Im surprised they don’t have a base in Chicago

As a former Spirit employee, I agree!

Maybe they should merge with Braniff

@@buckyperchski-mc2vo I have said they should go after Southwest.

@@thestrangeman069 what Chicago airport could they do that ? ORD is controlled by AA and UAl and Midway is by SWa. Better off trying to build a base in MKE which has the room for them.

Same

Same

My one JetBlue experience involved our plane arriving on its inbound flight four hours after we were supposed to arrive at our destination, and literally nothing done to make anyone feel better about it. If that's the best service, I'll walk.

Even More Big Front Seat

same here 3 hrs late, due to thunder storms at departure and bad inclement weather at arrival, I dont G a F my plane needs to be on time no matter what, we can fly thru any storm, I don't care if we die i want to get on time @@de-fault_de-fault

With long haul flights- 🤮

@@mirzaahmed6589 I still laugh that Spirit only has those because they were too cheap to replace the old first class seats on second hand aircraft they bought.

It already is relatively affordable for a quality business class product.

Yea its actually really affordable for what it is.

I flew Mint to LHR on an A321neo a few weeks ago, and it was fantastic. While I used a Move to Mint certificate, an RT Mint ticket was around $1600, very reasonable for business class - and a pretty good experience!

They have plans to build lounges

What do you do in a lounge? Sit in a very small crowded space eating free junk food and drinking cheap liquor (worst thing you can do before you fly). I walked into a Centurion lounge with a friend a few weeks ago..we decided the terminal would feel far more spacious at DFW. Food was not really worth eating.

Their business model is rock bottom prices with no amenities.

@@GlennFarrow That’s more like what Spirit and Frontier are. JetBlue always had higher quality service than ULCCs with more legroom and entertainment, but saved by having a streamlined fleet, younger crews, and a smaller route network focusing only on a few big markets. They added Mint business class on some routes in the 2010s nearly 15 years after they started.

Lounges would be a nice feature. But there is so much room for improvement with lounges here in the US as compared to other countries that it really isn’t that worth while - unless you “really” need to. Nowadays its been so crowded and doesn’t give the luxury vibes that it once appeal many. Being from Houston and having the ability to go up north via JetBlue was a great experience. Wished it traveled west, but the notion this video gives provides alternate meaningful ways international east.

Alternatively the ruling saved JetBlue from taking on the Spirit passengers that made that airline into a meme

well, the executives at Spirit don't see to agree with you, that they might go out of business. They claim they're dong great financially, their financial filings don't show them teetering on bankruptcy. Jetblue is not exactly hurting, either. There is a defense in these types of cases, where, if one company is going bankrupt, sometimes you're allowed to buy them up even if it reduces competition, but it's a tough sell. These two companies were _not_ arguing that here. I think they just threaten this thing about "oh, I might go bankrupt!" as a way of shifting blame. It's a very similar game that pharmaceutical companies play, "Oh! If I can't price gouge, then I can't afford to find the cure for cancer!" The idea being, _you_ are the one responsible for this, not _them_ . This ruling cannot cause anyone to go out of business. Business practices cause companies to go out of business.

If this ruling causes them to got out of business then, they should have never agreed to merger in the first place.

Flying business class passengers to secondary airports is quite impossible. They expect to get a connection flight from their destination. Who wants to check out the luggage and then drive to the main airport by taxi.

Chicago is too competitive. United and American are the big airlines there on the international scene, not to mention Southwest is a domestic player at Midway.

@@G-546 I’m saying they should get used to fighting competition in places that you can easily find work arounds to rather than just immediately going into like Amsterdam where there are almost no other options for what airport.

The biggest issue expanding at ORD is lack of available gate space.

@@thebaseballcow2024 dont they already have that in NYC?

@@G-546 i guess. idk its just a thought

This is probably a back up plan

The way it should be. Allowing a merger bails out all the execs and investors that ran spirit into the ground. We need to stop letting mergers designed to bailout a crooked business by absorbing the losses from bad decisions. We need to let bankruptcies happen so there are consequences to poor management.

