A few months ago, JetBlue announced that it would improve the value proposition of its basic economy fares, without taking anything away. This change is live as of today, so I wanted to recap all the details, and look at this in the context of the competitive landscape.
Continue reading: JetBlue Adds Free Carry-On Bags To Blue Basic Fares
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Good on B6- charging for carryon bags has crossed over into scam territory, and it's no surprise that it's costing carriers customers.
I've called out scummy airlines like Frontier for this- charging $100 at the gate is in no way transparent and in no way appropriate for the service provided, and either the DoT needs to get in on capping this to something reasonable for the service provided (aka $30) or airports need to give them the boot because the fights at the gate reflect poorly on the airport.
I consistently booked away from jetBlue because of this practice (and also book away from United). jetBlue is not a good or reliable airline. It's not worth paying more to fly them.
Lots of trade offs here:
- B6 would need to control the number of "Blue" tickets via an algorithm to control margins
- Should B6 adopt 1st Class (4 seats per row) which it has been exploring, that extra room is coming out of the back of the plane with few standard seats
- Other airlines could adopt the same benefit (free carry-on) with little adjustment; therefore, loosing a competitive advantage
- B6 needs to improve its reliability and connects. If not, will only sell these "Blue" seats at a sharp discount just to fill empty space on the plane.
Frontier is fairly transparent about carryons not being included in the basic fare.
Just get rid of basic economy, doesn’t make sense these days. People have caught up with airlines fooling them with all these extra add ons.
That they are, but everything after that is a carnival game. Now I get among boardingarea beating the airlines at these games is part of the fun, but to normal humans it's grating.
To wit - how much will your bag cost? Go to "optional services" and then enter your proposed trip information, then pull up their baggage fee calculator. Once you've entered your details select the itinerary and flight numbers you'll be taking and it'll pull up a spreadsheet of fees, ranging from absurd ($50+) to absurd ($99). But don't worry, these fees are only valid for this browser session and the actual fees will be determined when you go to buy the ticket, and oh, if you decide after booking you need it the quoted fee might no longer be valid.
Oh, and surprise- Frontier uses different dimensions for 'personal items' than every other carrier, so that messenger bag you normally have under your seat and don't think about could run a cool $100.00.