JetBlue Airways on
Thursday began selling three-month, all-you-can-fly passes, with business
travelers who use its Boston and Long Beach, Calif., hubs its main target.
The
passes, effective for travel from Aug. 22 through Nov. 22, start at $1,299 for
unlimited flights to and from Long Beach and nine destinations, none of them east
of Chicago, and go up to $1,999 for unlimited travel between Boston and "any
JetBlue city," according to the carrier. The passes are available for sale
through Aug. 31, or as long as supplies last, said vice president of sales and revenue management Dennis Corrigan.
The offering calls to mind
JetBlue's leisure-focused All You Can Jet pass, which in recent years has made a
seasonal appearance to capture demand in the post-Labor Day trough. This year,
however, All You Can Jet is out, and the so-called BluePass is in.
The difference, Corrigan said,
is the new offering's applicability to business traveler behaviors: Flights can
be reserved up to 90 minutes before departure, compared with the predecessor
program's three-day advance-purchase requirement; there are no change fees or cancellation
fees; and the passes have a more forgiving no-show policy, as a user would have
to miss two confirmed flights in a seven-day period before incurring a $100
charge.
JetBlue also has elongated the
unlimited travel window to three months from last year's one-month All You Can
Jet offer. Accordingly, JetBlue has elongated the price: All You Can Jet passes
started at $499 in 2010.
Still, there is another key
difference: All You Can Jet provided access to JetBlue's full network, while BluePass
gives users a access to fewer origins and destinations. Depending on the
package, Boston or Long Beach "would be the O or the D" in all travel
redeemed by participants, said Corrigan.
JetBlue already has found a
corporate client for BluePass in Framingham, Mass.-based TJX Companies, parent of
T.J. Maxx and other retailers, Corrigan confirmed.
Still, he anticipates small
and midsize organizations, as well as individual business travelers, to comprise
the bulk of sales. To that end, the carrier has partnered with New
England-based travel management companies Colpitts World Travel and Atlas
Travel International. However, bookings must be made online through a dedicated
reservations channel. "It's the same booking engine and site that powers
CompanyBlue," said Corrigan, referring to JetBlue's corporate booking
portal.
Whether BluePass becomes a
seasonal mainstay will depend on its success, Corrigan noted.