But it depends if the entire company (Spirit) and its assets are sold to another party as a package deal. Sometimes the assets (physical assets) go back to the creditors and they do what they want with them. But JB could capitalize on the routes that would open up as a result if Spirit goes under.

@@HR-wd6cw Creditors want money. They will try to sell it all.

@@HR-wd6cw yes, it won’t be nearly as easy as some people seem to think it will to just buy asset. There will be many parties involved if they do go bankrupt and they may not shut down just restructure.

Yeah those Mint seats looked nice from BOS to LGW this past Dec. and I snagged an unused amenity kit when I deplaned but for those of us back in steerage a cold wrap for a transatlantic flight kinda turned me off for making me book them transatlantic.

They don’t work for me not part of an alliance very limited frequency, no lounges, etc.

@@jumpingjeffflash9946so you stole an amenity kit. That’s what you did.

@@rtbrtb_dutchy4183 there was actually a few on the seats that they didn't use, this was at deplaning, not boarding. It wasn't much, just socks, toothbrush, some kind of aroma spray, eyeshield.

Nah I think you're onto something. They need to route build like an ULCC or holiday airline but offer good service and nice business class (more for rich vacationers than business men/women). Like you said, with their fleet they are already optimized for long, thin routes to Europe at a lower cost. Idk I see them as being an IcelandAir competitor (cheaper than mainline tickets but good service and comfortable planes).

I think you have a point, there are many relatively large cities (around 1M people metro area) that are completely undeserved with no direct flights to the US. The economics of operating a 200-350-seat wide-body aircraft (or even a 757, if range permitted) probably did not work for these markets, furthermore AF and LH want to feed their hub so, even with the right aircraft for thin routes, they have no incentive to offer direct flights to the US from Hamburg, Lyon, Marseille, Stuttgart or Toulouse. With just 138 seats, the JB A321LR could be a terrific opportunity for JetBlue in these markets: there is enough "local wealth" in these cities to sell their Mint seats with no direct competition, and definitely a wider audience eager to fly direct to NYC, who could fill the rest of the cabin. JB is also one of the few airlines between the US and Europe operating a transatlantic A321LR, this market almost seems like a no-brainer for them, especially if these new routes can feed their domestic ones (again these cities have no direct flights to any other city in the US). On a side note, I find it incredibly ironic that Toulouse, the HQ of Airbus, does not even have a direct flight to the US!

@@CarlNewYorkParis i never really got it with Düsseldorf. With the Ruhrgebiet to the northeast and Cologne and Bonn (there is an airport, but it’s relatively small) to the south there are about 10 million people in the Rhein/Ruhr metro area. NRW is by far Germany’s most populous state so they would definitely get their jets full.

DUS is useless without an EU network to feed passengers into it. Airlines need to sell its business class seats to turn a profit. It isn’t a leisure carrier like TUI or Condor. Frankfurt fills those seats. Berlin and Dusseldorf do not. Not without a European network like LH at MUC.

I think jetBlue is kind of happy the deal fell through for this reason and is looking for Spirit to file Chapter 7 to buy their assets at a significant discount versus the acquisition at this point.

@@connorscanlon6289 There was a headline yesterday evening both airlines filed an appeal to try to get the decision overturned. Although I would think the odds are too slim for that to be successful. googling, it was supposed to be like a 470m termination fee Jetblue's on the hook for if the deal was blocked and they abandon the takeover attempt. Some of which was also of course because Jetblue's own takeover attempt surpassed what Frontier was offering for Spirit ~2 years ago when the latter two had announced a merger agreement which Spirit's stockholders rejected. As for me, I'm happy to watch from the sidelines as a spectator.

