JetBlue is weeks away from rolling out BlueFirst, its first proper domestic first class product, and the first retrofitted A320 has already been shown off to media. Most of the details line up with what was expected. One thing doesn't: there is no divider between first class and economy. No curtain, no panel hanging from the bins, nothing.
That makes JetBlue the only US airline with a first class cabin that has zero separation from the rest of the plane. Spirit's Big Front Seat and Breeze's Nicest rows also lack dividers, but those are premium economy-style seats rather than real first class cabins. Even Frontier, which is adding its own first class and beat JetBlue to the announcement, will have a divider.
Why does a flimsy piece of plastic matter? It's not really about privacy. It's about foot traffic. On most US domestic flights, passengers can use any lavatory on board, and without a physical marker it will be almost impossible to keep economy passengers out of the forward bathroom. Even if JetBlue does reserve it for BlueFirst flyers, expect a queue of people standing in the aisle right beside premium seats for much of the flight — exactly what happens on Aer Lingus's AerSpace rows in Europe, where aisle-seat passengers spend the flight with strangers hovering over them. It also makes the forward cabin crew member's job harder, since they'll be policing bathroom lines instead of serving passengers.
The launch itself comes years late by most measures, as the article's author points out. Asked by CNBC's Phil LeBeau whether JetBlue had waited too long, CEO Joanna Geraghty pointed to the long-running Mint premium product and said rollout of these products simply takes time. Whatever the internal reasoning, JetBlue entered the domestic first class race after Frontier — never a great look for an airline that built its reputation on product quality.
The upside is that BlueFirst should sell well, particularly since JetBlue has been reclaiming space for it by trimming economy legroom. JetBlue has historically been strong on both hardware and service, so the cabin itself is likely to be good. But until the first flights operate, the missing divider is the detail everyone in the premium cabin will be watching — or trying not to watch, as the case may be.
For travellers weighing whether to book BlueFirst on a new route, the practical advice is simple: consider a window seat if you can, since aisle seats in an undivided forward cabin are the ones most exposed to lavatory traffic. Source: One Mile at a Time
