A321s Archives - TravelSkills

Delta, JetBlue lay on more lie-flat seats, but…

March 25, 2017

Rendering of Delta’s lie flat seating on transcon 757s. (Image: Delta)

Last week, we reported that more airlines are bringing front cabins with flat-bed seating to transcontinental routes out of Boston; and now Delta and JetBlue are bringing more enhanced service to other coast-to-coast routes.

Delta said that not only will it offer front cabin seats that lie flat on its upcoming new routes between Boston-San Francisco and Washington Reagan National-Los Angeles; it will also give those routes the full transcon treatment that it offers from New York to SFO and LAX. Meanwhile, JetBlue has set the starting dates for expansion of its premium cabin Mint service to more transcon markets.

The 757-200s that Delta will start flying between DCA-LAX once a day on May 24 and BOS-SFO twice a day on June 8 will have a Delta One cabin with full flat-bed seats “as well as enhanced amenities throughout…the aircraft,” Delta said.

But there’s a downside to this lie-flat goodness: Delta will no longer offer complimentary upgrades to first class on these routes. Delta medallions get free upgrades to Delta Comfort and Delta First, but not to Delta One.

First class lie-flat seats in Delta’s BOS-SFO 757-200 starting in June. (Image: Delta)

The Delta One flat seats will come with Westin Heavenly In-Flight bedding; enhanced in-fight dining with “chef-curated menus served on Alessi serviceware;” wines that change seasonally; a dedicated flight attendant for the front cabin; power ports and USB outlets; seatback screens with free entertainment; noise-canceling headphones; and a Tumi amenity kit. Delta One customers on the new routes will also get Sky Club access and priority check-in and baggage handling.

As previously announced, passengers in Delta Comfort and Main Cabin seats will get the same free meals that Delta is introducing on other transcon routes, and Delta Comfort flyers will get a pre-arrival snack, free alcoholic drinks and a frozen yogurt bar, along with a modest amenity kit.

A private suite in JetBlue’s Mint cabin. (Image: JetBlue)

Meanwhile, Routesonline.com reports that JetBlue has set starting dates for the deployment of Mint-equipped A321s on more transcon routes.

On August 15, JetBlue will put Mint service onto one of its two daily JFK-San Diego flights, extending it to the second daily flight on October 19. Boston-San Diego will get Mint service on one daily flight beginning December 10, and on the second by December 20. JetBlue’s three daily JFK-Las Vegas flights will see Mint service on one flight starting November 6 and on a second effective November 10.

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Routes: Delta, United, Alaska, Southwest, Spirit

November 16, 2016

The interior of Delta’s new Airbus A321. (Image; Delta)

In domestic route developments, Delta will put new aircraft types on routes to San Francisco, Portland and San Diego; Alaska adds a couple of transcontinental markets; Southwest grows at Austin and Denver; and Spirit jumps into four Ohio-Florida markets.

Delta this year started to take delivery of new Airbus A321s, and according to Routesonline.com, customers in San Francisco and Portland will start to see them in 2017. The site said Delta’s advance schedule shows the new plane being introduced on a few of its many San Francisco-Atlanta flights starting in early March, and replacing the 737-900ER on its Portland-Detroit service starting in June. Delta said the A321s will feature big, pivoting overhead bins; next-generation seats in all three seating categories; large entertainment screens; USB and power ports; and LED lighting that changes with the phase of flight. (The A321 is the plane that seems to be replacing the aging Boeing 757, which is no longer being made.)

Meanwhile, following the recent news that JetBlue plans to extend its front-cabin Mint service onto the New York-San Diego route next August, thepointsguy.com reports that Delta apparently will be putting a 757 with front-cabin lie-flat seats onto one daily flight in the same market effective in June 2017. (Update: Airlineroute.net tells us that Delta had this aircraft on a SAN-JFK flight this past summer as well.) It’s the same aircraft type Delta uses for the lucrative JFK-San Francisco/Los Angeles routes. JetBlue has embarked on a long-term expansion of Mint service onto more transcon routes. Similarly, United has deployed a couple widebody B777-200s on SFO-BOS (but with standard first, not lie-flat) to take on JetBlue’s Mint expansion.

Alaska Airlines is adding more transcontinental flights. (Image: Alaska Air)

Speaking of San Diego and transcontinental routes, Alaska Airlines just announced a new one: The carrier said it will begin daily roundtrips between San Diego and Baltimore/Washington International starting March 15. The eastbound leg will be a red-eye. Alaska already flies to BWI from Los Angeles and Seattle, and its other San Diego transcons include Boston, Orlando, and new service to Newark starting next week. Last week, Alaska also kicked off a new daily roundtrip between Portland and Newark. Next spring, Alaska will start San Jose-Newark service as well. In other news, Alaska just began weekly seasonal service on Saturdays between Bellingham, Washington and Kona, Hawaii.

