One of the many very customer-friendly policies JetBlue had was the ability to re-price a ticket for the exact same itinerary when the fare dropped and receive a credit for the difference in Travel Bank credit to be used towards future travel with the airline. Alas, the flexibility of that policy has been clipped a bit; it is no longer quite as friendly as it used to be, though also not completely gone. I first saw mention of the new policy on FlyerTalk this morning so I followed up with JetBlue’s Twitter team to get the scoop. And, as always, they shared the details.
@WanderngAramean Yes. This decision was made so that we may continue to provide all of our other offerings our Customers have come… 1/2
— JetBlue (@JetBlue) August 15, 2014
@WanderngAramean …to expect from JetBlue. We will continue to honor the lower fare within 14 days of ticketing at no charge. 2/2
— JetBlue (@JetBlue) August 15, 2014
So now the free repricing is only available within 14 days of purchase. I’ve definitely used it outside that window in the past; this will definitely sting a bit. And the part where it was quietly introduced suggests that passengers may be surprised to learn about it for upcoming requests, especially on previously purchased tickets. Then again, I don’t know that it was ever a formally published policy so changing it on already issued trips might be vaguely reasonable.
On the flip side, it is still more flexible than pretty much everyone else other than Southwest on that front. And given the pressures the carrier has been under lately from the investor community to extract more revenue out of their operations it is not too surprising to see a few cuts here and there to programs which are otherwise very wallet-friendly to the passenger.
Outside the 14-day window customers will be subject to the regular change fees in order to get a fare credit. It is a sliding scale based on the original fare for the flight being changed so there is still a bit of a customer-friendly nature to the rule. Just not as much as it once was.
Outside of the 14-day window customers can still re-fare, but the fee to do so is $75. That’s pretty much the same as the change fee, generally speaking (Clarification provided in the comments below).
And Mosaic members continue to have the fee waived for their itineraries, including other passengers booked on the same PNR. I guess the value of that status just went up a bit, which is nice, though unfortunate that it is at the expense of the non-elite members.
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I’d say Alaska Airlines has an equally generous policy as Southwest. I love that you can do it online all by yourself without needing to call an agent:
https://www.alaskaair.com/booking/ssl/garr/GuaranteedAirfare.aspx
and
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/deals/special-offers/price-guarantee.aspx
I always forget about Alaska’s policy. It is basically what JetBlue’s used to be. It is not as generous as Southwest’s, though, as it only applies to the same flight. With Southwest once you’ve put the money into their system you can use it on any flight.
So Alaska is still better, but not quite best.
True about Southwest…but then you have to be flying Southwest 😉
And??
I flew them on Wednesday and I’ll fly them again today. Non-stop flights in the markets I need at a competitive price and flexible policies. That’s pretty darn good IMO.
For me and my travel patterns, Southwest just doesn’t work out 99% of the time.
And until this year it mostly didn’t work for me because they didn’t have enough flights out of NYC. Just so happens that they’ve saved my ass more than once this summer in getting me home or to my final destination in a timely manner when the other carriers had no chance of making that happen.
Plus, they’re basically the same as everyone else in coach. And that’s usually where I fly.
Perfect response about Southwest – they only showed up to our local airport last year, and folks have a strange negative attitude about them at times.
Now with them loading (sometimes very) competitive Business fares in our corporate travel system… well, it still takes some explaining that having the company shell out for Business Select means you get $0.176 (12X1.43) per dollar back for “Wanna Get Away” fares and people start paying attention.
Unless you’re at the highest elite level with a legacy carrier, you weren’t getting upgraded regularly, and Business Select fares take away pretty much all the pain/weirdness of flying Southwest.
Hi Seth, so how would one request this at JetBlue? I can’t seem to find that capability on the web site. Just booked a flight two days ago and the return got about $10 or so cheaper (while the outbound is now more expensive). Is it possible to apply this to just one leg or does the total have to be cheaper?
You need to phone it in to get the price adjustment. And, yes, you can do it for just the return IME.
Thanks Seth! I’ll try.
Hi Seth – You’re right that this was never a formally published policy. Just one point of clarification: Outside the 14-day window customers will be subject to a flat $75 fee in order to get a fare credit.
Thanks for the clarification, Laurie.