JetBlue switches up Even More Space, open to new airline partnership

JetBlue flyers who like to book the airline's extra-legroom seats — which are known as "Even More Space" seats — will start to notice changes over the coming months.

This week, the New York-based carrier announced plans to incorporate the seats into a new product offering that it will offer as an upfront choice when you go to buy a ticket.

Starting in mid-November, customers will see the option to book an Even More Space ticket right off the bat. This will be in addition to the current path of waiting until seat selection to opt for the higher-priced, more spacious row.

Then, in 2025, JetBlue plans to package a host of "new benefits and amenities" with the extra-space seats, making it a quasi-premium offering that'll be available to customers on all of JetBlue's planes.

With that change will come a slightly evolved name for the seating product: "EvenMore."

What's behind the move?

"Even More Space has performed exceptionally well as interest in premium products continues to be strong," JetBlue president Marty St. George said in a statement, explaining the rationale for evolving the product.

JetBlue's move to rebrand, repackage and, ultimately, try to extract money out of extra-legroom seats is a trend seen throughout the lower-cost faction of the U.S. airline industry in recent months, as carriers have battled sagging profits.

This year, Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines both started selling their extra-legroom seats, including Frontier's "UpFront Plus" that I recently tried out, as part of a more "premium" offering.

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Southwest Airlines, for its part, is deep into planning its first-ever extra-legroom seats that will complement its shift away from open seating.

For its part, JetBlue currently offers Even More Space seats as an "upsell" for customers at seat selection, as shown in the seat map below.

Complimentary access to those seats is a signature perk for Mosaic elite status members.

In the coming weeks, though, customers will start seeing the extra-space offering directly on the flight results page, the carrier said this week. However, customers will still be able to move up to the higher-priced seats upon reaching the seat selection portion of the booking process.

The Even More Space evolution is the latest in a series of sweeping changes JetBlue has made as part of its "JetForward" strategy meant to return the carrier to profitability for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic.

This month, dozens of route changes went into effect as part of a large network revamp that's seen JetBlue double down on its leisure travel roots in the Northeast.

JetBlue also recently announced plans to wade into the airline lounge sphere, with its first outposts set for New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) in late 2025.

In the near future, the carrier also plans to announce a new premium credit card that will carry complimentary access to those lounges.

The airline, which hasn't been profitable since the coronavirus pandemic, reported a third-quarter net loss of $60 million this week, but CEO Joanna Geraghty noted that the company "met or exceeded" all of its financial targets between July and September.

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Could a new airline partnership be coming?

When reporting its third-quarter financial results this week, one Wall Street analyst asked JetBlue executives whether the carrier might consider a new large-scale partnership with another airline.

"It's certainly something we're looking at," St. George said of a potential new partner for JetBlue, noting the carrier's JetForward strategy calls for "the concept of some level of partnership" in the future.

Of course, one of JetBlue's most significant airline partnerships in recent memory, its Northeast Alliance with American Airlines, came to a halt in mid-2023 when the Biden administration successfully blocked the deep tie-up on antitrust grounds.

As for the future?

"It could be with American, it could be with other carriers," St. George said. "I think we learned a lot through the NEA as far as what worked for us, what might not work for us."

It's worth noting that when the U.S. District Court judge ruled against American and JetBlue's alliance last year, he argued that a more limited partnership like what American operates on the West Coast with Alaska Airlines would be a more acceptable alternative.

"In such an arrangement, the two carriers would not coordinate with one another on scheduling, network, or capacity decisions, and they would not share revenue on any markets where they provide competing nonstop service," wrote Judge Leo T. Sorokin in his May 2023 ruling. "American and Alaska entered just such a partnership, and they both consider it successful despite its limitations."

In March, I asked Geraghty whether JetBlue might someday reconsider linking up again with American under criteria Sorokin laid out.

"We're focused on executing our organic strategy," she told me just prior to JetBlue's inaugural flight to Dublin.

"However, we have 50 airline partners," Geraghty continued. "We love working with partners. And to the extent opportunities come about, we'd be more than open to considering them."

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Today, JetBlue has nine airline loyalty partners, ranging from Cape Air to Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, plus a host of additional codeshare partners like Aer Lingus.

'Not interested' in more Spirit talks

On the other hand, count JetBlue out of any interest in revisiting a separate move the U.S. Department of Justice struck down: its doomed acquisition of Spirit Airlines, which a federal judge blocked earlier this year.

"We're not interested in revisiting the Sprit potential acquisition," Geraghty told analysts plainly this week.

Interest in Spirit's future has swirled of late amid financial turmoil at the company and a recent Wall Street Journal report that suggested Frontier Airlines had revived merger talks with its budget competitor. Frontier and Spirit had merger plans in the works before the JetBlue-Spirit deal materialized in 2022.

Defending shift to chilled meals

JetBlue made headlines in early October when it moved away from its highly regarded transatlantic hot meals in coach. Instead, the carrier will serve chilled meals that will still be curated by its dining partner Dig, a New York City-based eatery.

Geraghty defended the move while speaking on this week's earnings call, arguing the food options JetBlue offers in its "core" cabin still easily beat its competitors' coach offerings.

"I personally sat through an entire food-tasting process with Dig, and it is second to none," she said. "We moved it to cold because we think that there's an opportunity there to save some cost, but it's still a far superior product to what you've got flying transatlantic in coach currently."

JetBlue is making no such move in its premium Mint cabin, where its hot meals are viewed as a staple of the experience, executives told me this summer.

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