Southwest Airlines will begin new service on March 13 linking Kansas City with Austin, offering one daily roundtrip. Southwest also plans to expand its limited service between Denver and Albany, N.Y. The airline currently flies that route on weekends only, and just on a seasonal basis, but on April 25 it will make Denver-Albany a year-round route with daily flights.

Spirit Airlines has added Ohio’s Akron-Canton Airport as the newest dot on its route map. Last week, Spirit launched daily flights from Akron-Canton to Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale and Ft. Myers. The Tampa and Ft. Myers routes will be seasonal only. Next spring, Spirit will add seasonal flights from Akron-Canton to Myrtle Beach and year-round service to Las Vegas.

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JetBlue lie-flat seats coming to an airport near you?

July 26, 2016

More of JetBlue’s new A321s will come equipped with Mint cabins. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Claiming that its premium-cabin Mint service has “opened up a new market untapped by other carriers,” JetBlue said this week it has big long-term plans to keep expanding Mint to new markets beyond those it has already announced. But will it succeed?

The company said it has amended its long-term purchase agreement with Airbus to bring even more new A321s to its fleet, many of them configured with Mint premium cabins. By the end of this year, JetBlue said, it will have 17 Mint-equipped A321s; by 2017, it will have 31.

Equipped with lie-flat seats and offering “curated” food and amenities and “hospitality trained” flight attendants, JetBlue’s Mint service was initially introduced on the New York JFK-Los Angeles and JFK-San Francisco routes to give business travelers a lower-cost alternative to the lie-flat premium seating in specially-configured aircraft operated by American, Delta and United on those two key transcontinental routes (United last fall moved its p.s. transcon service from JFK to Newark).

JetBlue has big plans for expanding its Mint service. (Image: JetBlue)

JetBlue will add Mint to these cities, and eventually even more(Image: JetBlue)

And apparently the experiment has worked: JetBlue said that since it introduced Mint in 2014, routes that offer the premium service have become some of its most profitable. “Revenue per available seat mile on Mint routes has grown 20 percent since 2014, and Mint has helped attract new corporate clients and west coast point of sale,” the company said.

JetBlue recently added Mint to transcontinental flights between Boston and San Francisco, and will bring it to Boston-LAX flights this fall. This past spring, the carrier said it will expand Mint service over the next two years to even more transcontinental markets, including Seattle-Boston, Seattle-JFK, San Francisco-Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles-Ft. Lauderdale and Las Vegas-JFK. It has also started adding Mint service on a few select Caribbean routes from New York and Boston.

Have you flown Mint yet? Check out our Trip Report here!

JetBlue’s Mint class offers upgraded meals. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

In announcing the addition of more Mint-equipped A321s to its fleet, JetBlue didn’t reveal any more new routes for the service, although it suggested it may add more frequencies to existing LAX and SFO transcon routes. But citing its success in “outperforming competitors” on Mint’s existing routes, it said that “transcontinental markets outside of New York and Los Angeles are prime for similar disruption. For example, only 5 percent of transcontinental flights over 1,800 miles consistently offer regularly scheduled lie-flat seats.”

According to Bloomberg, JetBlue is considering using its new tranche of planes for trans-Atlantic flights.

This makes us wonder: How many markets of more than 1,800 miles can support front cabins with lie-flat seats, and how many more customers will be willing and able to ante up the fare premium? Is JetBlue trying to position itself for a future transcon battle not against the Big Three but against a combined Alaska-Virgin America? Neither of those airlines has true lie-flat premium seats on transcon routes, and although Virgin is said to be planning a first class refit, lie-flat seats are apparently not part of those plans.

Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, Alaska hasn’t yet figured out whether to keep operating Virgin as a separate brand, or two fully merge the two – and if so, how?

A JetBlue Mint seat in full recline (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Meanwhile, as JetBlue expands its transcon front cabins, will it be able to maintain a cost savings over the premium service of its Big Three competitors? Even now, that advantage appears to be eroding. A random check of premium cabin prices between JFK and LAX for mid-September finds JetBlue’s Mint in the same general space as the Big Three, with roundtrip fares ranging from roughly $1,150 to $1,600.

In other news, JetBlue said that it expects to grow significantly at California’s Long Beach Airport, adding nine new daily flights there starting in the fourth quarter of this year. It didn’t say where the new flights will operate from Long Beach, but it noted those routes will not offer Mint service.

So what do you think? Would you fly JetBlue if it brought Mint to an airport near you? Please leave your comments below.

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