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One of the reasons why I don’t fly JetBlue often is the lack of a premium cabin. The airline offers its Mint® (Business Class) on select routes and transatlantic flights. While people rave about the food, service, and seats offered here, there is no option for shorter flights. That’s apparently going to change in 2026 when JetBlue finally adds a First Class cabin fleetwide.
The Wall Street Journal broke the news today. JetBlue is planning to install Collins Aerospace MiQ seats. These are common domestic First Class (recliner) seats that you can find on many airlines (American Airlines being one example). In my opinion, JetBlue needs this win. Customers want premium experiences and without this offering they will fall behind even Frontier Airlines (who recently made its own announcement about a true First Class cabin). After $3 billion in losses, the end of its Northeast Alliance with American, and a failed takeover of Spirit Airlines, its about time there is some good news.
JetBlue plans to reconfigure its fleet to add a First Class cabin as follows:
- Airbus A220: 143 seats total with eight First Class and 135 Economy Class seats (currently, the Airbus A220s have 140 seats total)
- Airbus A320: 162 seats total with 12 First Class and 150 Economy Class seats (currently, the Airbus A320s have 162 seats total)
- Airbus A321ceo: 198 seats total with 12 First Class and 186 Economy Class seats (currently the Airbus A321ceos have 200 seats total)
- Airbus A321neos: 200 seats total with 12 First Class and 188 Economy Class seats (currently the Airbus A321neos have 200 seats total)
Matthew at Live and Let’s Fly reports that JetBlue will be shrinking the amount of legroom across its cabins. This includes:
Unfortunately, it plans to shrink legroom in economy class.
- First Class will offer 36 to 37 inches of legroom
- Even More Space will offer 35 inches of legroom
- Core (Economy Class) will shrink from 32 to 30 inches of legroom
JetBlue Airways is trying to shift to capture more premium travelers. In September, I wrote about its plans to open lounges in 2025 at its hubs at New York John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in Terminal 5 in late 2025 and at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) in Terminal C. This has long been on the wishlists of many of JetBlue’s elite members and Mint flyers. The new lounges will allow JetBlue to offer a new Signature Perk to its top level TrueBlue Mosaic ® members in the form of lounge access and a benefit to the new premium credit card that JetBlue is bringing to market.
Anthony’s Take: In the words of Lizzo, it’s “about damn time.” Now, we wait for more details and to see if the product will be called “Mini Mint” as has been rumored for some time.
(Image Credits: JetBlue Airways.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
