Review: JetBlue Mint Business Class A321 (MIA-LAX)

I had the exact same meal on a recent LAX to JFK Mint flight (except the fruit on my yogurt was apricot). The frittata was surprisingly delicious.

Great review! I'm the opposite of a morning person and I still agree - daytime flights should be lights on, windows up. If I want to sleep (which, tbh, on a departure at this time, I would certainly grab a few more hours at the beginning of the flight), I'll use the eye mask. But the constant overbearing FA pressure to sleep on all flights regardless of timing is rather aggravating IMHO.

Off Subject, but very interesting:
Transatlantic airplanes are flying at the ‘speed of sound’ right now. Here’s why

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/jet-stream-flights-speed-of-sound/index.html

Despite all these their stock is still at all time low in a decade. It explains "how no other US airline can offer this level of service consistently."

I believe JetBlue's earlier management teams had said that the manual safety demo was a choice because they thought passengers paid more attention to a manual demo, although the early generations of their IFE were even more basic and had very little pre-recorded content (since the focus was on live TV) so I wouldn't be surprised if there were some tech limitations at play too.

So I'm a shades down flyer to reduce glare on the IFE screen and being domiciled in Australia (not Austria) I'm usually out of whack with the destination time zone and needing to sleep for a portion of the flight. Yes, I always have my own earplugs and eyeshade. Also, in the Equatorial flight zones the heat on the sunny side can be unbearable.

Have you yet flown these mint flights when the price wasn’t this low? Flights to and from JFK are rarely below $1000. I agree they are nice but perhaps not the same value at $1200-1500.

Concourse E (and the satellite) at MIA is the absolute worst. Dated appearance, worst food options of any terminal, and most of all inconvenient. No admirals club, and no baggage claim, so you walk 10-15 mins to D for that.

Find it crazy that BA (and to lesser extent IB) use the satellite. Imagine paying for BA F and walking from check-in at E to the Flagship in D then back to E for the train to the satellite? It’s nuts. Plus it’s a 10-15 min walk to immigration in D on the arrivals end. It’s the worst Int’l concourse at the airport

Ugh, dark cabins on day flights drive me crazy. If you want to sleep, wear the eye mask. The sun is up. It's daytime. You should be awake.

It was a 6:25am departure. That means many got up before 4am. Would make sense to catch up on sleep on the flight.

I have never seen B6 Mint that low either and I am based out of JFK too. My guess is it was an early flight and B6 is a major player in the MIA market (so lacks pricing power compared to AA).

So if they offered worse service the stock price would go up? Interesting

Airlines that still do manual safety demonstrations in general feel that it helps with the customer experience - hopefully engaging them and becoming more personal

I'm with you @digital_notmad! Huge night owl here, but I want the shades open and lights up bright on daytime flights. I'm just as solar powered as morning people - possibly more so. Since I'm not a morning person, I need the sun to start the day! And these days, you get on a plane and all the shades are closed. I board as quick as I can so I can open the windows on my row. Half the time my seatmate gets on and immediately closes the window.

Crews want the shades down so that people will sleep and pax want them down to watch movies and not have glare - especially since many movies are filmed with lots of dark scenes. Meanwhile, I frequently read on short flights. Recently I was reading a book in the middle of the afternoon on a plane and the person behind me complained about the glare from my light and wanted me to turn it off. Really? It's 3pm.

I have never been disappointed in probably 6 or so flights I have taken over the years.Of course, the attendants make the difference but it is a solid product.

There’s also a time difference considering it was still 4am on the west coast. Therefore if customers put themselves on Pacific time, many would likely have been at the airport since midnight.

6am departure makes this a horrible option. The fact the flight was half full explains that.
There seems to be a reason that all AA flights are full because of the many scheduling options.

It was not really a daytime flight. If the flight landed at 9AM pacific time then because people got up so early they wanted to catch up on some sleep and the time change before a full day in West coast. Also, it does not seem like they were offering anything different than other lie flat bed airlines; however, at least they did not try to serve eggs on the plane...

Frittata is made from. . . eggs

That's what aisle seats are for. Window seats are for people who wish to look out the window.

I flew this plane in J from NYC-CDG. I didn't like it. They were out of salad which was one of 3 things they offered, and the entire meal consisted of 2 tapas. Then they gave my dessert to someone else and when I asked where it was they told me they were out. The entertainment is horrible and it forces you to watch endless commercials. You order food on a screen and mine didn't work. The J cabin is pretty big and it looked like there was one FA working, fortunately I was in 2A and got "fed" (my 2 tapas) early. For the price it wasn't bad but the food situation was no bueno.

Don't sleep on Terminal F! Literally straight out of the 80's and not much (if any) improvement in offerings over Terminal E. Tends to be more crowded to boot!

