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SmarterTravel.com awarded its 2011 “Best Coach Class Experience” to JetBlue Airways. We may be biased, as JetBlue is big in our part of the country, the Northeastern United States. There are many advantages to JetBlue travel that we wish other airlines would adopt.
For example, JetBlue operates A320s with 150 seats. This allows them not only to offer their “Even More Legroom” seats, but their smallest seats offer a 34″ pitch, which is greater than industry standard. They offer a choice of six snacks, beverages, and in flight TV. Other airlines are ahead in wi-fi deployment, which JetBlue will start next year.
JetBlue charges a $100 change fee, which is comparable with many low-cost carriers, and lower than the legacy carriers average domestic change fee of $150. It is, however, a lesser known fact that if your fare is less than $100, the change fee is only $50.
They also have an unadvertised fare reduction policy. Many carriers, in the event a fare goes down, will give you a credit. However, they deduct the value of the change fee from the credit. With high change fees, this could eliminate any benefit of the policy.
Their standby policy allows you to standby free of charge for the flight immediately preceding yours, and for a fee for flights earlier in the day.
This is all about fees. JetBlue has added fees since its start. But the majority of them are designed to be value-added, not charging for things that were formerly complementary, which is a philosophy we can agree with.
What else is it about them that is unique? They don’t oversell flights. Most airlines overbook by a third, meaning a distinct possibility passengers will be denied boarding and counting on passengers not to show up. JetBlue seems to fill its flights fairly well without this practice.
It is why, of late, JetBlue has been our preferred airline. There are other good airlines, ones we admire, but in our neck of the woods, no other offers the volume of nonstop flights to our desired destinations.
Related articles
- 2011 Smartertravel awards (consumertraveler.com)
- JetBlue Airways swings to a first-quarter profit (marketwatch.com)
- JetBlue Airways Corporation Announces Redemption of its 3.5% and 3.75% Convertible Notes (prnewswire.com)
