The wait is finally over, as JetBlue is now accepting reservations for transatlantic flights.
Continue reading: HUGE: JetBlue Flights To London Now Bookable!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
@ Ben -- Yep, that's the standard price, not Mosaic. I imagine that pricing will be updated soon.
Although the website said it was down, if you click on the Booking tab then Flights, you can book. $2,000 ($850+$1150) RT for inaugural returning month later, and as of 5:30 AM Central time, both Mint Studio suites are available each way. Only one Mint seat booked for inaugural. How is that even possible?
Merry Chris Moss everyone. 🙂
Less than £1k for J class return is very attractive. I do London-NY for work at least a couple of times a year, and this is likely to tempt me. Lounge access might be the stumbling block.
British Airways currently wants me to pay more than that to pick my business class seat on my flight to London later this year and it's substantially worse than that suite. Can't wait to see the first reviews for the suite to London!
@ Ben -- I am much more excited that the competition will be forced to match, hopefully to LHR. IMO, there is nothing that special about JetBlue over AA, BA, DL, UA. It is just another airline with no alliance and no lounge. I would much rather fly AA or BA and credit to AS...
Could they launch a 5th freedom between London and CDG or AMS to maximize utilization ? Also a way to "connect" passengers in their outbound from those cities.
I think there is going to be another LHR flight pair, assuming slots are being negotiated, operating as B6 19-20 to reduce the 8 hour stay.
Connecting flights price out even cheaper (ex-London anyway) - London-Florida return for around 800gbp - bargain! In peak season (in normal times) you can barely get economy for that if you go direct
@ Brandon -- Not yet unfortunately, but some sort of frequent flyer reciprocity is expected later this year.
It will be interesting to see what business class prices look like close-in/how they revenue manage the cabin, which I think is where the real opportunity is to undercut the others / pick up non-managed travel in the market. AA/BA/DL/VS/UA aren't trying to sell much of the front cabin too far out at the lowest fare bucket - JFK/LHR tends to really fill up inside 7 days (predicated on things getting back to normal, of course).
The eastbound timing to LHR is sub-optimal, especially if they're not offering access to an arrival lounge.
FYI:
JetBlue’s first flight (B6# 7) to LHR departs JFK on WEDNESDAY, August 11th at 9:48pm.
As of a few moments ago, of the seats shown for advanced selection on the Wednesday night flight, only 29B and 30E remain available, with the entire rows (all seats A-F) 18 and 31, as well as the ABC seats in row 30 blocked out in the “view only” preview.
Mint is “not available” for the August 11th inaugural flight, with all seats shown as “X” in the seat map preview, with the lowest fare, Blue Basic $601; Blue $676; and Blue Extra $701.
Cheers!
That one Mint seat showing "unavailable" is likely the for Pilot Rest. I imagine you'll find it blocked on all flights.
Ben
I'm sure I read the TATLs are not part of the AA-B6 link up so miles credit to AA won't be possible plus complications with the AA/BA/IB/AY TATL joint venture
Just curious what will now happen with JetBlue’s codeshares with BA and Virgin. I think a major reason for AA’s alliance with B6 was to stop bleeding passengers through Logan.
So is the supplement for the Mint Studio eligible for reimbursement under Amex Platinum travel credit? I've never used it on B6 before but I seem to recall Even More Space seating could be covered by the credit.
My worry is that the competition will do everything it can to take Jetblue out...or - even easier - just buy it and remove the threat! I hope they become a major fixture and forget LGW and add BOS!!
Agree with Tom. That return to JFK is a killer for me. Would like to be able to get back to BOS at a reasonable hour. Not even sure there are flights to BOS that will allow you to get to JFK, get through customs (even with Global Entry), and then get up to BOS.
It might be good P.R. for American (or British Airways) to make a couple of slots available to jetBlue on a long-term basis. U.S. regulators may find the new partnership a bit easier to fully approve if the competitive carve out for trans-Atlantic service is enhanced.
Actually Jetblue will need 3 planes to operate these two routes. The LHR flight arrives at JFK at 9:35pm, so it won't turn around until the next day's flights (since the LGW flight leaves at 7:48pm, so it will miss both of the London departures). And both of these flights are daily, so there will be one A321LR sitting idle at JFK as well for ~22-24 hours (unless they plan on flying them somewhere else as well). Until that though, those LHR slots are infact costing them aircraft utilization. If B6 moves the LHR departure to at least ~2 hours earlier, it could work both frequencies with 2 planes.
Radio
IIRC AA and BA were forced to give up a few slots as part of a competition investigation here in the UK over the jpint ventite and slot pairs between LHR annd JFK anf LHR and BOS were included in that.
In any case there will be no 'giving' of BA or AA slots that they have paid a fortune for over the years.
I was excited to see that they are flying to LGW as this makes it easy to connect to flights on Easyjet and TUI.
Does anyone know--how do things work relating to quarantine if one is transferring to another destination, but on a different airline and itinerary? Is there any prohibition on this type of transfer from the US?
@ Chris C,
Those BA/AA divestitures happened a long time ago. But the concept is parallel. to be clear, I didn't write that BA or AA should give away slots. I wrote that some could be "made available." Of course, they'd be made available at an agreed-upon consideration (and favorable P.R. could be a factor in determining that consideration). One possibility could be a slot swap with jetBlue for a more convenient return time to JFK. I'm guessing BA or AA could use jetBlue's current return slot advantageously, given the number of slots available to them.
@ Howard Miller,
I saw where jetBlue's first flight is "007" not merely "7". I'll take my martini "shaken, not stirred."
HUGE! Yet another airline on LON-NYC.
More like:
Yawn. Yet another airline on LON-NYC.
thats great but would be better if they launched it sooner, added lounge access, and included LAX-LHR/LGW instead of boston.
Radio
It was last year when our Competition Regulator looked again at the joint venture and required AA and BA to give up slots. These could have been the slots B6 have been allocated but they could be any from any airline that isn’t currently using them as part of the slot waiver .
If they sold slots it would be at full market value and nothing less. They have no interest in B6 getting a better slot. They have enough of their own to fill at present and if they wanted to add additional capacity to JFK in the early evening they can easily do it already.