Background
I’ve never personally attempted to gather a JetBlue Mint upgrade at the airport, but I decided to try this time! JetBlue generally has discounted day-of-departure upgrades, where they will generally have lower-priced upgrades to Mint starting three hours before the flight. Based on data from other customers posting online, a transcontinental flight can be upgraded anywhere between $300 and $800 over the economy fare.
I was flying from San Francisco (SFO) to New York (JFK), and on my ride to the airport I saw that purchasing a new cash ticket dropped to $1,059 in the Mint cabin, and there were 5 seats left, with less than 3 hours until departure. I had a pretty decent feeling about this and was hoping for a $500-ish or so upgrade cost.
At the check-in desk, I walked up and asked what it would cost to upgrade into Mint. The agent quoted me $1,099.
A bit puzzled, I asked, “So to book a new ticket, it’s showing $1,059? So it’s better that I cancel this ticket and rebook to save money?”
She goes, “Yeah, I guess so; the computer sets this pricing.”
$1,059 for a new ticket, or $1,099 to upgrade my existing ticket…
Not sure if the price had changed, I searched again on the JetBlue app on my way to security, and still a brand new, standalone Mint ticket on that same flight was sitting at $1,059….how odd.
The thing that’s supposed to be the discounted, opportunistic “we’d rather have this seat filled than empty” option was $40 more expensive than buying a new Mint ticket outright. Wait, what? So weird to me.
Anyway, I decided I shouldn’t really bother given how short the flight was (sub 6 hours), but I was curious to check if anything would change at boarding.
Same Result at Boarding
At boarding, it looks like they were selling 3 Mint seats, and after clicking away at the computer, the exact same result.
“Looks like the upgrade cost is going for $1,099”.
Interesting. So I guess the upgrade price was generated independently of the sellable fare, and on this particular day, for this particular flight, the math just didn’t add up.
I did the only rational thing: I didn’t upgrade. I would have just canceled the economy fare and booked the $1,059 Mint ticket fresh if I had to fly in Mint. Having tried the Classic Mint product numerous times, I enjoy the product, but would rather be 1k richer today *wink*.
The Verdict
If you’re chasing a day-of JetBlue Mint upgrade, looks like you won’t necessarily score a deal. You probably should pull up the website and check what a standalone ticket costs on that same flight *before* you say yes. This was just a good reminder that JetBlue’s pricing systems are perfectly capable of contradicting themselves.
Alas, I flew home in economy. The Mint cabin, presumably, flew home slightly emptier than it needed to. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like when I boarded & deplanned, one to two seats remained empty. At least the economy legroom is quite good!
Have you scored a good deal on a day-of-departure JetBlue Mint Upgrade? Share your experience below!
Happy travels,
Ty
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