vladciurca

i never flew on JetBlue Mint, but was interested especially after reading a bunch of articles that it's very affordable compared to other business class products ($700-800).

I've looked up various destinations on Mint, but nowadays is seems you cannot get anything less than $2.500 - $3.000.

Are there any special hacks when it comes to looking for flights at this class?

vatraveler

Yep, Mint prices are terrible. I used to do Mint 2-3 times a year and never spent over $1,000 roundtrip. That's impossible now. If they're actually selling seats at these prices, more power to them.

soy

I think the low prices are just introductory.
As someone who flys ex-BOS quite a bit, I rarely find B6 to be the cheapest when compared to the US3, so stands to reason that Mint would trend in the same direction as it gets more established.
Last time I saw very low Mint fares, it was on routes that just got it

vatraveler

True about introductory specials. However, I could regularly get sub-$1,000 fares on routes that have been around from the beginning. These 2022 fares on the whole are dramatically higher than anything we�ve seen.

sfozrhfco

Although JetBlue has restored most of their Mint schedule, they haven't been able to grow it due to lack of aircraft. Plus competitors are still behind in adding capacity on those competing flights and more people are willing to pay up. Rates do drop somewhat as it gets closer to departure when they want to sell more seats but it doesn't make sense to fill up the Mint cabin a month before the flight departs with cheap fares. This happened quite a bit once travel picked up---especially on SFO-BOS where AA has only B6 codeshares, AS dropped down to only 1 flight, DL only has 2, and it took UA quite awhile to ramp back up. The benefit to B6 of the NEA shows up on flights such as BOS-SFO which now attracts AA FFs and the cabins regularly sell out.

bhuwan

I am so glad that someone finally posted this. I was thinking this.

I�ve almost always been able to find $1200 R/T especially to/from BOS up until early 2020.
The pandemic really changed everything, now mint is insanely expensive and out of reach (though prices have tanked, relatively, since oil dropped this year).

Not sure what is happening at B6, hopefully prices start to come back down to pre-pandemic levels!

HepperSchepp

I continue to get sub $1000 fares to the caribbean if you keep fare alerts set up; we flew to London and that was $1000 mint overnight which was nice.

michael1023

forget Mint, even my flight to GYE keeps getting more expensive by the day, 1,200 one way for 1 person!

MattAus

Pretty much all flights seem to be getting more expensive lately. Mint is not immune to that.

Yes, JetBlue is more expensive now but how are other airlines on the same route/s?

BettyKat

Went through the same thinking a few months ago when we purchased BOS-LAX (we were looking only for business or first class), for travel this month. I have the JetBlue credit card and haven't flown them since pre-pandemic, so I was pretty excited to use a non-LAX airport (e.g., ONT) and my JetBlue card for a Mint suite...but nope, it was WAY more than both Delta and AA, no matter how many different dates and various LA area airports I tried. Went with AA in the end....

Card comes up for renewal in November....time to say goodbye to the $99/year card I haven't used in years....

We moved from NYC to BOS in 2015 and quickly learned that JetBlue was the main game in town, but it just doesn't make sense for us anymore, and even the shorter flights we've done since covid (e.g., BOS-PHL) are better served by other airlines. JetBlue appears to have changed so much since we got here--and not just the airfares. I remember when they first came to NYC, and they were one of the BEST airlines to fly with. Now, to go by what one reads in the news and here on flyertalk, along with just anecdotal stories from people in the area, they appear to be one of the worst on almost any metric: I've heard horror stories this year on everything from flights just outright canceled (on people then stuck with kids in another country) to multi-hour/-day delays and more. I know these things can happen on any airline but all of them seem to be happening at JetBlue now, all the time.

Jeez JetBlue....I used to love ya.

hurnik

I only have a very limited DP but for my XXX-LIR trip (and return as well) for 12/31/22-1/7/23:

UA - EWR-LIR (and return) direct, First Class, was around $2,200
AA - JFK-LIR (and return) non-direct First Class, was around $2,200
DL - JFK-LIR (and return) non-direct First Class, was around $4,400 (yeah)
B6 - JFK-LIR (and return) direct in Mint was around $2,200

I could've done UA with the ALB-LIR (basically ALB-EWR-LIR) and return for like $2,340 but it was a 7.x hour layover in EWR with an overnight, so I figured the lie flat with Mint was a better deal.

MattInLAX

I fly LAX-FLL once or twice a month for work and pretty much only in Mint. I've been doing this for a couple of years. I definitely don't see sub-$1000 fares much anymore, and there was a point this summer where they were regularly around $1800, but they are easing back again. I booked a few days ago for a flight in a week and it was $1200. But with all the airlines in a mess, there's not many options. The only other non-stop on that route is Spirit. And with the crew shortages, they cut down from 4 flights a day to 2 - so there is not much supply. Higher prices are an economic factor when there's a lot of demand and not as much supply. I checked AA non-stops to MIA, and those are over $3,000 one way for first - and it's a crappy A321 first seat.

I think this is inflation and capacity/competition on the routes. We need more capacity/competition on Mint routes.

More concerning to me is how the "Mint Experience" is now completely uneven - they have so many new flight attendants and they haven't had the training in what the product is supposed to be about and the services/amenities that are supposed to be presented.

18wheeler_vanrekt

My 3 previous Mint fares were:
$399 Boston to SFO in April 2019
$299 (!) Seattle to JFK in April 2021
$649 from Newark to Las Vegas in July 2021

Makes sense they're attempting higher fares now, but hopefully they'll eventually come down somewhat...

psusaver

there it is. The secret was outed and demand has overtaken supply. By the time you read something in an article versus a tiny hidden post in a subforum, everybody and their brother starts using the "hack".

MSYtoJFKagain

Prices are high because they're selling seats and capacity is capped.

The only "hack" I have is to book Mint to LHR and Blue on the way back. $1600-1800 RT.