Adlerdriver

5? Guess I didn't know that. Sounds like a Fedex airbus. What's the story there? Pilots on the F/A jumpseats or do you have a JB cockpit mod?

deltabound

I thought JetBlue was like Airtran . . . no overbooking, ever. So oversales aren't a problem.

They usually have seats on everything a couple of days out though. If they stipulate 72 hours pre-booking notice they should do just fine.

Hard to believe they'll make any money with this though. The only people who'll bite will be the passengers who were planning on spending more that $599 anyway.

I don't see a whole lot of upside other than filling your airplanes to capacity; and lets face it, everyone else on the plane is already tired of being jammed in like sardines.

buffmike80

Pilots can sit in the FA jumpseats, on the airbus we have 3 extra FA jumpseats and 2 flightdeck, on the E190 we have 1 extra FA jump and 1 flightdeck. The only catch is that FA's have priority over those jumpseats the reason being that they can not sit up in the FD.

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buffmike80

You are right we do not overbook, so that will not be a problem, and with the 72 hour deal these are seats that most likely would have gone out empty anyways, Sept-Oct is our lowest point of the year so they are just trying to make some extra revenue on and otherwise slow season. As far as "being jammed in like sardines" you forget that we have the most leg room in coach, I have never heard a single pax ever complain about leg room or ever feeling like a sardine.

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deltabound

Ahem. Well, I WOULD, but since you're graciously providing me a free ride to work, that wouldn't go over so well.

(For that matter, I've never heard anyone on a Delta flight complain about the seats either. That doesn't mean anyone enjoys sitting in the middle seat though)

You know, the only way this scheme would actually make money is if someone was going to spend, say, $450 on tickets, but thought "What the heck, I'll spend the extra $150 just in case I want to go somewhere else."

Not criticizing here. Just trying to figure out how this really benefits JetBlue. Flying is generally an unpleasant experience in coach; it's like riding public transit in a major city. It's cheap, it gets you there, but it's not exactly something anyone does just for the fun of it.

Cheap fares at least expose people who wouldn't otherwise fly to your particular brand and may generate future business. But this is obviously targeted to people who are already familiar with JB. Good for some press for a while, I guess.

ToiletDuck

An airlines main income is business travelers.... this doesn't seem like a good idea since you'd be letting those that travel daily/weekly go for A LOT less.

CRFguy

I wonder if they'll use this extra dough for our retro checks. Oh man, who am I kidding.

Hey BoB's, how's this direct relationship working out?

jcool411

Whoa! If I didn't have school and wasn't completely broke this would be awesome. Is the company even making a profit off this if people actually go crazy on this like I would?

buffmike80

Considering you would probably take a seat that would have gone out empty anyways its not costing the company more than a soda or a bag of blue chips.

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stamps

JetBlue's target is a lot more "VFR" traffic (Visting Friends & Relatives) than business travelers.

When it comes down to it, it's a creative way to gin up some extra cash for September, which is historically a very tough month for JB (again - exposure to the leisure market over business).

On their last earnings call, Dave Barger discussed how the booking window is closer in than ever before (possibly because airlines have upped change fees). So, it'll be interesting to see how this plays with a closer-in window as well.