selected Mint it cost more to do it in 1 booking instead of 2 separate bookings. For example, for a single booking covering SFO-BOS-RDU, it would be $2095+EMS price (for the BOS-RDU leg), whereas if I booked the exact same SFO-BOS and BOS-RDU flights separately, the sum would be $1688 (in Mint for SFO-BOS and basic for BOS-RDU)+EMS. To be honest, I was surprised that selecting Mint for SFO-BOS-RDU in a single booking didn't automatically give me EMS for the BOS-RDU leg (given that there is no Mint), and I'd have to pay for that separately on top of the crazy high Mint price. Is there any reason to not do 2 separate bookings, and instead pay the extra $400-ish to do a single booking? It just seems a bit odd as that's a pretty big price difference...but it's making me wonder if I'm missing something crucial here?

Any thoughts on whether there is a way to "mix" fares so that I can just pay for Mint from SFO-BOS and basic+EMS for BOS-RDU? I tried seeing if I could do that on the website but it didn't seem feasible...

I also looked into whether I could do SFO-RDU and then IAD-SFO back, as its my ideal trip plan, but the website doesn't show Mint options for multi-city. Other prior posts seemed to indicate that I'd need to call to get that information/booking options, but I assume I'd need 2 legs for these too and if I might book separately it doesn't seem worth it to call? Mint and JetBlue generally seem great, but this whole booking thing is so confusing for a newbie, it took me long enough to try to understand the different economy options to begin with!

Any advice you have on booking JetBlue with my would be greatly appreciated! So grateful already for the flyertalk community as I've gleaned lots of information from prior posts, so thank you all!

This is sort of just poor IT with regards to JetBlue.

I've seen the same kind of thing before flying MCO-FLL-LAX/SFO using 3M on the MCO-FLL leg and Mint on the transcon segments. Usually it's cheaper to just buy the separate 3M ticket and Mint ticket. The same thing happens on fully JetBlue segments too, for example MCO-EWR-SFO with the transcon segment in Mint will price out significantly higher than just booking the two flights separately.

Unfortunately there isn't much you can do about it, it's just the way B6's pricing works (or doesn't work I suppose). The best option is just to buy the two separate tickets.

Thank you for the information and thoughts!!

I've never had the opportunity to book mint. Alb-fll r/t B6 flight was good, didn't use ems or anything, flew during covid with infant, so middle seat was blanked out. second time was March 21, syr-mco r/t b6, booked basic, bought ems at airport each time and it was a few bucks cheaper, not sure you should count in that, book beofe hand if you want. UT ime noticing its cheaper to book a basic flight and then buy ems afterwrads and it's a little cheaper. And you get the carry on guarantee.
Next one is Nov 30 from phl - fll hopefully... So around Thanksgiving as well and busy seasonish
New guy as well

Thanks for the response! Good to know!