JetBlue had an interesting way of announcing some negative changes today. They didn't announce the changes to customers, but rather to investors, explaining how they "plan to drive shareholder returns through differentiated products and service." To clarify, when they say "differentiated products and service" they don't mean different than what their competitors offer, but rather…
Continue reading: JetBlue Adding More Seats And Checked Bag Fees
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Well I don't mind being able to choose between a fare with no bag or a fare with a checked bag, providing that amount you have to pay to have the checked bag remains the same as it is now, and the no-bag option is cheaper. If the fare with a checked bag increases, that's just ripping people off.
People don't fly JetBlue because of its frequent flyer program or its elite status or its broad network or even its price. They fly it because they know they're getting a decent product, snacks, free checked bag and free TV standard without having to worry about whether an upgrade clears. Take away too many of those things and you end up with a United. Hopefully investors don't force them to move too much in that direction. Although with 15 more seats I guess JetBlue would have room to drop fares by 10% to stay competitive.
Have you actually tried them?
I have found the newer, thinner seats be more comfortable than the older seats with the thicker cushions.
And they actually give more leg room because of the way they moved up the seat pocket.
I have found the slimline seats on United to be much better than the crap seats on the sCO narrowbodies, but they are a tad worse than the sUA seats. I don't think they are all that terrible overall.
What do you think will happen to tickets issued prior to 2015 for 2015 travel? For example, buying a ticket now for a flight in 5/2015. Will I have to then pay for a checked bag?
As soon as Robin Hayes took over, everyone could see this coming....Another example of NOT caring about the customer, no matter how you try to spin it or sell it...
The only winner in this is the shareholder who have seen the B6 stock rise steadily over the year.
They've gotten rid of two great policies that had led me to choose JetBlue even over the mainline carriers on whom I have elite status -- no baggage fees and, even better, the ability to get future flight credit whenever the fare dropped without incurring a change fee. I live in NYC so JetBlue is an option to almost anywhere, but I won't choose them anymore unless the airfare really stands out.
Also, I found their email to their frequent fliers last night to be comical. They tried to make it sound like this was good news. But they aren't really "unbundling" baggage fees from their base fares - they are re-bundling it with other stuff (more miles, flexible fare) that we likely don't want for the price they will charge.