Originally Posted by
ryane946
This seems interesting. JetBlue flies to Oakland. While it is a "low cost airport", most of the business travelers fly out of SFO. United has chosen "premium service" on their SFO-JFK route, offering their P.S. configured 757's with the first class suite, business class, and economy plus. No coach. Maybe 110 seats on an airplane that usually seats 182, and can seat 200. Didn't Song (Delta) used to fly SFO-JFK and SFO-BOS, but stop because it was not a low fare market. I wonder if JetBlue will really succeed with their low cost service.
Another idea, do you think JetBlue is afraid of Virgin America. After all, Virgin America said SFO will be their hub, and SFO-JFK would be their first route. Maybe JetBlue wants to take whatever few low cost customers there are in SFO and take them away from Virgin America before they start operations. Maybe that will be a good thing.
I'm not at all surprised. I'm sure that JetBlue has been quietly working behind the scenes to try to gain SFO's low cost carrier market before Virgin America gets approval to fly. United's Premium Service (P.S. 757) is very popular with business travelers so I doubt they will lose those folks to JetBlue. They may take some of United's leisure market, but I suspect a loyalty amongst UAL's P.S. business passengers.