I disagree. It's been in the works for a while, but they arent going so give rumors any credit until they're ready to announce. The potato farm are a bunch or morons.

Some of those guys don’t know the difference between an emergency assignment and a disruption. Or the weekly question on whether this reassignment triggers EPS. Yet they have all the answers to the test when it comes to running the airline…..just ask them.

Lmao that’s so true. I left the group a while ago because I realized it was bad for my health.

Literally laughing out loud 😂. Spot on .

I'm not on the farm but holy crap, that's the most accurate description of pilots I've read yet LOL

except didn’t they do just that by half way announcing it today?

They gave credit to the rumor and said “yes it’s coming but, we really don’t even have hard plans for it yet, you can’t see what it looks like because it’s a secret, but I swear the first seats are coming in 18 months”


I think it’s great. I just think it about 2 years late and will be 3.5 by the time the first seats arrive arrives.

Domestic first and shrinking the seat pitch in coach the same as AA definitely feels like something we would do to make a merger easier.

We won't have anything to differentiate ourselves from our competitors except our abysmal on time performance and complete lack of a route network.

On an unrelated note AK just anounced non stop service from Seattle to Japan on their new wide body fleet.

Fixed a minor error. That notwithstanding THATS a company that knows where the money is, and is headed in the right direction.

To be fair, it's not domestic Mint.

Mint is a specific brand and product that is really clearly defined. This is not that. Calling it "mini mint" or "junior mint" (and yes, I've done it) really does sort of dilute the brand.

One of the things this company does well is product marketing/branding (not to be confused with advertising) and while they're sorting things out with the seats, they're likely preparing the package for this new product.

What I'd really like to see is the next 20 A220s we're getting to be delivered with the new seats instead of doing a retrofit. I don't know if that's possible, but it would be kinda cool.

Also - calling it knee-jerk is, I think, inaccurate; it's been the worst-kept secret for a long time, and it takes a while to get all the moving parts in place to do a project like this. They had a bunch of stuff to get clear of so they could pay for this.

The way the email was worded is that it will be an in-house retrofit. So hopefully pretty easy. Now, who knows what kind of additional service they will add to this class, and if it will require, at the minumim, fridges or ovens. That may complicate things.

Now is the perfect time to email your representatives to advocate for including Mint deadheading in the negotiations.

The CBA curvey was the place for this, but if you missed it, don't waste time emailing your reps - send a CBA suggestion PDR.

For those thinking the domestic first class announcement was a knee-jerk reaction, internal documents/proposal says otherwise. This was being worked on atleast as far as the first half of this year with a target decision wrap up date by August this year.

Collins, Recaro, or Acro

We are hired to fly planes, let's not act like we know what goes on in their office. I don't know much either, I just happen to come across reliable info on the plan.

The announcement wasnt so much knee jerk as it felt forced by the rest of the industries moves.

The project has been going on forever, and that’s the problem. The seat they picked isn’t even certified yet and according to that same reliable plan you came across, the first one won’t even arrive until mid 2026.

It is still the right move, it just should have been made at least a year ago.

Agreed seems like mgmt is riding on the coattails of F9 even after they first announced the spirit merger. They open SJU base we decide to do the same. They go to ISP we serve ISP. They announce premium seating we announce premium seating.

I don’t agree.

What are you seeing is our MGMT respond to competition in the marketplace. F9 came to SJU to beat JBU, JBU responded. JBU is going to ISP in an effort to retain loyalty.

I don’t believe for one second that JBU takes cues from F9.

I gotta disagree. We've had a premium product for years now. Frontiers premium seating looks like it'll be 4 "big seats" similar to what Spirit did on their flights. That's not first class, that's just an option to not have to be shoehorned into the other seats.

Based on what the company releases say we're expanding on our seperate classes of cabin. I would assume there will be a divider between our first class seats and the rest of economy just like we have now with our Mint aircraft. Frontier is dipping their toe into selling a few upgraded seats. We're riding the legacy model coattails if anything.

The local political changes in PR that made airline basing more feasible went into effect Jan 2024, and F9 was faster to respond and add a base but I would agree that JB had been looking at this for years. We've been the largest carrier in SJU for a decade. They likely had a hand in lobbying for these changes in the first place.