@@connorscanlon6289 Other airlines will have deeper pockets to buy up Spirit's assets and airports will open up their gates and slots for auction. It was better for JetBlue to pay a premium to buy Spirit vs having to watch their competition grow even bigger

@@connorscanlon6289 It would be chapter 11 to restructure debt

If your stock is down 70% you would be stupid if you tried to buy another companies with a stock swap. There a cash buy on credit makes significantly more sense.

That, and expand their partnership with Porter Airlines for a slightly stronger presence in Canada.

I’d welcome both of them with a stronger presence in Denver. They’re both weak here but with expansion plans for gates and runways, we can handle the growth. DIA is an affordable airport and with a United and Frontier hub, strong presence from Southwest and American, more connections can be made easily versus other internal airports.

Kansas City, right in the middle!

@@ttopero I think Denver makes a lot of sense for some airlines, but would be difficult for either to make a strong foothold given how busy it already is with massive security lines and huge crowds. The size also starts to make connections difficult versus other airfields

@@cpgoef6 I think this would be another strong option, it just had a major renovation like PIT is constructing right now, and is relatively open for expansion. I think some points that make PIT a bit stronger are that the PIT airfield is larger and more open for expansion, the concourses have a better layout for connections (arranged in a simple, connected “X” pattern), and the airfield is closer to major connections in the Northeast, Midwest, and South of the US (all of which being a 1:30 flight or less) which makes it a better “feeder” connection than an airfield directly in the middle (as in regional connection flights can be shorter and more frequent hopping back and forth than a longer connection to a central hub further away). But KCI did an outstanding job on its renovation and is a great field in general that should see greater traffic given congestion in larger hubs and how nice it has become.

Hawaiian has a codeshare with JetBlue.

@@dc5723 you know what I completely forgot about that. I used the code to get miles for hawaiian. Lol I'm dumb

You’re a bozo. Your attempt at humor fell flat.

I don't think Spirit/Jetblue can possibly conceive of a deal which would be legal. As a legal expert on antitrust put it, the ruling reads like "an almost stream-of-consciousness discussion of an airline merger from a judge uncomfortable with blocking something he knew was against the law." It includes sections of lyrics and poems, it's rambling, and it's not particularly coherent. The facts in this case were very cut and dry: the 'alliance' (it's a type of merger, I'm just going to call it a merger) would be bad for the industry and harm competition. If we look at the history of mergers in the US over the last 45 years, we see, the mergers ultimately cut routes, reduce capacity, and raise prices... despite assurances that they won't. This has happened literally every merger, without fail, in US airlines, for the last 45 years. Spirit/Jetblue documents and emails seemed to indicate, the people steering the merger were perfectly aware of this, and in fact, the whole goal of the merger was to reduce industry capacity. The plan was, once Spirit/Jetblue could reduce capacity, they could then raise prices. This is actually illegal, under antitrust law, but Spirit/Jetblue were confident the feds and courts would just let it slide, like they always have. The judge, IMO, was conflicted because for the past 45 years, these mergers would have just sailed by without comment. The judge had to square the case, where, Spirit/Jetblue was so obviously anticompetitive, but that would imply these past airline mergers were anticompetitive, too. No judge wants to stick their neck out and be the first one to reverse course, which is the why case involved all these tortured twists and turns.

jetblue wont end for another 20+ years its too good

I can assure you, LAX-LAS is definitely profitable. Tons of people from LA go on gambling trips to LAS. Especially on the weekends.

I worked in the LAS airport. Yes that is profitable. 🙄

There might be some truth to this. Thinking outside the box is good. United is even flying to Tenerife. Except if all these European airports were such good choices, major US carriers would already have a much larger presence.

Yeah if that happens then they'll need to have a 4th global alliance

Isn’t JB Airbus only while Alaska flies Boeing only?

@@stbbsd That hasn't prevented any of the previous mergers. Delta (Boeing) & Northwest (Airbus), United (Airbus) & Continental (Boeing), etc

​@@ran4shnor Alaska with Hawaiian and Virgin.

