JetBlue Nears Refundable Fares

JetBlue within weeks will begin testing refundable fares as a means to garner more corporate business and generate new forms of revenue, chairman David Neeleman told attendees at Corporate Travel World in New York today.

"We're going to be testing it now very soon, in the next week or two. It's really just a technology issue we're working through," Neeleman said following the presentation.

The carrier aims to be more flexible in its refundable fare rules than its domestic competitors by allowing travel buyers to accumulate refundable fare credits and apply them to other travelers, Neeleman said. "We were already more flexible than nonrefundable fares with the other guys because you can switch names, but we're going to the next step, the next generation," Neeleman said. He noted some corporate travel policies don't allow the purchase of nonrefundables, saying the new fare would generate additional revenue for the carrier.

Neeleman today also said JetBlue is "experimenting with the idea" of a "virtual first class," which would give higher-yielding travelers access to window and aisle seats between empty middle seats, particularly on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays—when business travelers take to the skies and load factors historically are lower. "Why not, when you can charge a nominal fee to have no one sitting next to you? If you can generate more revenue for the flight, then why not? You've got to work the technology, though, and make sure you can set aside some seats so people can book that way," Neeleman said. "The nominal fee would not be covered by a lot of travel policies, so you'd have to bury that in the fare."