First JetBlue Mint Experience
2019 is going to be a year of A LOT of travel for me. And not the boring stuffy sit in a conference room type of travel. Last year I focused on other things and only managed to escape for 3-4 weeks of travel. It was still much more travel than the average American (I am so blessed), but far less than I am used to. That needs to change.
Beginning next week I’ll be on the road almost nonstop for the next few months. In fact, you’ll start seeing a ton of posts about my travels beginning next week as I start these adventures where else but Disneyland! Anyway, after I jump around the world for a bit, I’ll come back home and then later in the summer I’ll be back to riding coasters.
My friend Dave and I are heading back East for some road tripping, coaster riding and seafood eating. Better yet, we are heading up to where he is from in Connecticut so he can finally take me to eat some New Haven Pizza. I can’t wait.
Getting There
Dave and I have traveled quite a lot together including on many trips in the U.S. and even on a two week coaster adventure in China in 2017. Since he isn’t as much into miles/points as I am, he often pays for a ticket and I use points to cover mine. For example, I redeemed Alaska miles for Hainan Business Class to China while he paid cash for a coach ticket on the same plane. Don’t worry. I did go back to visit him once or twice! I even smuggled some chocolate out of business class for him! 🙂
This time though I wanted to give Dave the premium experience. I mean he is a good guy and he deserves it plus he did let my family and I stay at his DVC unit on property at Walt Disney World last year as well. So, he earned it and since I earned a decent number of JetBlue TrueBlue points during their now defunct Amazon 3X shopping experiment we can do it!
A Mintastic Flight
JetBlue has been flying their premium Mint product to/from Las Vegas for several years now. They started with just New York JFK and now also fly the service between LAS-BOS as well. And Boston is a perfect place to start a trip like ours, especially considering I have never been to that airport.
And the prices aren’t bad either for the direct flight:
There is also a 10am flight that was the same price, but leaving on this early flight will give us time to do something when we arrive. Early flights suck, but they aren’t nearly as bad at the beginning of a trip, especially when flying in a lie flat seat!
Booking the Tickets
JetBlue has a revenue based system for points redemptions meaning the cost in points is directly related to the cash price of the ticket. In this case the cost of a Mint ticket is $549. That equates to a cost of 41,400 points + $5.60 per person. Not bad for what you get.
Scoring the Suites!
It’s complicated to explain, but JetBlue’s Mint class has 16 seats. 12 seats are in a standard four across formation while the other 4 seats have a door, are fully enclosed and have much more privacy. (See Bethany’s review for an idea on the layout and seats.) Thankfully all of the seats were available for choosing when I booked, so yes we will be flying in private suites on a domestic flight! How awesome!
Revenue Based Good or Bad?
While there is a lot to be said about revenue based programs, they can have their good moments. Revenue based programs largely eliminate sweet spots and loopholes that are the bread and butter of the miles/points game, but in situations like this where there is a good cash fare, you can really come out ahead. I still like the old way of doing things, but don’t always hate the new way either.
Conclusion
This year is really shaping up to be awesome and I hope to share most of it with you. From the streets of Singapore to coasters of New England I’ll be doing more of what I love most, traveling the globe in style for pennies on the dollar. JetBlue Mint certainly fits within that scope and I can’t wait to finally experience it for myself!
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I personally don’t fly JetBlue unless I absolutely have to. Their cancellations and delays are more than every other airline except for Frontier, according to the DOT. ( Today 34% of all JetBlue flights were delayed and yesterday 33% of their flights were delayed.)
And they have a philosophy of cancelling flights 24 – 48 hours in advance if there is the possibility of inclement weather. JetBlue did this to me in January, there was a chance of snow so 48 hours in advance, they cancelled 3 out of the 4 flights that day going to West Palm Beach. At the end, it turned out that it didn’t even snow that day and not a single other airline cancelled a single flight that day. Because they cancelled so many flights, they weren’t even able to rebook me for another 2.5 days. I ended up having to buy a last minute flight on United for myself and my mother and flew the exact day only 20 minutes later than the original flight that JetBlue cancelled. Ended up paying an extra $650 because of JetBlue.
It was only after this happened to me that I went online and found out that this is a consistent theme done by JetBlue.
So even though I have around 40,000 TrueBlue points left, is it worth it to book with them if you end up having to pay 3 times as much when they cancel you for no reason at the last second?
Nice! Make sure to post pictures from the parks. Ride Boulder Dash at Lake Compounce for me. It one of the best wooden roller coaster that I have ever ridden. I also loved Wicked Cyclone at Six Flags New England and I would say that it was better than Superman.
We might have to skip Compounce on this trip due to timing issues, but I have been there 3 times. I love Boulder Dash! As for SFNE, I haven’t been since Wicked Cyclone was put in so I am excited and I love Superman too.
Enjoy your Mint flights! My wife and I have flown the LAS-JFK route several times and my wife has flown LAS-BOS on Mint and every time it has been exceptional. The “suite” seats are really great. Hopefully you get a non “Compost” cookie as your parting gift!