A Tip For Those Looking to Book JetBlue

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
With JetBlue's new rolling 331-day schedule, February break (President's Day week) 2022 flights are starting to become available. My family is hoping to fly to Orlando on Monday 2/21, so I've been checking the prices (currently available through Saturday, 2/19) to get a feel for what we might have to pay and noticed something interesting. Whether it's a glitch or a predatory pricing practice to try and take advantage of families on school breaks who are trying to book at the first possible moment, I don't know, but the prices were consistently inflated for parties of 2 or more for the first few hours that any "new" flight appeared on the schedule.

For example, if I searched the one-way, nonstop MCO-SYR flight on 2/19 on the morning it first became available, the standard ("Blue") fare for 1 person was $150 and the fare for 2 or more was $548 PER PERSON. However, if I simply I waited a few hours until later in the day, the "Blue" fare for parties of any size was now around $208 per person, even with a few seats now having been booked. (I've done this for several days now, with the same result: each new flight is offered at prices 2-3 times higher for parties of 2 or more for the first few hours, and then the fare abruptly drops to about 1/3 of the initial price.)

Bottom Line: If you're looking for flights for your family on JetBlue and the numbers seem staggering for a newly-released fare, try waiting a few hours and rechecking the price.

UPDATE: I was able to book our 2/21 SYR-MCO flights on Saturday, 3/27. The flight did not appear on the schedule until about 5am, and at a price of over $548 per person (around 40,000 points) for the "Blue" fare. I checked back every hour. By 10:30am, the "Blue" fare price had dropped to $244 per person (or 17,900 points). Ditto for the flights on 2/22 and 2/23, which were offered with the "Blue" fare set at $548 initially (with Blue Basic listed as sold out) on the mornings they became available, and were each dropped after a few hours to $208 (with a Blue Basic fare of $178 suddenly very much available).
 
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RememberWhen

Well-Known Member
That’s obnoxious. We really prefer Southwest as we fly with a fair amount of luggage and little kids, but JetBlue is our second choice. And southwest flights for February aren’t going to come out for ages. We’re still waiting on the flights we need to book for October. They both usually have non-stop flights to MCO. Of course, without DME in 2022 I suppose we could consider other airports if the flights were significantly cheaper. So many choices! Thanks for the heads up!
 

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
That’s obnoxious. We really prefer Southwest as we fly with a fair amount of luggage and little kids, but JetBlue is our second choice. And southwest flights for February aren’t going to come out for ages. We’re still waiting on the flights we need to book for October. They both usually have non-stop flights to MCO. Of course, without DME in 2022 I suppose we could consider other airports if the flights were significantly cheaper. So many choices! Thanks for the heads up!
We like Southwest too. JetBlue is generally my first choice because we can often fly on points from our JetBlue MasterCard. A couple of times in the past we opted to go on Southwest instead because their fares were so much more reasonable than JetBlue's on days the fare schedule was extended -- I now wonder if I just needed to wait a few hours. Oh well, JetBlue's loss!
 
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skypilot2922

Well-Known Member
We like Southwest too. JetBlue is generally my first choice because we can often fly on points from our JetBlue MasterCard. A couple of times in the past we opted to go on Southwest instead because their fares were so much more reasonable than JetBlue's on days the fare schedule was extended -- I now wonder if I just needed to wait a few hours. Oh well, JetBlue's loss!

JetBlue and Southwest are my two favorite US airlines, My only gripe with JetBlue is they are constantly fiddling with schedules and prices. There was one year I flew down to MCO and back on NYE so I could keep my Mosaic status. To my great embarassment the FA's announced this on the PA did not point me out though and it was a great flight with a Disney layover.
 

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