Some Economy Seats are More Economy Than Others

Since FMV moved it’s headquarters to Chicago late last year – we find ourselves flying United a lot. You may think it’s because of their weird faux-cartoon ads that they plaster everywhere – but it’s really because of their “EconomyPlus” seating with extra legroom. After earlier hints, JetBlue has officially jumped on that bandwagon:

JetBlue will reconfigure its Airbus A320 fleet to offer seats with more legroom, and will charge more for those seats. JetBlue is calling the product Even More Legroom, which will offer 38 inches of pitch in the second to fifth rows plus emergency exit rows 10 and 11... The airline will charge $10 each way for short-haul flights (under 600 miles), $15 for medium-haul flights (601 to 1,500 miles) and $20 for long-haul flights (over 1,500 miles).

That’s actually great – but there is also another kicker:

The airline won't be selling Even More Legroom in the GDSs because of "technological limitations," JetBlue said. But the airline added that clients who book via a GDS can go to the Manage Your Flight link on JetBlue's Web site to purchase the extra legroom.

A few FMV points:

1) OK, we just assumed that JetBlue’s marketing department had a down day when they branded their new refundable fare product “Refundable Fares”. But seriously, “Even More Legroom”? Please try a little harder to imply that the old coach seats don't have crappy legroom. You know who will REALLY hate this name?? The call center agents who face this scenario happening 100 times a day:

JetBlue Agent: “Hello, You have reached JetBlue – how may I help you”

Customer: “Uhh, Hi – I bought a seat for my upcoming trip, and I know I get a roomy seat, but I’d now like to purchase EVEN MORE LEGROOM!! Ha Ha Ha”

2) This also has “Ancillary Revenue” written all over it and kind of goes against the Jetblue vein. Fine – you don’t have a “business class” – but you now have the beginnings of tiered system…

3) Finally – and most importantly - we love the fact that this purchase option is not available in the GDS. It’s the mythical “Fourth Cabin” limitation of GDSs; they cannot inventory control this type of stuff, and therefore can’t sell it. But FMV will bet you $10 (Even More Legroom for a short-haul flight) that the GDSs come out and blame the airline as not being “buyer focused” for doing this to them. It's classic GDS victim-hood at it's best (see Air Canada).

So while you won't catch us flying JetBlue just yet (simply not enough flights from ORD), we applaud them for providing meaningful product differentiation (i.e. not just a seatback TV and faux-hipster vibe). We also applaud mother nature, for dumping a (late) winter storm on Chicago today, giving us the perfect excuse to duck out early to watch the NCAA tournament. For those stuck on a cot at ORD - sorry, but these things happen for a reason.