Desperate to turn around their financial fortunes, JetBlue is slashing routes and abandoning cities as well as cutting back on their product in order to cut costs, from locking the doors on some business class suites (so they don’t have to add a flight attendant) and eliminating hot meals in coach on long haul and even charging for bloody mary mix.
They’ve even raised checked bag fees twice this year including with the introduction of dynamic pricing. And they’re walking away from business travelers to focus on leisure.
JetBlue ‘Mint’ Business Class
Yet to generate as much revenue from every inch of the aircraft possible, they need to sell to less price-sensitive premium leisure passengers. So, as first leaked over the summmer, JetBlue has confirmed plans to install first class seats on domestic aircraft that currently lack their business class Mint offering.
JetBlue’s new first-class seats will look similar to what other airlines offer at the front of their domestic planes. The seats, which will start to arrive in 2026, will be wider than those in the back, arranged two-by-two featuring more legroom and deeper recline.
“We want it to be accessible for people who want to fly domestic first and maybe can’t afford to do it on the legacy carriers,” said [CEO Joanna] Geraghty, who declined to give pricing details.
The changes risk JetBlue’s boast that it offers the most legroom in coach as it rearranges cabins to fit two or three first-class rows. Executives said the seat pitch in JetBlue’s economy cabin will remain “at or above” what larger airlines offer.
This was first revealed by Live and Let’s Fly, and recently confirmed that months of silence and other intervening announcements didn’t mean walking away from this plan by aviation watchdog JonNYC.
On JetBlue’s announcement today regarding rebranding /bundling of their more space seating and the assumption that that means JetBlue is abandoned it’s rumored first class project (less that full Mint but more than Even More Space)
That assumption is wrong.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) October 29, 2024
Dubbed informally by observers as ‘Junior Mint’ or ‘Mini Mint’, JetBlue is expected to install MiQ seats, similar to what American Airlines and many other carriers use, offering a domestic first class product on routes that served with their international business class Mint equivalent.
Reconfiguring planes and buying new seats is expensive, and JetBlue is slashing costs. But perhaps the biggest takeaway is that squeezing these seats in is expected to mean less legroom in the coach cabin. JetBlue is, once again, making itself more like the rest of the industry.
That’s not surprising because financially challenged companies have a harder time bucking the industry. It’s why Dave Barger was pushed out at the airline in the first place. The safest thing for executives to do is follow trend, because not stepping out on a limb is better for job security. You can’t be blamed for doing what everyone else does, but if you’re an outlier and underperforming you’re blamed for that underperformance.
Hi there! We don’t charge for Bloody Mary MiX LOL! I’m not sure where they came from, but I can assure you that Blood Mary Mix is a complimentary beverage offering.
These changes, if they follow this post’s narrative, will be at sometime in the future. The baggage fees can be partially offset by using a JetBlue branded credit card. Who cares about bloody mary prices? Possibly sometime in the future JetBlue travel will be as bad as the big three. Until then, I will continue flying JetBlue. I will set up a round trip on JetBlue soon.
Sounds to me like the airline needs a tic tac. Is B6 going all in on this project and placing the new mini mint product upon the A220 regionals too? Seems like an all your eggs Hail Mary, which competitors may find ways of capitalizing upon in the short term at a time revenue stream is critical.
I’m a big fan of this. There are many 3-5 hour flights in North America that jetBlue operates which I wish had a 2-2 recliner (‘First/Mini Mint’) for additional comfort. Whether for business travelers or for couples with disposable income, this is welcome, and does actually compete with the ‘big three’ in a meaningful way for that market segment. jetBlue likely has better food, too, if they do a meal service for this new class. This would be great for the 3 hour flights between NYC/Boston to Florida, or even the longer flights from the NE to Caribbean, if true Mint lie-flat isn’t available. We should applaud such attempts at innovation in the industry.
So in order to increase profits JB is going to cut back on the little things (just as American and other shave done) but haven’t noticed how this move usually backfires. Why were these perks ever given in the first place I wonder? Could it be to lure passengers with great service and comfort? Anyone?
Does this include First Class service or just the seats? Unclear to me. Frontier and Spirit just offer the seats which is not that big a deal to me.
@ Gary — Starting in 2026? So, what’s that mean, done by 2030? They will fail before then without attracting premium business. This should be a higher priority for B6.
Checking back here. I’m not surprised by all the skepticism. Most of us fly a lot and have been at this for a while. Listen, I also had my doubts about jetBlue’s transatlantic plans, but they got it done. Did they over-extend themselves? Sure, so they are self-correcting. We know that the airlines change schedules, routes, aircraft, etc., often, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. I’m Mosaic 3 at the moment, and I wanted to add that if this leads to complimentary upgrades to this new Mini Mint, that is welcome news as well. Unlike some of the other carriers, jetBlue has actually taken decent care of its frequent flyers. Sometimes they offer status matches, so when these new cabins come into service, we should give them a chance. One thing is for sure, I long for a proper lounge at JFK T5.
B6 always wanting to be different but look at how that worked.
But Gary, YOU said they had abandoned this?
@JRS – No, I said that another outlet was reporting they’d abandoned it, and that JonNYC said they had not.
I did not take a position on it.
@BlueJet – recent change per your inflight materials
JetBlue like other airlines has realized:
1. Make coach into hell
2. Make domestic first a bit affordable and flyers with some money will pay to get out of coach. The ones that do not aren’t any big deal to the airline. They will always be there taking the cheapest fare they can find.
When did a business adapting to the marketplace become a crime?
Notice how those outside the traditional trunk carrier business model are morphing into traditional trunk carriers themselves:
– Southwest with assigned seating and developing of a semi-business class.
– JetBlue with mini-me 1st class.
– Frontier & Spirit shifting to inclusive pricing of seats and harping seats in the front of the jet
I would imagine Breeze (which already has its own first class) would jump on the bandwagon with complementary spirits and meals.
Feels like the late 70’s when the only real difference was the regions of the country that were served by each airline….Deja vous!!!