JetBlue Mint Review
Last month JetBlue launched Mint service between San Francisco and Fort Lauderdale. The premium lie-flat experience will be expanding later this year to more domestic and international routes but I was incredibly fortunate that my hometown airport was issued one of the first routes with the Mint product.
JetBlue Mint Review: Seat
JetBlue’s Mint cabin consists of a total of 16 seats spread across five rows. Rows 1, 3, and 5 are in a 2-2 configuration, while rows 2 and 4 are in a 1-1 configuration and are referred to as ‘Mint Suites’, since they come with a suite door for more privacy.
I booked my Mint ticket 4 months ago so I had no issue reserving 1 of the 4 available ‘Mint Suites’ since I was flying solo. If you’re traveling with a companion you’ll probably want to choose one of the 2×2 rows so you can be side-by-side with your companion, otherwise, you’ll want the private solo suite for a ‘cooler’ experience in my opinion.
Since folks flying Mint board the aircraft before general boarding, I began taking pictures of the cabin and seat immediately upon entering. First thing I noticed was a brand new blanket and a pillow accompanied by a note from the Mint cabin flight attendants, Jessica & Laura.
After a few minutes of getting settled into my seat, Laura came by to ask me if I had traveled in Mint before and since I hadn’t, she took me through the numerous features of the seat.
She also offered me the ‘signature drink’. Despite it being very early in the morning, I couldn’t pass it up.
I then began to play with my seat controls which along with the ability to flatten the seat into a bed, also offers lumbar support and a massage function. There were plenty of compartments to place my belongings and a large armrest by the window for a laptop if I needed.
Beneath the seat controls is the remote for the inflight entertainment system. The remote is simple with basic functions on top and colored video game/playback controls at the bottom.
DirectTV, popular movies and Sirius XM were available for free and I actually ended up playing classical music from Sirius XM after breakfast in hopes of it lulling me to sleep.
Compartments are available to store your personal belongings like your wallet, purse, book or headphones.
Right beside the seat you’ll find power outlets, an individual night light for working or reading and a slot to hold your bottled water (complimentary bottled water included).
JetBlue Mint Review: Amenities
As previously mentioned, Mint passengers get a great pillow and blanket, along with an amenity kit.
Birchbox used to supply the amenity kits for JetBlue but they switched suppliers to NYC luxury cosmetic supplier, Hayward and Hopper. The re-designed kit includes natural lip balms, refreshing towelettes, toothbrush, toothpaste, matching eye mask and other personal care products in their kits.
JetBlue has free wifi for all passengers, or for $9 per hour you can upgrade to high speed internet. I used the normal free wifi from start to finish and found it to be excellent. Better than the Gogo in-flght wifi I’ve tried using when flying American.
JetBlue Mint Review: Food
The catering was delicious. This is the part I was most excited about.
To start I was offered the Mint ‘signature drink’ which was a honey-infused vodka limeade which was refreshing followed by a small cherry pomegranate smoothie. I then grabbed the menu and scanned my brunch options for the flight.
You’re offered five dishes to choose from and can choose up to three. The dishes are a mixture of hot and cold dishes and are all served at once. I wanted a nice mix of items and since I’ve never had chorizo dates or ahi tuna on a flight, I opted for those choices along with fresh fruit.
For dessert everyone was offered raspberry sorbet (which was amazing) from Double Rainbow in San Francisco, a gourmet ice cream brand that has won countless awards for best ice cream in America.
Then throughout the flight, JetBlue’s typical snacks were available at a whim. One of snacks I asked for was Momofuku’s Milk Bar cookie from two-time James Beard award winner Christina Tosi’s Milk Bar bakery.
So good, I asked for a second cookie to take home to my daughters.
JetBlue Mint Review: Service
I became an ‘elite status’ free agent this year after not wanting to qualify for AA Platinum again and recently lost my Mosaic status with JetBlue. Although I now book flights based on time and convenience, I tend to consider JetBlue first over other airlines, even if the cost is a bit higher. Why? Because of JetBlue’s exceptional service standards.
This is where JetBlue shines over the domestic competition. The flight attendants were consistent, serviceable and genuine. At one point, I began conversing with one of the FA’s about her previous airline (one of the 3M’s) and she began telling me how she really loves working for JetBlue. Both crew members had genuine smiles and our captain was a young woman who grinned from ear to ear at me upon boarding, which I thought was awesome.
The feeling I had during the 5 hour transcontinental flight was that if I wanted or needed something from the crew, they would be happy to comply. The service as I expected was top notch, as it almost always is when flying JetBlue.
JetBlue Mint Review: Bottom Line
JetBlue Mint is without question the best value domestic premium cabin product. Pricing starts at $399 and up, depending on the route. I was lucky enough to redeem 33,700 TrueBlue point and thanks to the standard 10% points rebate as a JetBlue Plus Cardholder and the airline’s recent promo of 15% rebate for flights booked using TrueBlue points, I received 25% of my points back for a total points cost of 25,275. A steal!
Having an enclosed private suite with excellent food and drink, solid wifi from gate to gate, useful amenities and reliably excellent service, it’s tough to beat JetBlue Mint for domestic travel. As Mint routing expands, I will look at future possibilities soon of enjoying the ‘Mint Experience’ again.
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
[…] is one of my favorite domestic carriers with decent entertainment offerings, free WiFi, great service and better legroom than most. If they […]
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I like MINT and go out of my way to take it LAX/SFO-BOS. I find it to be 1 of 2 decent options (DL being the other). The Hopper amenity kit is top notch and my current favorite. That being said, the seat is too hard and the massage function has never worked well for me. The only two flaws. Well that and very poor MINT irrops handling, but that’s not related to the product.
I did this exact flight a few weeks ago and returned on AA first. Hands down Mint is the best. The service and food was so much better than my first experience on AA (no surprise). The chorizo date thing was surprisingly good, and the stewards were genuine in their service. The only thing I could fault is the massage function on the chair is way too short. I had to keep pressing it. Love Mint.
Agree about the massage function. I barely used it because it didn’t make a significant impact.