Travel & Leisure just rated them as the #1 domestic air carrier, and that’s the biggest no-brainer. If they serve the routes you want to fly, there’s no question they offer a better experience than competitors.
- Fly out of private terminals, so you can show up 20 minutes before your flight. There’s no big terminal to schlepp through and no lines to speak of.
- All first class, with 30 seats in a jet designed for 50. Checked bags, drinks and snacks are free and so is Starlink wifi (they were the launch carrier for Starlink and it’s the best internet inflight).
- Friendly people who seem to like doing their job.
They’re so good that competitors tried to get the government to put them out of business. But they seem to have survived that onslaught, and are looking to grow – having just placed an aircraft order that will allow them to serve more small airports.
Two years ago they suggested there wasn’t urgency in creating a loyalty program, but that they’d have one eventually that would “not necessarily [be a] traditional program.”
Now they’ve launched one: Club JSX.
- 5% rebate towards future travel on base fare, seat fees, and pet fees. Rewards expire the last day of the 12th month following accrual (eek).
- Family Pooling with up to 5 people, so you can book for others and accrue for yourself.
- Bonus earn in your birthday month. I’ve asked for details on elevated earn rates. Update: I’m told “We’ll be testing different ways to offer this benefit but will start with an additional 5% accrual.”
- Targeted offers “based on…individual travel habits.”
- Referral bonus give $100 in flight credit to a first-time JSX passenger, earn a $100 voucher when they take their first JSX flight.
Chase United co-brand cards now come with JSX statement credits (United owns a stake in JSX, as does JetBlue). You can earn miles with these partners as well but the earn rate will be better in JSX’s own program. 5% rebates are fairly standard at the base level – remember, at 5 points per dollar, that’s effectively a 5% rebate. Airlines generally book 1 cent per point in liability for future travel for miles earned from flying (though often only 1/8th of a cent for miles earned by credit card, even though the miles are the same, accounting rules allow more games when selling miles to third parties).
What seems missing here is an elite program. There are no upgrades possible, and most things are free, but they could still waive premium seat fees for frequent customers and even organize free parking at their FBOs, as well as increased earn.
I’m not joining the program today. I don’t have any JSX flights booked – they no longer serve Austin-Bergstrom airport. There’s no joining bonus, so I might as well wait until I can get immediate value, in case there’s a joining offer (and can take advantage of being someone’s referral).
Sweet! The JSX credit would be the reason I get one of the United cards. Their regular prices flights from LAX to LAS is sometimes the same as Y on DL with a $100 credit it would be a no brainer. Taking the family to LAS next month already booked the flights so getting some rewards would be sweet especially with the family pooling.
Why not! Haven’t flown from HPN in a long time, but since they fly from there to SoFla, I might consider it, for using those Chase United credits, and also because trying new things can be exciting (sometimes).
Please bring back service to BNA!
JSX serve near my home however until I hit the 2MM on AA, I’m going to fly AA/AS for domestic. Internationally I primarily fly JL, CX and QR so I get my AA miles/loyalty points from there.
Once I achieve the 2MM target (I’m around 1.5-1.6 million) then I can figure out I will fly JSX.
Also, another problem with JSX is that it doesn’t serve many of the destinations I want to go to. Hopefully that will change as they expand.
Until they do something to make the seats much more comfortable, I’ll pass.
@Jacobin777 — I like your style!
@Mike Hunt — It’s gonna be hard for them to do much better on an E135/145. At least it’s 1-1 config. Supposedly, JSX was considering the Heart Aerospace ES-30, an electric/hybrid propeller aircraft, but I doubt they’ll put in heavy, luxurious seats in that.
@1990 – Once again, you don’t know what you’re talking about. The 2-1 first class seats on 135/145s that other domestic carriers use are far more spacious and comfortable than the 1-1 seats on JSX. This may not sound logical but it’s completely true. The JSX 1-1s are economy in width and have very close to economy pitch. Half of them also have “tables” next to them. Any difference in weight to replace them would be negligible at best.
Have you actually ever flown JSX yourself?
@Mike Hunt — I haven’t yet, but I am considering it (since we now have these silly credits via the United cards), so I do actually ‘care’ about your (and others) feedback on it. With their seats, that really is surprising; I’d have thought 1-1 layout is better than 1-2, any day, but apparently it’s not ‘good enough.’ I suppose for a shorter flight, like LAS-LAX, that may be fine, but for the 2-3 hours from NY-FL, that might ‘hurt’ after a while. Is it closer in feel to like the tiny Q400 seats? Even those are 2-2, usually. Generally, with JSX, I see they’ve been around since 2016, so perhaps they’re do for some new, wider seats!
@Mike Hunt — Also, I donno about you, but I still get ‘thrills’ flying a new airline for the first time. Tried ‘Porter’ recently to Billy Bishop and had a ‘fun’ time. Like, they got this cute racoon mascot. Bah!
Hopefully Gary and the cabal of airline bloggers exclusively travel jsx shortly so we dont have to see them or hear them complain about everything, as well as belittle us “regular folk”.
@1990 – thanks. Maximizing my status..LOL. From about 2003-2020 I flew primarily domestic. Past 3 years I’ve been flying mostly international so it works out for me.
Interestingly, between flying J in CX, AA, QR (haven’t flown J in JAL, only Y+ a few weeks ago), I actually liked flying “front row” on AA’s B787’s to/from DOH. Service was certainly not like JL, CX or QR however it certainly not bad either.
@1990 – The seats are not as cramped as those on a Q400, but anyone above a certain height is likely to find them uncomfortable for anything beyond a short hop. Bulkhead seats offer marginally more space, yet still fall short of delivering the level of comfort one might expect given the cost. There is no hot meal service, and while the flight attendants are friendly, they aren’t particularly attentive when it comes to beverage refills. In essence, you’re paying for the convenience of lighter security screening (which is arguably not very reassuring) and terminals that are much less crowded and more conveniently located. Additionally, some of the aircraft interiors appear somewhat worn. All things considered, I haven’t found the tradeoffs to be worthwhile, especially given the lingering (if only visceral) sense that overall safety may be slightly compromised — which isn’t necessarily true. It’s entirely fair to acknowledge that reasonable people feel differently.