Recent opinions on Jetblue

[frannn]

We have been loyal to Jetblue for several years, however our last two trips (over 2 years) have encountered long delays. I understand they were weather delays but the other airlines were not experiencing it to the same degree. I also read posts on this board last year saying this was pretty much the new norm for Jetblue. Just wondering what recent travelers have experienced.

 

[Hopefully]

Recent flights to Tampa had no schedule changes and were on time

 

[kaytieeldr]

Delta has over 800 planes.
AA has over 900.
United has over 700.
Southwest 700+, as well.
JetBlue has fewer than 300 planes. Weather delays affect smaller fleets more.

 

[Tinknalli]

My experience has been that our flights have always been great and on time unless the flights include a layover at JFK. We avoid Jetblue JFK because of frequent delays.

 

[writerguyfl]

I'm a big fan of quantitative data for these types of matters. Thanks to our tax dollars, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics tracks this data and we have access to it. I've compiled some relevant statistics by year between 2012 and 2017.

Percent Flights Late - JetBlue

• 2012: 19.63%
• 2013: 24.48%
• 2014: 21.86%
• 2015: 22.16%
• 2016: 23.41%
• 2017: 25.63%

Average Arrival Delay (in minutes) for All Flights - JetBlue

• 2012: 4.85
• 2013: 9.12
• 2014: 6.91
• 2015: 6.67
• 2016: 8.05
• 2017: 10.97

Average Arrival Delay (in minutes) for Only Late Flights - JetBlue

• 2012: 61.66
• 2013: 60.88
• 2014: 59.24
• 2015: 61.00
• 2016: 64.32
• 2017: 72.38

JetBlue does appear to be trending towards poorer performance. For comparison, here are Southwest numbers:

Percent Flights Late - Southwest

• 2012: 15.87%
• 2013: 22.37%
• 2014: 25.47%
• 2015: 18.75%
• 2016: 17.75%
• 2017: 19.80%

Average Arrival Delay (in minutes) for All Flights - Southwest

• 2012: 2.88
• 2013: 7.24
• 2014: 9.92
• 2015: 4.37
• 2016: 3.90
• 2017: 5.04

Average Arrival Delay (in minutes) for Only Late Flights - Southwest

• 2012: 48.74
• 2013: 46.06
• 2014: 51.35
• 2015: 52.28
• 2016: 50.12
• 2017: 48.84

Here, you can see that both airlines had an increase in delayed flights between 2016 and 2017: 2.22% for JetBlue and 2.05% for Southwest. But, if you were delayed, the length of delay was shorter on Southwest. I'd argue that one of the reasons why Southwest handles delays quicker is what kaytieeldr notes: they have more planes.

Data Source: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/ONTIME/Airline.aspx
Spreadsheet (csv format) compiling data for American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, and United: http://my-content-locker.com/temp/flightdelays-byairline-2012to2017.csv

Note: Data for American, Delta, and United is for mainline flight only. Regional carriers are tracked separated by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. If you fly out of a smaller airport, you may be flying on a regional carrier like SkyWest. SkyWest operates regional flights for American (as American Eagle), Delta (as Delta Connection), and United (as United Express). Typically, regional carriers tend to have poorer on-time records when compared to mainline flights.

 

[monorailsilver]

My mom flew jet blue home yesterday into HPN and I am pretty sure the plane left on time. My dh flew home today on jet blue into Bradley and he had just under an hour delay out of MCO. His flight to FL was early by about 15-20 min. We all flew last year and had no issues. We are flying a month from today, can’t wait!

 

[goofy4tink]

I fly JB a lot. The only two times I've had a big issue (more than a 15 min delay) was either weather or mechanical. Because they have fewer planes, one issue can have a huge ripple effect. We had a mechanical issue once....boarded the plane, on-time, started to leave the gate. There was a noise that wasn't normal....knew we weren't going anywhere. Back to the gate and off the plane. However, there was no available plane there...at Providence. We had to wait until they brought in a plane...took almost 3 hrs! The other delay was last Christmas...flew out of Boston, to W Palm. There was a huge weather issue. Our plane was there, but our pilots weren't. By the time they got there, almost 3 hrs later, and we boarded, the plane had to be de-iced. That took so long (due to the length of time the plane sat there), the pilots timed out. They had to move the plane, and find other pilots....we finally took off about six hours late!! Both times they gave us a credit. Wasn't a huge credit, but it was something.
Other than those two times, I've had fairly decent experiences with JB. There have been many times we arrived at MCO so early, we had to wait for a gate!

 

[RolloTomasi]

The last time I flew JetBlue I had an airport change from HPN to JFK at about 11:00 the night before a 6:30am departure due to weather. Coming home that same trip I had abtheee hour delay due to mechanical trouble with the plane and they needed to fly in another one. They gave me a credit and I just chalked it up to bad luck. Wouldn’t keep me from flying JB again. Every other time I’ve flown with them it’s been fine. In fact I’m waiting for November flights because JB seems to consistently have the cheapest flights out of my local airports.

What was funny about those problems though was I saw the same guy on both flights. We shared the bad luck I guess!

 

[n2mm]

I really love jetblue, but we are now down to 1 nonstop flight a day to mco out if bwi. No nonstop flights to mco out of Dulles. If our bwi nonstop goes away, I’ll be done with them and the credit card will be closed. I can’t fly out of Reagan airport—just not an option. Until then, they are still my go to airline. Delays are just something I’ve come to expect when flying.