I’m not here to advocate for making the passenger experience less pleasant. However, as JetBlue continues to try to return to profitability, the airline should be doing everything it can to increase revenue. It seems to me like the airline is leaving something pretty obvious on the table, and it involves one of the carrier’s…
Continue reading: Why Doesn’t JetBlue Better Monetize Free Wi-Fi?
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Who's to say it's not? Monetization can occur via bundling. That is, embedding the cost of WiFi in the ticket price. Just because a charge for WiFi is not a separate and visible charge (an unbundled charge) doesn't mean it's not monetizing it.
Why doesn't Emirates monetize champagne in first class? It's embedded in the ticket price.
@ Lee -- I didn't say the airline isn't monetizing it at all, I posed the question of why JetBlue doesn't *better* monetize Wi-Fi. Ultimately JetBlue is losing money, so needs to find new revenue streams. This seems like an obvious one.
You might be right, but this isn't a slam-dunk. On average, passengers who are part of the loyalty program spend more... sure. But at least in part, that's because passengers who are inclined to spend more are more likely to find it worthwhile to join the loyalty program. It doesn't follow that forcing an infrequent flier to join the loyalty program just to connect to wifi will result in any more revenue from that passenger. Maybe it will--but hardly a sure thing.
I feel there are two sides this argument. From a marketing standpoint, I absolutely support the idea and think it’s a great way to foster customer loyalty, and engagement through personalizing the experience. However, as an airline passenger, I feel that the JetBlue model is superior. Being based out of BOS and having tried the free Wi-Fi offering of both B6 and DL, I get the feeling that DL seemly wants to track the every move of their customers in the hopes of getting them to spend more. This is reflected in the literature and press releases they put out about their Delta Sync offering. Well at the end of the day is not a huge annoyance, I personally would prefer not to see B6 go down that path.
But how many people does JetBlue want to force to sign up for their FF program to get free wifi that rarely fly and when they do they book the cheapest fare available on Google flights. They might not fly JetBlue for another five years and maybe never again.
Now the better question would be why isn't JetBlue getting FF signups and monetizing those. That actually gets involved in the selling of names/lists and that has a negative view so that's not a slam dunk.
On the other hand, they monetize IFE headphones. Hardly any other carriers do.
I wonder if it's a question of the IT infrastructure not being there. Since it launched without the intent of being monetized, there's a decent chance they didn't build anything around that process (not that it would be hard to do, but airlines aren't IT shops).
I’ve flown JetBlue before for the free wifi…. Worth it when they were the same price as Delta on LAX-BOS and you get free WiFi (since Delta flies the 757’s with $30 WiFi on this route)
Oh no! How dare an airline offers complimentary amenities instead of nickel-and-diming its customers for everything. Did Michael O'Leary write the post?
It's not clear that new TrueBlue member Mickey A. Mouse at 123 Cherrytree Lane, Nowheresville, Mississippi, would be a net gain for the airline.
However, if you really want to monetize Wi-Fi then you could offer tiered service. The free tier would be capped at 1.0 Mb/s (for example) — enough for 360p YouTube and low quality Netflix — and the paid tier would be uncapped. There's already passenger competition for bandwidth, so a simple tier offer like this one would probably improve the average experience for everyone. The uncapped bandwidth tier could be free for elite TrueBlue members, Mint and future first class passengers, and (for a "promotional period") all TrueBlue members. But in order to prevent the "Mickey A. Mouse" problem your TrueBlue number would have to be connected to your seat number. You'd log in using your surname and seat number if you want the higher tier, maximum 2 logged in devices per seat. No fumbling for TrueBlue numbers, passwords, ticket record locators, or anything else. It needs to be simple. And if you don't want to credit your JetBlue flight to TrueBlue, you still can enjoy the free 1.0 Mb/s capped bandwidth tier.