In the coming weeks, JetBlue will be introducing a domestic first class product for the first time, which will be known as BlueFirst. This is an exciting and long overdue development, and I trust it will help JetBlue’s revenue performance, especially given how efficiently planes are being reconfigured (by reducing legroom in economy).
The first aircraft has now been retrofitted with the new cabins, and it appears that JetBlue had a media day today for this showing off both the new hard and soft product. We already largely knew what to expect, but what stands out to me is the one thing that’s missing, which I really can’t make sense of.
JetBlue first class will get a lot of foot traffic!
I don’t want to bury the lede here, so let me get right to it — on planes with BlueFirst, JetBlue won’t have any sort of a cabin divider between first class and the rest of the cabin. It’s not just that there isn’t a curtain, but there’s not even a divider hanging from the overhead bins.
I guess this also explains the very creative angles of the renderings that have been released up until now, which clearly try to avoid highlighting this reality.
I really can’t make sense of this decision. I know we no longer live in an era where there are real, full bulkheads between cabins, since that’s not efficient. But just installing a small, flimsy divider, along with a curtain, costs very little, doesn’t weigh a lot, etc.
To be clear, this isn’t about “oh, I don’t want to be seen by anyone.” Instead, it’s about managing traffic to and from the forward lavatory. At US airlines, the most common policy is that on domestic flights, you can use any lavatory onboard the aircraft, even in a different cabin. There are some exceptions, including for JetBlue Mint, but that’s also easier to enforce thanks to how the A321 is configured, with a lavatory behind Mint, in front of economy.
I’m not sure if JetBlue intends to reserve the forward lavatory for BlueFirst passengers, but either way, you can expect there will be a steady stream of passengers lining up to use the forward lavatory. So it’s not even about potentially not having a dedicated lavatory, but instead it’s about just constantly having people standing in the aisle right by your seat. This will also make the life of the first class flight attendant more difficult.
Take Aer Lingus AerSpace, for example, which is Aer Lingus’ premium product on short haul flights in Europe. It’s simply the first row of seats with blocked middles, and no divider between that and the rest of the plane. The problem is that if you’re seated in the aisle in AerSpace, you basically just have someone’s butt in your face the entire flight. You’re almost better off not booking the product, just to avoid that.
Anyway, I can’t really make sense of this decision, so I’d be fascinated to know what the logic was. There’s not another US airline with first class that has no separation between first class and economy. Spirit’s “Big Front Seat” didn’t have any divider, but that also wasn’t first class — it was just an, ummm, big front seat.
Similarly, Breeze Airways’ “Nicest” product also doesn’t have a divider, but it’s also not a separate cabin.
JetBlue says it didn’t wait too long to introduce first class
CNBC’s Phil Le Beau was onboard JetBlue’s first BlueFirst A320 with CEO Joanna Geraghty. I like Le Beau, but this interview is also the perfect example of why I just don’t really value interviewing airline executives in a traditional sense.
Le Beau asked Geraghty a good question — “did you wait too long to add a first class?” If we are being honest, there’s only one correct answer, which is OF COURSE. Like, unarguably, JetBlue was at least years late, if not a decade late, to introducing first class. That’s not even Geraghty’s fault, it’s that previous CEO Robin Hayes was perhaps one of the least focused CEOs the US airline industry has ever seen.
Geraghty’s answer, though, was “I don’t think we’ve waited too long, we’ve had Mint for a very long time, it just takes time with some of these products to roll them out.” I get it — nobody wants to be, like “we screwed up and waited too long, but I mainly blame the guy before me.”
Seriously, though, if she really doesn’t think JetBlue waited too long to commit to introducing first class, then I’d question how observant the executive team has been of the industry. I mean, Frontier announced it would introduce first class before JetBlue, which should tell you all you need to know. Oh, and Frontier will even have divider, even if it doesn’t have recline, food, or drinks!
Also, the below screen grab from the interview gave me a chuckle…
Bottom line
JetBlue’s BlueFirst class is entering service soon, which is exciting. I’m a huge fan of JetBlue, and I think historically they’ve done a great job with both their hard and soft product, and have great attention to detail. So I’m just a bit puzzled as to how they came to the conclusion that there was no need to introduce a cabin divider between first class and economy.
It’s not about “privacy,” or anything like that, but instead it’s about trying to minimize foot traffic, and people congregating in the aisle waiting for the lavatory. You don’t want to pay extra to sit in first class, only to have people standing in the aisle the entire flight waiting to use the bathroom.
JetBlue will be the first airline in the US with first class to not have any sort of a cabin divider, and I can’t make sense of that.
What do you make of JetBlue’s odd cabin divider decision?
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