Six months ago I wrote that JetBlue would open lounges at New York JFK and Boston Logan airports. The carrier pushed back on this – in June the airline said that lounges were too expensive and not profitable – but today they’ve announced it.
Access will be for,
- Transatlantic business class
- Top tier elites (“Mosaic 4”)
- Premium credit card cardmembers
- Paid annual members and pay-in day pass customers
This tells us that JetBlue will be introducing a new premium credit card. It is notable that premium transcon routes will not receive lounge access, for instance New York JFK – Los Angeles.
The airline has been performing poorly over the Atlantic and cutting back service which makes it an odd time to add lounges, however:
- The timing of the announcement and access details suggest that getting a bank fund the lounges was key to getting this done.
- JetBlue really does have an outstanding premium cabin product. They’re fantastic in the air, and a confused mess on the ground in terms of service, operation, and lack of premium feel. A lounge could help change that.
They’ve served $100+ retail bottles of white burgundy in business class (and some decent $35 reds) which is orders of magnitude more than standard. That’s great for customers who know to order it, but they never even promoted this to customers.
This continues their progress in returning to an upmarket product, along with plans for a premium cabin on non-premium routes.
Hopefully, JetBlue will offer a reciprocity club access policy with American Airlines Admirals Club members, similar to the benefit AC members receive when traveling on Alaska Airlines.
These are tiny lounges. People’s homes have more square footage.
JetBlue’s more pressing problem is the JFK terminal is outdated and has horrific food options. Last time I went to the food court and paid, the cashier turned into a zombie and glitched. As in, the receipt printed, and instead of handing it to me, the cashier stared motionless into the distance.
I know I am based in a relatively small market, but it is dominated by JetBlue. What caught my attention was the offering of a new credit card. Several years ago I was offered a credit card application on a flight from JFK to SJU. I applied, then received a rejection letter, because I reside in Puerto Rico. They offered a card being offered by a local bank. The problem is sign-up reward points and the terms being offered were not in the same galaxy. The offer for PR residents was substantially less. Yes PR is a US territory, but that is not a distinction for Delta-American Express, American Airlines, Spirit or Frontier airline cards.
I wrote JetBlue noting, the optics of this stinks to high heaven. Their response was left the distinction unexplained. I got the PR JetBlue affinity card because at least I receive a free checked bag. But JetBlue has been tone deaf for a long time. My 20 segments a year are substantially fewer now. Let’s see what their new card offers and if it is a segregated offer like the current affinity card.
Lounges may be smaller, but try to remember they don’t have near the daily traffic, especially premium traffic that DL/UA do. This is a step in the right direction.
@Ken A, don’t get your hopes up. B6 is not part of Oneworld and their partnership with AA was shutdown by the DoJ.
@SFO/EWR What average person’s home is bigger than 8,000-11,000 sqft…? I’d like to meet them.
I assume with a new administration, there will be a renewed discussion of an AA partnership and OW membership.
Problem is B6 doesn’t attract much corporate travel demand and its premium offerings are for those bargain hunting leisure travelers. JetBlue will simply not exist as an airline in a few years and will be absorbed partly or whole by one of the US3, and most likely AA, with United picking off the rest. JetBlue runs a terrible operation with chronic delays and flies vanity routes rather than ones that bring in profit. There’s no reason why B6 should fly to Europe. It doesn’t need those routes and they only work in summer. The collapse of B6 is the solution to AA’s problems in NYC and challenges in Boston and the ability for UA to re-enter JFK and it is only a matter of time.
Lounges will be saturated when (not if) JetBlue’s operations are disrupted by long delays and cancellations. In short, these will have very little value when customers need them most.
JetBlue needs to build more slack into schedules before doing anything else, especially adding lounges.
Very interested in what the SUB will be on the new card.
So AA and DL paxs get premium lounge access flying JFK-LAX/SFO in J or F, but B6 customers flying in Miint on the same route don’t. Not a good look.