Tag Archives for jetblue.
If a customer goes to the JetBlue website and books a JetBlue flight, they expect the JetBlue product. Having to pay for wifi, getting less legroom, and with no seat back television is going to be jarring. And it risks undermining the brand JetBlue has built.
Senator Chuck Schumer good-naturedly quips that the most dangerous place in Washington D.C. is between himself and a TV camera.
However it looks like Schumer has a West Coast competitor in California Attorney General Rob Bonta who has rushed to join the Justice Department’s lawsuit against American Airlines and JetBlue over its Northeast alliance which covers Boston and New York, because reasons.
This is a case where customers actually benefit, competitors don’t like it, and whether the Justice Department realizes it or not they’re carrying water for cronyist corporate interests and not passengers.
A JetBlue passenger learned he was exposed to Covid-19 and was supposed to fly the next day. Many airlines have dropped change fees from some fares, but this passenger was on a ‘Basic’ fare. He called JetBlue to find out what to do. He had taken a Covid-19 test, but wouldn’t get the results before he was supposed to fly.
He asked to reschedule his trip a couple of weeks into the future. He was told he’d have to pay a difference in fare and also a $100 change fee. JetBlue wouldn’t waive the change fee without presentation of a positive test.
JetBlue appears to be hiring an airport supervisor for… Brisbane, Australia. There are multiple people on LinkedIn identifying themselves in administrative roles working for the airline in Brisbane already. While JetBlue doesn’t have planes capable of flying from the U.S. to Australia, Australia has no limits on foreign ownership of domestic airlines.
American Airlines and JetBlue launched their ‘Northeast Alliance’ early in 2021.
Until now there haven’t been elite benefits recognized between the two airlines, and there’s no redeeming miles for each others’ flights. Elite benefits, though, will begin this fall.
American Airlines customers, especially, should like flying JetBlue which offers more legroom, seat back entertainment, free wifi and a business class product (on routes where it’s offered) with relatively great seats, food, and friendly service.
However the actual partnership – as experienced by passengers – is quite broken. Several customers, based in both Boston and New York, have shared the problems they’ve faced.
The Emirates frequent flyer program has just introduced award redemption on its partner JetBlue. It’s easy to get Emirates points. And the award prices for JetBlue’s ‘Mint’ business class are surprisingly reasonable. You can often book JetBlue business class seats for more than one third fewer points than JetBlue would charge in its own program.
A JetBlue flight attendant confronted a passenger in coach and confiscated their eye mask because they weren’t flying business class – and JetBlue eye masks are for business class customers only.
The passenger asked about an eye mask when they boarded, and they were told no – there’s only one amenity kit boarded for each passenger in business class. A woman seated up front offered hers to the man. JetBlue gave it to her – and she gave it to him. But a member of the cabin crew would have none of it. And there’s video of Eye Mask Karen policing the transaction.
JetBlue was born at New York JFK, with slots gifted like so much manna from heaven by Senator Chuck Schumer. But JetBlue no longer drinks from the New York Kool-Aid, they’ve talked about moving down to Florida and they’ve built up flights at Newark.
Schedule data from Cirium Diio Mi shows that JetBlue is operating 1685 flights to 29 destinations from Newark this month. However they don’t have the infrastructure at Newark to support their current ambitions.
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 »
