B6 Charges for a bit more leg room

**T-Bird76** · 2008-03-20, 02:28 PM

Seems like a decent idea, I'd pay 10 to 20 dollars more for the extra space. I wonder if B6 will move to a biz class seat upfront in the next year or two?

jetBlue to charge for more legroom

jetBlue Airways (Forest Hills) announced yesterday that they will be offering more legroom on their flights…for a price. The airline will be reconfiguring their Airbus A320 fleet to accomodate the change. Rows 2 through 5 will now feature 38? of seat pitch, and starting April 1, 2008 travellers will be charged between $10 and $20 more for the priviledge of extra legroom. A spokesman for jetBlue claims that the new roomier seats do not come at the expense of other travellers. Here’s how it works. Rows 1 through 11 used to have 36? of pitch while the rest of the plane had 34?. Now rows 2 through 5 will have 38? and the rest of the aircraft will have 34?. (The industry average is 31? of seat pitch) The airline has also stated that if these seats are the only seats remaining available for a flight, travellers will not be required to pay the additional fee.

**LGA777** · 2008-03-20, 04:18 PM

Personally, I think this would be lot more effective if B6 had standard pitch in coach, but because their pitch is already a few inches above average, the demand may not be as great as expected, especially as they fly in a lot of markets where price is the largest driver. Anyone know how many seats they are loosing in their 320's over this?

LGA777

**T-Bird76** · 2008-03-20, 04:29 PM

Ron they aren't losing any rows. What they are doing is decreasing the seat pitch in the front of the cabin from 36 to 34 for asiles 6 and above. I agree though B6 does need to come up with a standard cabin seat pitch. Its seems they've tried a few things over the past couple of years with cabin comfort. At first the rear of the plane had the greatest seat pitch, then then it was for forward cabin and now the entire plane minus row 2-5 will all have 34 inches. One has to wonder the money and time B6 is wasting with all these changes.

**Matt Molnar** · 2008-03-20, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by T-Bird76

One has to wonder the money and time B6 is wasting with all these changes.

The original change from a uniform configuration to the 34/36 combination resulted in a few rows being removed, which reduced the number of flight attendants required by law for each flight, which saved them lots of money. This new scheme might make them a few extra bucks, but as Ron said, I can't imagine most flyers even know how much difference that extra 4 inches makes, and most people under 6 foot won't care at all because 34 is still a lot better than the 31 on most carriers.

**T-Bird76** · 2008-03-20, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by GothamSpotter

Originally Posted by T-Bird76

One has to wonder the money and time B6 is wasting with all these changes.

The original change from a uniform configuration to the 34/36 combination resulted in a few rows being removed, which reduced the number of flight attendants required by law for each flight, which saved them lots of money. This new scheme might make them a few extra bucks, but as Ron said, I can't imagine most flyers even know how much difference that extra 4 inches makes, and most people under 6 foot won't care at all because 34 is still a lot better than the 31 on most carriers.

The orginal change wasn't to reduce the amount of FA's that was the second change to more room upfront. This is now B6's third cabin change in three years, seems like a waste of resources. Remember to they are even changing the seat styles as well and wall panels.

**bluejuice** · 2008-03-21, 11:02 AM

Although they do not quote figures ,what I hear thru the grapvine is that the LOL seats(lots of legroom) are selling very well on the website. Remember we removed a row of seats to reduce costs (weight,one FA etc) to increase the pitch in all our seating. By adjusting the rows in 1-5 we can charge extra for the LOL seats. Mind you we do not charge for the extra bag nor charge for extra snacks nor have we announced any increases for fuel. In this day and age you have to pay for all the fuel that we use.