Tag Archives for jetblue.
JetBlue had to go lease slots at London Heathrow from Qatar Airways. And they didn’t just pay cash, apparently. They also had to terminate an airline partnership to satisfy Qatar.
A federal court sided with the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice, ruling that the American Airlines-JetBlue partnership should be broken up on anti-trust grounds. It’s an odd conclusion, but the ruling itself is fascinating reading. It contains great details about how the deal evolved between the two airlines.
Saturday night’s JetBlue flight 2404 from San Juan to New York JFK diverted to Richmond after a passenger, who brought their own alcohol on board, got into an altercation with their wife.
A passenger on board the aircraft shared with View From The Wing that the man had brought on a bottle of Hennessy, was visibly intoxicated, and had “choked out his wife.”
Thursday afternoon JetBlue flight 879 from Las Vegas to Los Angeles was held on the tarmac on arrival and passengers then evacuated because a passenger angry about missing the flight called in a bomb threat.
I love the choice benefits. I love that more activity than just flying counts towards status. And they’ve simplified elites receiving confirmed extra legroom seats. They’re finally introducing meaningful elite upgrades as well. Since benefits aren’t really based on waitlist or status priority, though, higher tiers seem a bit thin to me. 15,000 bonus points as a choice benefit at each level helps a little bit, but I’d like to see higher bonus point amounts at higher tiers.
Still, the path to Mosaic 1 is rich enough that I’m not bothered by requiring $50,000 in credit card spend to get there (and it’s about right at $5000 in travel spend). At the same time I don’t love the revenue-based rather than trip-based nature of the new program for those who do earn status by flying. I think they get plaudits for trying something interesting, even if they’re not first down this path. And they’re offering richer benefits than they ever have before.
Before the pandemic, when Norwegian was operating the route, Delta planned to fly to Gatwick using a Boeing 757 without Delta Suites. It was totally obvious what they were doing, with a product well-matched to Norwegian’s.
This was supposed to start in May 2020, but didn’t happen because of the pandemic – and because Norwegian ceased its transatlantic flying. Now that JetBlue offers a real business class on the route, Delta has upgraded to a Boeing 767.
The Department of Transportation entered into an agreement to approve the “Northeast Alliance” between American Airlines and JetBlue, indeed wrung concessions out of the two airlines before doing so (giving up takeoff and landing slots in New York, and a commitment to expand supply of seats in the market with larger aircraft under penalty of losing even more slots to other airlines).
Then, after the alliance moved forward, the Department of Justice Continue Reading »
want to see Spirit Airlines continue as a standalone company. I think that is better for airfares and for diversity in business models. I also don’t think buying Spirit is a good idea for JetBlue. They are operationally challenged to begin with and the complexity of a merger and integration won’t make air travel better. JetBlue is massively overpaying.
As a result I’ve maintained that the JetBlue deal to acquire Spirit is bad for customers and bad for shareholders. However bad business decisions are not in themselves, illegal.
Right on the heels of that spicy flight attendant telling people they shouldn’t use the lavatory when they first board a plane, a JetBlue flight attendant confronts a passenger demanding to know why they could possibly need to use the lavatory since they’d spent a three hour delay in the terminal. And the crewmember even went so far as to claim airplane toilets don’t flush while the plane is on the ground.
The federal government is preparing to sue to block JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit Airlines. They’re paying a 40% premium over what Frontier Airlines was offering. And they even have to pay a lot of the money if the deal doesn’t close.
JetBlue is ramping up the P.R. side of the fight releasing a video that tells their story about how growing their airline is good for consumers.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