Alaska is already in the process of merging with Hawaiian. Alaska-JetBlue merger will face the same scrutiny from DOJ.

@@battlefield3112011 alaska Hawaiian merger will not affect an Alaska JetBlue merger because JetBlue and Hawaiian have 0 overlapping routes. The JetBlue spirit merger was scrutinized by the DOJ because it would remove competition in the ULCC market, as well as competition between JetBlue and spirit (which is significant, because JetBlue and spirit have a lot of overlapping routes). JetBlue and Alaska merger wouldn't have those problems...

There’s the main issue of fleet commonality, JetBlue only uses the A220 series and the A320 series while Alaska uses the Boeing 737 Series. Ofc if Alaska were to merge with Hawaiian and JetBlue the Owners would have to transition into owning a mixed fleet of both Boeing and Airbus Aircraft which would raise costs.

@@Window_seatflyer no it wouldn't raise costs more than they are now. In fact, they would gain the benefits of fleet diversity. Alaska airlines has all their 737 max 9s grounded right now, which is a massive portion of their fleet. If the combined airline had both types, they could switch some of those flights for the airbus planes that are less utilized or full. That would minimize the number of passengers with cancellations. Also also, having both types in the fleet would allow stronger bargaining power with airbus vs Boeing for new orders.

American tried adding extra legroom 20ish years ago and they discovered people weren’t willing to pay the extra 3-4 bucks. It’s a race to the bottom

Well it does appear to be a 737...

Boy are you in for some good news then. JFK-LGW runs every day

Problem is JetBlue wants to position itself and has been marketing itself as an alternative to the big American 3 airlines. Going to Gatwick is not without its risk to that positioning. The business class traveler and mint program would suffered when majority would like to fly into the main airport in London and not secondary airports.

@@JeanClaudeCOCO Yeah - like I said, it's a niche desire, not something I'd actually expect or recommend.

Appeals in these cases generally do not go through. It has more to do with an unfair advantage potentially within the market than the financial status of either company. My guess is that companies like Frontier would complain if they allowed the deal to go through, among other low-cost carriers that are lesser known.

Appeals courts usually are focused upon legal process rather than considering new information. Does the court governing mergers operate differently?

An appeal is actually not likely they rarely work, and it would be just more waste of money and time

LGB is a cursed airport to hub at. It has killed many a startup. You may as well hub at BUR and have some chance of survival.

They do NOT fly out of LGB for about 3 years now........its all LAX

Because Alaska is already attempting to merge with Hawaiian (which will likely be struck down too)

because we don't need more consolidation

Seeing as the Feds blocked this one, I doubt they'd let that through either. American travelers can't afford to lose the ULCC competition in a merger and it seems the feds get that.

I assume A330-900neos?

I just flew BOS to LGW in Dec. on that A-321NEO, while having it be sparsely filled which allowed me a row to myself (as did many others) the plane doesn't have ovens. Nothing said thanks for spending $700+ dollars for a round trip ticket, 7 hour ride across the pond like being handed a cold chicken salad wrap. My go to from BOS stopped doing business here (Norwegian Air Shuttle 787's) Next trip over I'll make sure I check the equipment better, they were however the only ones who flew non-stop to the airport I'm comfortable getting in and out of. Next time I'll consider LHR and skip jetblue but hey...free pantry right?

A321 isn’t a small plane

Would love a direct flight from Oakland to JFK. Tired of most of the direct flights coming out of SFO.

JetBlue needs widebodies like the A330-800neo or A330-900neo.

Esp since the lower capacity of the a321 is suited for the lower volunte

​@@alphamalegold indeed, Berlin for example still lacks major services/connections, partly because of the fiasko surrounding it's new airport which opened long after the home carrier Air Berlin went pancrupt and during the pandemic of all things as well and last but not least leading to major players like lufthansa establishing very little business there as of now... As far as I'm concerned the only direct connections to the US are provided by Delta and United, both to New York

That is coming once Airbus delivers the XLR