JB didn't do SJU base because F9 did it. The rules changed in PR and F9 just beat us to the announcements.

We didn't go to ISP because F9 was there(F9 has been there since 2017). Isn't Southwest there too? Why is the argument not made that we followed Southwest too? We have loyalty customers there, hence why those flights have been doing great right out the gate.

Premium seats? Again, F9 just beat us to the announcement. Rumor of this has been going on since this summer about JB "mini Mint"

that’s a bingo

So basically the “big front seats” that spirit was doing?

I agree, I HIGHLY doubt a company in cost saving mode and short aircraft is going to start doing big equipment list changes and galley reconfigurations.

And yet they are opening 2 lounges. Not even just one. It’s like some people here would rather see them do absolutely nothing. You know how you get out of cost saving mode? Make money.

Barclays is paying for the two lounges.

Supermid said "it’s a last minute knee-jerk reaction" and others (not here) have been saying the same. I would disagree since "last minute knee-jerk" wouldn't have those proposals that has been getting updated throughout this year.

I would also say the last few years was focused on the M&A with NK. I doubt there would be any execution of "plan B" if "plan A" went through. We would've had other bigger plans and first class seat would've gone on the back burner. So I don't think it's reasonable to say that they should've annouced this a year or 2 ago when bigger things were in play.

I have not read anything by anyone here or elsewhere recommending the company does nothing, not sure where you’re going there.

The lounges are a good idea and I hope it succeeds, execution will be critical.

It seems pretty obvious that these announcements are timed to help shape market sentiment. You don't tell the world that you're spending a bunch of cash on fleet upgrades, etc. when you just told them you're losing millions of dollars. You wait until later in the year when the infinitesimal attention spans have moved on, then the market will reward you for decisively responding to shifting consumer demand, rather than punish you for failing to execute effective cost saving initiatives, or whatever.

I’m not doubting you because I don’t know much about that kind of thing, but wasn’t there talk for a while that they weren’t going to because of the high costs?

The speculation on this forum is interesting and I think we will see some changes soon…

I could see SWA taking a hard look at JetBlue in the near future. They honestly could compliment each other well with the network and aircraft. Plus, AS is busy merging with Hawaiian and I doubt the DOJ will allow 3 mergers at once.

Very long term, I can see Delta, American, United, and Southwest eventually merging with the rest of the LCCs and just leaving primarily 4 major airlines.

I believe United will merge/aquire with Spirit before they go with JetBlue. Kirby has already been talking about Spirit for a while.

Agreed, I don’t think it is crazy to see UA make a move for NK. That would set off another round of consolidation for all the big players. DL/F9? AA/JB? WN/AS?

My money is still on Alaska at some point during this administrations term. It would coast through most regulation hurdles. I think Icahn and that other investor that jumped in recently are cost around $6ish. I could see them wanted to cash out via merger/acquisition and walk w/ the bag at 2-3x. These guys are too smart to want to hold onto airline stock long term. To be honest it would probably be better for all employees long term. To be folded into a full service national network. Jb, no profits for 6+ years, hoping to just break even 2025. We need to be cranking out 100’s of millions of dollars in profit per quarter for the next 5+ years just to keep this train running long term. An East coast only airline just isn't built for long term survivability/profitability. Way too many obstacles.. wx, atc, costs, competition. We have no real advantage over any carrier to charge a premium. I certainly hope jetforward works and I’m wrong.

Agree 100% on the need for a merger, and I think AS is a likely partner, but it will all depend on what happens with NK. I don’t think anything will happen to us until NK gets settled with either F9 or someone else. If NK/UA happens then that means all of the Big 4 will need a bite at the apple.

I also think JB needs to show some profits so potential partners know we aren’t going into Ch11 (no bargain basement deals).

AS has a lot of work on the Hawaiian buyout before going after another airline. Joint CBA, single operating cerrtificate, SLI, going from a single type to five, long haul augmented flying, The Amazon freighter contract, etc.
The market is happy so far according to the stock price.