JetBlue does not have TVs on all aircraft.

Nice review. I've only flown Mint twice (JFK-SJO and return). On both, there was no PDB offered. Once in the air, they'd take your drink order, then do meals. If you wanted two alcoholic drinks they would not bring them both. One at a time. And in both flights neither was proactive. Once meal was done, they all disappeared. I had the Throne seat, so that was very nice. Unfortunately the Viasat WiFi doesn't allow T-mobile wifi texting to work (even on iPhone). But I find this to be a limitation of Viasat, to be honest.

I wake up early each morning as I like to get a start on the day before the nearby world awakens. If I am on an early flight, I do like to get work done before boarding and use the opportunity to catch a few extra hours sleep. On long flights I appreciate the crew trying to the shades down when it's appropriate. The main issue is that an open shade creates ambient light so is not just the passenger by the window who gets the light but the entire cabin, reading lights allow for the passenger to read or work whilst reducing the effect on other passengers. It's no different to a person using headphones on a train or other public transport whilst others broadcast whatever they are watching or listening to all his/her neighbours.

I don't get all the adoration given to JetBlue, at all. We just flew JetBlue Mint from SEA to JFK on Oct 29. We booked for a redeye, last minute Mint tickets from SEA to JFK on Oct 28. When we got to the gate, the plane was there, but the boarding was delayed for 45 min, then another 45 min, then another 45 min. We could see it in Flightradar24 that it is a rolling delay. Then by about 2am-ish on Oct 29, we were invited to board. The first officer announced through PA that there is a switch issue with the engine and everything was fine. All that was needed was the paperwork.

An hour later, the same officer announced that no news is good news - we were still on the ground, and paperwork did take a long time. Then at close to 4am, we were told that we had to deplane and flight was cancelled. No meal vouchers were offered, no hotel were offered even though per DOT rules, JetBlue is at least responsible for the meal voucher.

While we waited in line with the gate agent to rebook, we managed to snag the last 2 seats on their next flight to JFK that day (Oct 29 afternoon). So we booked ourselves on a nearby Hyatt just to crash. We paid our own Uber which we will claim from JetBlue later.

Then on Oct 29 we arrived, and the flight got another rolling delay for 2 hours. This one is ATC-induced by JFK, so not dinging them for it. But yet, we had to ask for a meal voucher, rather than them pro-actively offered it.

While onboard, the seats are old, worn and dirty. We just flew on China Airlines lie flat A321, which is admittedly newer but way cleaner than JetBlue's. We also just flew on an older A330 from EVA with BAE Diamond seats. Older plane than JetBlue, but way cleaner. The IFE is old, with terrible resolution, and clear plastic panels above the seats do not belong there - as Ben pointed out. We were not offered any ANC head phones, at all.

Food was good, but that was about the only redeeming qualities. Air Canada transcon, if we want to compare North America transcon, is way better than JetBlue Mint. We flew with AC transcon on YVR-YYC, and YVR-YUL legs, and they are miles ahead of JetBlue Mint.

Which ones don't?

I do not understand why so many US airline passengers think that daytime flights are adult nap time. I personally do not care what other passengers think and leave the windows up, because I like the light and want to look outside. I even sleep sometimes with the blind open

Extremely comprehensive but you do waffle in your reviews.Could be alot shorter with a bit more thought .

If you flew JFK-CDG I can assure you, that while it was on an A321, it was not this one as their long haul flights are operated by the A321neos. While I agree that the newer seats still have issues with the endless commercials just to watch the entertainment, it definitely is disappointing to hear about your food situation.

At least at FLL, my first and only experience on Mint was only $499 one way to LAX. To get that price just required a little bit of studying the timing on when to book by looking at Google Flights. Then again, the JFK-LAX/SFO markets are a heck of a different beast compared to FLL.

Personally I'd disagree. His reviews have been more or less this thorough for years and it seems to work out well for him. Most of us appreciate being taken along for the ride.

For that price, extremely impressive.

I paid over $1,000 to fly mint 4 years ago. The seats looked old and dirty. The tv screen and tray was definitely dirty, I wiped it with a napkin and alcohol spray, along with the armrests. Filthy.
My seat has something wrong with it and when I sat down it was so hard I hurt myself. The flight attendant did not offer to change my seat, she apologized for the seat malfunction and gave me a pillow to sit on !! The food service was terrible . They didn’t walk up and down to check on passengers. Wasn’t impressed with snacks.
The flight attendant had an attitude. How dare I be miffed I paid over 1,000 dollars for that!
I was sorry I didn’t fly coach for that flight.
That was the first and last time I flew Mint , and I never will again. Not worth it at all.
I suppose I could have raised a stink and been compensated more, but that’s just not my nature. They lost my business, and that’s enough for me.