JetBlue introduces fresh Mint but others unlikely to follow

Although the premium service has been a signal success at low-cost JetBlue, its wildly-popular lie-flat seat concept probably won’t fly with most LCCs. That’s because ‘Mint’ is designed to attract business travelers, corporate types. “Mint’s been very disruptive, especially in the[US] trans-continental market,” says noted aviation consultant and former American Airlines executive Robert W. Mann,  president of Port Washington, New York-based R.W. Mann and Company. “It’s disrupted premium pricing where American, Delta or United compete with them." Read: Air New Zealand, JetBlue to foster travel innovation. The minting of the front cabins on JetBlue’s Airbus A321s is the product of largely of corporate flyers who live in the U.S. northeast. “It reflects [the fact] that an increasing amount of JetBlue’s business, especially in Boston and New York, is business,”  says Mann. JetBlue has been courting corporate passengers largely since the airline made the move to the Sabre ticket distribution system. Mann says the shift to corporate ridership was made “to compensate for the relatively higher distribution costs they now have by virtue of selling seats  [via] Sabre.” He believes that move to Sabre helps JetBlue command “a higher natural share of premium bookings than would a Spirit or Frontier”. So, unless Spirit or Frontier was to think differently about corporate travel marketing and sales, they would be an unlikely adaptor of a premium-type product.” The two LCCs already sell extra space aboard their A319s and A320. Spirit’s entry is the Big Front Seat, a 22-inch wide, with a 36-inch pitch. Frontier also offers extra leg room. Neither carrier pretends their service remotely resembles Mint. No gourmet tapas, no cappuccino machine, no artisanal ice cream. Most of all, no lie-flats Mint is taking off for a dozen cities from its JFK hub and nine from Boston-- counting the latest winter addition of three Saturday-only Mint destinations. These include JFK-Liberia, Costa Rica on December 15, BOS-St. Lucia November 3, JFK-St. Maarten February 16, 2019, and Boston-St. Maarten on February 16. Mint flights to sun  and fun destinations such as these sop frequent flyer miles accumulated by business travelers, says Mann. Travelers earn and burn miles on the same airline.