Impressive: JetBlue Reveals Transatlantic Economy Experience

What's your source on the meals? Do you have a link?

Ben, there’s no such thing as “too much service!”

I remember back in the days before your were born where dinner in First Class to Europe took almost 3 hours. THAT was service!

This actually looks pretty good, for economy. I'm sure this will be popular.

You're right, though, about the meal complexity. If customers are clueless and whiney (nah, that could never happen...) cabin crews are going to be challenged to deliver and remain motivated. Most of all, the "generous" personal space and extra amenities are sure to be a hit.

It's so nice seeing an airline that isn't competing in the Race To The Bottom. What a refreshing change. I hope they aren't bought up by one of the big legacy airlines and killed off.

I like it, especially the option to choose your sides. As an adult who frequently preorders the kids meal on international flights, at least I may have a better selection than I do on other airlines. By ordering from the screen, I think it will also space out the meal service...they won't be trying to offer all 114 passengers dinner at the same time. I'm usually a Delta fan but I would give JetBlue a try!

There will be a sweet treat after the meal, and a light meal prior to arrival

--> when am I supposed to sleep eastbound?

I will believe it when i see it. More likely than not they will say they have suspended this customized economy meal service "For your safety" and provide terrible microwave meals like everyone else in economy because their focus is "safety" for their passengers.

Maybe I'm too negative but to me this reads like they cut down on everything else, e.g. no starter, no cheese & crackers, no bread & butter. And maybe I missed something but last time I checked beer, wine & liquor was included with most transatlantic network carriers, at least on the european side (outside of SAS).

So I think you might just be overhyping this a tad too much. The free wifi and live tv on the other hand is nice.

I'm here for this kind of disruption to the market; good luck to them - hope they make a success of it.

Maybe they can do the service without the carts? I think in the Virgin America days, you'd order from the screen, and then the FAs would bring your items on trays or in their hands.

But since most people will want to eat right away on an eastbound flight, maybe that won't scale? Or will a lot of passengers just skip the meal and go right to sleep?

I wonder if, to speed up service, they will have the option to and push customers in the direction of pre-selecting meals on the app or website beginning, say, 72 hours in advance of departure. That would also help reduce issues with supplying adequate amounts of popular and less-popular selections.

"I will believe it when i see it. More likely than not they will say they have suspended this customized economy meal service “For your safety” and provide terrible microwave meals like everyone else in economy because their focus is “safety” for their passengers."

Well Steven I flew domestic Mint last week and they had essentially the full Mint experience.

And it was delicious as usual.

@ArnoldB What airline are you flying that gives starters and bread and butter in economy?

Surprised JetBlue would partner with Dig, which is basically completely out of business due to Covid.

So there would be only 3 flight attendants servicing the mint cabin and the rest? I’m wondering how they can warm up the food and serving passengers with just 3 flight attendants.

@Jeff that was my initial thought too, but it's also why it makes sense for Dig. I used to love Dig so hopefully the quality is comparable. Definitely one of those places that makes you think you're eating healthy but you are not at all, but still good!

@Chris

Literally any non-LCC airline? Lufthansa, Austrian, Air France, SAS, KLM, etc.

Maybe to clarify, with starter I mean the little things that's usually like a small salad, quinoa salad, cold cuts etc. With bread & butter I mean a roll or bread and a packaged butter with salt&pepper.

Boston to London is not a long flight at all. Potentially serving (and collecting) 114 custom meals AND drinks on a single aisle aircraft in a reasonable amount of time will definitely be a challenge!

Sounds great going stateside, but going east it could be annoying, agree with Flo. I would usually just skip the meal on the red eye (except for the "light meal" before landing), and try to catch some sleep...having the dinner meal time spread out on the red eye would likely be disruptive to some extent.

Looks good to me. As soon as Canada lifts the travel restriction to the States, then I will be investigating the flights from Boston to London for an upcoming cruise in November.

@David

https://www.jetblue.com/flying-with-us/inflight-experience/menus

Also:
https://www.jetblue.com/flying-with-us/london

So essentially they are replicating the exact experience you'd get at Dig (choose proteins and sides). Dig has a near "cult" following in NYC, especially with the office crowd, because it's always really fresh, tasty and healthy (and affordable). Even during this pandemic I'm still seeing a good amount of people going to the locations by me.
It'll be nice if they can replicate the same quality in the air; it's definitely not Michelin star stuff, but just about a million steps up from regular economy food. Can't wait to see what they'll come up with in Mint.

