Some of you might have heard announcement of upcoming changes coming to JetBlue.
For those of you that fly JetBlue, you’ll soon be paying to check a bag and will also be losing precious leg room at a later date.
This bad news prompted me to write the post JetBlue To Charge For Terra Blues Chips.
In yesterday’s post I covered the changes being made along with my questions related to the future of JetBlue…
Apparently JetBlue came across one of my tweets yesterday.
Since JetBlue’s Twitter team seemed to be playing along with the (bad?) humor in my post, I decided to Tweet back.
So according to JetBlue, none of my predictions (from my post) would be happening- Terra Blues will remain complimentary and JetBlue will well how do I say it best- remain blue and not go further towards the green.
Here is my last tweet which JetBlue responded to:
JetBlue tweeted me a link to a note from Robin Hayes, the airline’s president.
The note explains the reason behind the upcoming changes and makes it sound like it is being done to help us. By charging us to check a bag, it will allow JetBlue to maintain its competitive edge. But who is paying for this? Obviously us!
When it comes to losing some of our leg room (and the airline adding additional seats on planes), this change is sugar-coated with a graphic showing how JetBlue still offers the most leg room in coach by a significant margin.
The seat-pitch will go from 34.7 inches to 33.1. Virgin was the closest competitor with 32.6.
The bottom line is whether or not JetBlue still offers more leg room than others, it is still shrinking. And when it comes to baggage fees, offering different fare bundle options will still bring added costs for those wanting to check a bag.
There are a few positives:
- Free Fly-Fi- what JetBlue says is “the industry’s fastest connectivity product”.
- (Supposedly) more comfortable seats
- Improved 100+ channels of DirecTV
Let’s hear what you think about JetBlue’s upcoming changes.
I’m willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of you will not be happy about what’s going on over at JetGreen, I mean JetBlue!
Sue- Glad to hear that you won’t stick to loyalty with them. JetBlue should know how loyal customers feel about the changes being made although I doubt they’d really care much…
I was loyal to Jet Blue, I loved the extra leg room and first bag free. I’m 6 feet tall and always booked Jet Blue even if a competitor was cheaper. They have just evened the playing field. I will go for the lowest fare from now on, and get rid of my Jet Blue credit card:(
Dave- The things you don’t want to pay for JetBlue was including. How are you OK with these changes now? I agree that the average person does not want to pay more for legroom, bag fees or much else but… When JetBlue prided itself (so to speak) on the most legroom and free bags and its now gone- what will they take away/ charge for next?
Michael- I agree and what is loyalty? Airlines aren’t to us! I’ve always looked for cheapest, best schedule or best flights using miles. To me status just isn’t that important.
Now, instead of standing out, Jetblue will be like every other crappy airline. So if that’s the case, I will no longer be loyal to them, and instead, choose based on schedule and price.
As a frequent Jetblue flier, I am fine with these changes. The majority of Americans, myself included, don’t want to pay more for extra leg room or a checked bag. Jetblue has to maintain competitiveness in the market and this is how they will do it. I also am Boston based and it is essential for Logan that Jetblue continue to have a large presence at the airport so I am happy to trade almost two inches of leg room and a free checked bag (which I rarely use) for Jetblue’s long term presence at Logan.