I flew JetBlue Mint Class on my trip home from Affiliate Summit in New York. This is one of the best kept secrets in business class air travel.
JetBlue is known as a low-cost carrier and didn’t get into luxury air travel until recently. Mint class offers a better travel experience than first class on competing airlines, and does it at a price that they can’t touch. A round trip ticket from Los Angeles LAX to New York JFK cost only $1200.
JetBlue doesn’t have any VIP lounges to wait for your flight, so I used my Amex card to get into the terminal five Airspace Lounge. Even if you have to pay the $20 to access the lounge, you’re still way ahead of the game when you compare how much Delta or American Airline charge for a first class JFK to LAX ticket.
JetBlue Mint Class is the first to offer flat-bed seating and suites in the US Domestic Business Class market. There are 16 seats in the JetBlue Airbus A321, all of which are flat beds, and four of which are private suites. Each suite offers a closing door and is a first in the domestic US market. If you’re flying by yourself, the suite is the only way to go.
The lie-flat seats include a massage feature and a button that can adjust cushion firmness. You get access to more than 100 channels through DirecTV and SiriusXM, plus the plane’s FlyFi broadband connection allows you to run your online business from the air. This is something I made great use of.
The food on Mint Class is nothing to write home about when compared to Singapore Airlines, but it’s not bad. The menu was curated by hip New York City restaurant Saxon + Parole, and it typically includes such inventive dishes as a corn custard and poached lobster, bison meatloaf, and herb-roasted monkfish.
