If prior such “mergers” of low cost carriers is any indication…JetBlue is done.
Prior to southwest buying airtran (value jet
)…it was pretty much universally loved and rated as the best you could have. And my personal experience - if no frills - was that it was. Other than bumrushing the seats…it was great.
After airtran it’s been terrible. Ridiculously overpriced (less than American at my closest airport - which is a huge one for both) and you can barely get a nonstop.
Used to fly southwest 4-8 times a year…haven’t flown it once in 5 or 6 years now.
I fully expect the awfulness that is spirit to drown JetBlue. It’s lining up the same way. I hope I’m wrong.
Remember who founded Jet Blue? I liked it at first but like Disney it has changed over the years due to market pressures.
Morris Air left a bunch of people stranded on a regular basis and crashed in a spectacular fashion.
Wiki
"He co-founded (with June Morris)[
who?]
Morris Air, a low-fare charter airline, and from 1984 to 1988, he was the executive vice president of the company.
In 1988, Neeleman assumed the helm of Morris Air as its president. In 1993, when Morris Air was acquired by
Southwest Airlines for $130 million (Neeleman received $25 million from the sale), he worked for five months on their Executive Planning Committee.
[7]
After leaving Southwest, Neeleman became the CEO of Open Skies, a
touch screen airline reservation and check-in systems company, later acquired by
HP in 1999. At the same time, he helped with another upstart airline,
WestJet. JetBlue was incorporated in Delaware in August 1998 and officially founded in February 1999, under the name "NewAir" by Neeleman.
[8]
As the CEO of
JetBlue Airways, his 2002 salary was $200,000 with a bonus of $90,000. Neeleman donated his entire salary to the JetBlue Crewmember Crisis Fund, which was established for JetBlue employees who had fallen on hard times.
[9]"
The culture remains