With much fanfare, New York based airline JetBlue unveiled its new transatlantic Mint business class seating on 1 February. The media and bloggers slobbered with excitement over the new product, which is a little uncalled for. I guess it has been a slow news year.
Flyers have always generally disliked herringbone seats which face the aisle. The VantageSolo seat from Thompson Aero mitigates this somewhat by having the seat entry parallel to the aisle, but good luck if you want to see out a window.
Transatlantic Mint
There are two types of seat, the Mint Suite and the Mint Studio, which is located at row one and has more space and a bigger entertainment screen. There is nothing game changing here, the seat converts to a bed, has a shelf for devices, features a 17″ screen, and has laptop, shoe and handbag storage. I would expect that, really.
Here’s What The Game Changer Will Be
JetBlue’s original Mint business class, used on transcontinental flights in the USA, reduced fares markedly when compared to the existing airlines. In fact, I’ve been sorely tempted on more than one occasion to give them a whirl as the prices are so good. The only thing that stopped me was the lack of frequent flyer benefits, so I always went with American Airlines instead.
The New York airline opening transatlantic flights should result in disruptive pricing. You never get flights from London to the USA and back in business class for under £1,000 for example. You would be very hard pressed to get returns from Dublin to the USA and back for under €1,800 with Aer Lingus, who charge an arm and a leg for their (admittedly, very good) business class.
I would be a price taker (and screw my frequent flyer points, status and alliance) at anything under €800 return. That is good value for transatlantic business class. Luckily JetBlue’s service is also highly rated, so booking with them at prices like that would be a no brainer.
Overall Thoughts
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very pleased that JetBlue will be contesting the transatlantic market. From what I hear, the airline hits the mark when it comes to service and quality at an affordable price. While I don’t think the seat is a game changer, it certainly is a modern design, spacious and will do the job admirably.
As I’ve mentioned, it’s all about that price point. People will flock to JetBlue if the price is right. Everything else already is right, such as the airlines brand positioning and reputation, on board service, and so on. The price will likely be right, so that makes this a very exciting thing to watch as time progresses.
What do you think of the new JetBlue transatlantic Mint product? Will you be flying them across the pond? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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i hope they don’t change the domestic product. the franz kafka cubicles in rows 2 and 5 are like nothing else, except maybe emirates or etihad first class.
There’s been no mention of any changes to the domestic product, so I think it’s safe to say they’ll be staying. They sure are popular! Other airlines have the same seat, such as Aer Lingus and Swiss, but none have the door that JetBlue has.
Another (potential) benefit would be AA’s code-share agreement with JetBlue. Whether B6’s TATL operations will be covered when tagged to an AA domestic flight is yet to be seen, but AA’s international ops out of JFK will see some FF benefits so it may be possible in the future to earn points/miles on B6 and redeem them on AA. The full details of their alliance are still a bit murky to me, but once implemented I fully expect to see some additional perks thrown into the mix.
I think the prevailing feeling is that there won’t be any codeshare across the Atlantic, as AA is in a joint venture with British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Aer Lingus. They would have to apply to add JetBlue and I don’t think B6 would want to be in it as it’s a revenue and cost sharing joint venture and presumably they would be disadvantaged by that. You never know though! I’d choose B6 over AA any day of the week if I had the choice.