Back when I used to work in the office, my coworkers and I would order Dig Inn any day we worked late. They’re f$&@ing good and very healthy. Think minimal prep/processing, like a rotisserie chicken or roast beef, with some ancient grain like faro, spiced cauliflower purée, with candied pineapple for dessert. I lost a ton of weight eating from them.

If the plan is to use the seatback screens to order, it wouldn't be hard to extend that to the app to let customers preorder their meals. that would probably speed the service up.

Kudos to jetblue on this service. Seat back touchscreens however, are a nightmare. Invariably there are pax who are heavy fingered. As a former Virgin America Gold / current B6 Mosaic with heavy transcon coach travel, I can attest to the fact that it’s annoying as hell when one has a heavy fingered D-Bag constantly tapping the back of the seat, whether for touchscreen meal orders or just channel flipping all flight.

Does anyone know if they will include checked luggage like some legacy airlines do for transcon flights? Glad to see Jetblue moving this direction after they seemed to be going the other way for a few years there.

They are going to be in the aisle serving this complexity food for the whole flight. The single aisle. Good luck getting up to go to the bathroom.

And as Peter pointed out, Dig is not healthy, which I suppose is par for the course on a plane.

This doesn't seem impressive at all.

It looks like vegetarians will not need to pre-order special meals, since there will be a vegetarian main course option on every flight!

The photos look immaculate. Regarding healthiness, the mix and match options allow you to select healthier alternatives than the set menu offered by other airlines in economy. No one is holding a gun making you choose the griddled ham or mac and cheese.

Real question is can they do day flights? Day flight to London would really make this fairly pleasant, if you don't feel you need to sleep on the plane.

As excited I am for Jet Blue to enter this market, and love the product offerings, I am really having a hard time understanding how this is sustainable. I assume the bean counters have it figured out - but given the costs involved in operating at Heathrow, the margins for this must be minimal, even assuming 100% load factors and fares to match the route during peak times. Assume as well that AA,DL, VS and UA are going to go hard against them in these markets and price seats so low that it becomes a money sucker, especially dangerous for a smaller carrier. Economy passengers are just not going to pay extra for thoughtful healthy meals and good wifi/live tv. We will see short term benefits for passengers with incredibly low fares to LHR as they battle it out, but my prediction is that Jet Blue will be the weakest link in this and cry uncle first and eventually pull out. Even Virgin Atlantic is struggling. I can totally see next fall huge fare wars and offers of $198 R/T to London. It's going to be a bloodbath.

@ArnoldB

Someone who thinks airplane bread and cheese/crackers is a point of differentiation is probably someone who can do without eating airplane bread and cheese/crackers.

And you're still on a single aisle aircraft.
Count me out.

Btw - United does offer free alcohol in economy for trans-Atlantic (and pretty much anything that is long haul).

The only non-LCC I know of that charges for alcohol for trans-Atlantic is SAS.

If the eastbound flight leaves late evening, most experienced pax will opt for sleep- it's only six hours. Conversely it is only 114 max in coach. There was a day pre 9/11 when the coach cabin was served a fill meal on domestic of 90 minutes.

If this does not to suit you, fly a legacy carrier where your expectations in coach will be met. Chicken or pasta?

This is all sounds good but it sounds expensive compared to all the competitors. I can't see how they can compete with the main airlines by offering so much more, unless they charge more for tickets(and people are paying more).

I wonder if this is more of a loss leader strategy where they want to establish themselves and grab attention as an international/TATL airline with all these perks but that 1 year+ down the line, the service will slowly be scaled back due to prohibitive costs.

@ArnoldB

Guess you haven't flown in the back on a U.S. carrier. AA and UA only serve complimentary beer and wine on trans-Atlantic flights. That's why I'll always defer to a European carrier whenever possible

I love hearing so many people whining about "too much service". If an airline offered less service, there would be griping also.

Who is the manufacturer of these Economy seats? For Mint it is Thompson Aero

32'' seat pitch is just passable on a night flight, not enough to actually stretch out and actually sleep though. Most of my Long haul flights over the decades have been heading eastwards from London. I thought all of them had 32'' seat pitch apart from Qantas and BA. I remember 34'' not too long ago on Thai airways and some others. At least the seats will not be as narrow as the 787s or new 10 abreast 777 configs where you are intertwining arms with your stranger neighbour. A premium economy style seat would have been a good idea worth paying for.

I am not clear what exactly a "transatlantic flight" means... Does it mean a flight over the "Atlantic", over the ocean? Does a flight between NY to PR in this category?