JetBlue & Brightline Launch Partnership, But It's Kind Of Lame

Brightline fares can be purchased with pretax commuter benefits. JetBlue fares cannot. So the price differential is even worse with this partnership.

Is there a connection guarantee angle? As in if either provider is late, do they guarantee rebooking or other benefits?

Thanks for pointing out the shortcomings of the new affiliation. No one else seems to have noticed the problems you’ve observed.

If we had a functioning rail system in this country, the irregular ops function would be valuable. Lufthansa and DB have something similar (or at least did in 2018), and when Frankfurt had travel delays, I was able to easily move my ticket to DB and travel by ICE trains.

If it’s ever possible to earn B6 miles on Brightline, especially on standalone tickets, I’ll use Brightline a lot more often.

Buyer beware ... Sounds almost like a scam. Otherwise a great concept ( as mentioned earlier re: LH & DB ).
Sad, as it seems like a win/win/win for all parties involved (even including pax ! ). Great opportunities for cross marketing, IROPs, etc.... I don't know if Brightline even offers a frequent 'railer' program, but if not, that could be an additional benefit for everyone.
Also not sure how successful Brightline is, but I wish they'd come to California and build much needed intra-state rail links, especially between SoCali & NoCali. The 'failing' Golden State desperately needs alternatives to crappy air transportation, congested roadways & over priced petrol !

@Ben - Is that $54 Brightline ticket in the example you mentioned for their Basic fare or their regular Smart ticket? If the $271 JetBlue ticket includes the Brightline Smart ticket, then that would come with seat selection as well, which the Basic fare doesn't allow. Smart fares are typically $20 more than Basic fares. In this case, the JetBlue ticket is only $40 more, which is still more expensive. But having looked at pricing between Orlando and Aventura on Brightline, tickets are typically more expensive than $54 unless you book over a month out. And if you book through JetBlue, the biggest value I see is that the train connection is a part of one ticket, so if your flight is delayed, you don't have to book a new train.

Brightline previously had a program where if you miss your train due to a (separately booked) flight, you can show proof and they will waiver the rebooking fee and accommodate you on the next available train. Not sure if this is still available. Previously, all Brightline tickets could be canceled for a credit up to 10 minutes before departure, so I would just cancel the ticket if I was running late for any reason and rebook on the next train for a fare difference. I often booked last minute Brightline trains so the price for me to rebook wouldn't be anything extra (since tickets go up in price 2 days before departure).

Other than in the case of IRROPS, why would anyone book a b6 flight from NYC to MCO to get to Aventura instead of a non-stop to FLL?

I was not that impressed with Brightline anyway, it was fine, but there was nothing special about it. I guess that depends how far you are going for it to be worthwhile. Consider that by the time you are done getting to and from the train, it costs probably the same amount of time and money for other modes of transport.

The premium is presumably to cover the cost of the later ticket on irrops, especially if train-before-flight.
The airline is contributing a partly-flexible fare.
This is the risk that these arrangements address, so somehow it has to be paid for.
Lufthansa-DB and Easyet-flightconnections both do it by requiring absurdly long connecting times, and therefore the frequency of missed connections is low.

Brightline is in fact building the Las Vegas-Inland Empire line (you will be able to transfer to LA Metrolink commuter rail).

The baggage issue is even worse than it appears on the surface. There are several stories out there of Brightline's security checks being wildly inconsistent, for example taking things like small clippers and cosmetic scissors (TSA compliant, less than 4"), cigar cutters and even butter knives.
Not to mention if you're traveling with a checked firearm by air (completely legal when compliant) Brightline won't even allow that to go through.
It's a totally useless train.