I would say that you are vastly overestimating your impact on B6's bottom line. And if you're going to blame the general IT issues with B6, while I agree they're terrible, BA's IT is famously terrible and they're doing great. DL's RUC/GUC system has been a mess for almost its entire existence and DL has been quite profitable most of that time. There are definitely reasons B6 is bleeding money, but MTM is not remotely close to the top of the list.

Yep I am just a small fish, but something makes me thing B6 doesn't have a ton of customers flying dozens of premium transcon and international flights per year. Those are the money makers for many airlines and hard to replace with your 2x basic econ fliers, especially given their issues. DL and BA have always treated me well when flying premium or having status with them. You can say all you want, but they know how win and keep premium customers. B6 has no clue.

I'm only one person, but I would check out the DL + BA forums here. Plenty of people complaining (about different things - DL shredding their FF program, BA IT + lounge crowding, plus all the other complaints that all airlines have about their service) in both forums. B6's operations in Mint on a daily basis amount to a fraction of the J/F seats DL + BA have - they're different styles of airline.

Data point:

I used just over 32.3k points & ~Ł150/$197 for a blue econ return fare in Feb from LHR to JFK. These were on cheap dates to fly economy & with only 5 seats selected in the Mint cabin in each direction. Given I'll receive a 10% points rebate on the 32.3k I used due to holding the Jetblue Plus Card, the redemption value I got was 1.55 cents per point (after also including the upgrade fees). Not fantastically good - like my future Trueblue redemptions on Qatar will be - but good enough for my immediate plans.

Needed to move to Mint:

• 2 certs + Ł104 (~$132) for the outbound ex-UK
• 2 certs alone for the return journey ex-US.

I've been disappointed overall with Jetblue's IT, both on desktop & app. With that said, I ultimately paid VERY little out of pocket for a chance to try out Jetblue's lie-flat Mint product & will attempt to use one of the free Blade helicopter certs on arrival at JFK.

The econ blue cash fare for my flights was $648, while the price for Mint on those flights was $3425. As a Delta Diamond status-matcher, when I factor in the cost for taxes & fees for the award flights & upgrades, combined with the credit card's annual fee ($95), I spent just $424 for a business class return across the Atlantic & have 2 M2M certs remaining. Not bad! That's on top of the other raft of benefits still to use - including those 4x Blade certs.

Can't say I'm likely to continue on with Jetblue after this year & wholly agree with many here that for a nice as this match was, the poor execution of a lot of these perks is reason enough not to commit to B6 long-term. Using Delta GUCs on KL & AF tickets was bad enough, so it's unfortunate that Jetblue have near seemingly matched the user-unfriendliness of those nightmares.

Either way, can't wait to take these flights!

Nice redemption! Maybe it’s time to give up on transcon and look at something like that to go to Europe. The planes are much nicer too. Just can bring myself to pay 3 mtm for a flight that would only cost $400 more cash for mint.

Yeah, that would be my suggestion.. & with the European flights you're assured of no equipment swaps. Takes a large part of the risk & worry out.

Not really true. They have regularly been swapping the LR with the Mint NEO since they just don't have enough planes to operate the schedule with all LRs, as was originally planned. Materially in Mint, the only difference is the number of seats. In Core the difference is quite literally a hot vs. cold meal.

-J.

Is it confirmed that if you book Blue Basic (basic economy), you can't use MTM certs?

yes that’s what the T&C says:

Mint certificates cannot be redeemed in connection with certain bookings including, but not limited to, Blue Basic fares, group bookings, JetBlue Vacations packages, bookings made with a corporate or government discount, bookings made with other airlines even if they include a JetBlue segment and bookings with pets.

B6 let my flight from sfo to fll go out with 6 empty mint seats instead of dropping the MTM cert requirement from 3. Don’t get how that is customer friendly at all.

Did you happen to ask what the gate upgrade cost was in dollars?

I didn't ask but hear them tell the person in front of me it would be around $400. Can't wait to see what the return trip will end up as. They still want 3 MTM right now for a $700 mint seat (blue is $220). I really hope it drops to 1 closer to departure in a few days. Entire mint cabin is empty right now .

Certainly will not help in building relationships and loyalty.

If you have more than 1 traveller with MTM certs its best to book separate trips. I have 2 passengers on this trip and its a nightmare trying to see the MTM costs since it always shows up as more than we have online so I have to call and try to get it manually priced, which reps do not like to do (or dont know how) and takes a long time.

Here's my experience using MTM certs for the first time yesterday. Easy and fairly painless.

Background: I'm a Mosaic 3, status-matched late last year from DL Platinum, so I had 4 MTM certs. Wanted to use them for Mint on the new Dublin-JFK route, in late May. Only needed one-way, for two people, and was very annoyed by the possibility that 4 MTM certs would not be enough on a TATL route. But maybe phone agents could help me, which they did. So here's how it went.

1 - Checked on Google Flights for o/w prices DUB to JFK on May 24, 25, 26 (my possible travel dates) on B6, Blue fare. They were reasonable, lower than the other guys by far, in fact. But I still did not know if, once I'd bought a Blue fare online on one of those dates, I could upgrade both of us on only 4 certs. So I called the Mosaic line.
2 - Agent promptly understood the issue. What I needed to find out from her was, "Can you tell me the number of MTM certs needed on a given DUB-JFK nonstop flight, so I know before booking and can decide on which day, if any, I can upgrade both pax?" By making dummy bookings on my behalf, she was able to tell me that I would need 4x MTM certs/person on May 24, 3x on May 25, and only 2x on May 26.
3 - I asked her, on the same call, to book me + spouse on May 26, Blue fare, and immediately apply all my MTM certs for an instant confirmed upgrade. She did that seamlessly. I used a JetBlue credit card for 6x points, too
4 - We're both confirmed in Mint and good to go.

So, not bad. I was concerned the process might be a pain and not even work with just 4 MTM certs. Obvi YMMV but for me it was a breeze.