On a recent JetBlue flight from Portland to Anchorage, my seatmate confided, "I feel like I'm cheating on Alaska Airlines by flying JetBlue."
She was one of the mothers accompanying a girls soccer team back home after games in Seattle and Portland. When asked if JetBlue did a good job, the consensus of the moms on board was two thumbs up, particularly considering the low prices.
"I'd definitely fly them again," said Becky Martin of Anchorage, one of the chaperones. One of the young soccer players added that she liked the seating arrangement better than on Alaska Airlines. "There's more room," she said.
The big airline war this summer is between Alaska Airlines and Delta. It's a juicier story because the two airlines technically are still partners -- and they try to play nice in public. But the secret's out: The two airlines are fighting for passengers in five Alaska markets -- Anchorage, Fairbanks, Sitka, Ketchikan and Juneau.
In Anchorage, though, JetBlue has beefed up its summertime schedule. Each day, the New York-based airline offers three red-eye flights: one each to Seattle, Portland and Long Beach. Each afternoon, they offer an additional flight to Seattle. The second flight to Seattle and the nonstop to Portland both are new flights this summer.
JetBlue is the underdog in Anchorage and they make up for it by offering lower fares. Between Anchorage and Seattle, JetBlue's lowest fare is $84 each way. Alaska charges $99 each way. Between Anchorage and Los Angeles, there's a little more of a difference: JetBlue charges $108 each way for the nonstop to Long Beach, while Alaska Air offers a nonstop to Los Angeles/LAX for as little as $169. Delta offers one-way fares to LAX via Seattle for $133 each way.
Between Anchorage and Portland, JetBlue offers fares as low as $78 each way, nonstop. Alaska charges $118, nonstop. Delta charges $126, with a stop in Seattle.
Important: Fares change all the time. I checked these rates on the respective airline websites at 4:52 p.m. Wednesday, July 29.
While the low prices are designed to tempt the price-conscious traveler, JetBlue hopes that when travelers fly on its fleet of Airbus A320s, they will enjoy the JetBlue "experience," including the service, the legroom, the free Wi-Fi (when it works), the free snacks and the seatback entertainment.
Any nonstop to the L.A. area is great, instead of stopping in Seattle or Portland. I've flown on Alaska's nonstop to LAX several times. Alaska has a refurbished terminal there and the new Board Room offers a great view of the planes on the tarmac. But LAX is a huge airport with its share of congestion.
Contrast that with the Long Beach airport. JetBlue offers more flights than anyone else from this small airport, just 19 miles away from LAX. It's sleepy compared to LAX, with wide-open gardens and plenty of comfy seating. The car rental counters are just across the street from the check-in counter. That's about 100 steps.
Seating on board JetBlue's planes is different. There's no first class, although I did pay the extra $40 to sit in one of the "Even More Space" seats near the front. These seats offer a couple of extra inches of legroom, equivalent to exit-row seating on Alaska's 737s. But even if you're in the back of the plane, there's still 34 inches of space between the seats. Alaska and Delta offer between 31 and 32 inches. Next summer, though, JetBlue will offer less space because they're adding seats. The new average pitch between the seats will be 33 inches.
While Alaska Air offers a freestanding tablet for in-flight entertainment, JetBlue has seatback TVs. On the Alaska routes, though, JetBlue's satellite TV doesn't work, so it offers free movies. JetBlue's super-fast in-flight Internet service, dubbed "Fly-Fi", also goes dark north of the Canadian border. I did a test of the service just north of Seattle and it offered download speeds of 29.1 megabits per second. That's 10 times as fast as Alaska's and Delta's air-to-ground service provided by Gogo. But JetBlue's Fly-Fi only works in the contiguous 48 states. Also, when it's available, JetBlue offers it as a free service. You can upgrade for $9 to a more robust service, but the free option worked just fine for me between Seattle and Long Beach.
In addition to the free Wi-Fi (south of Seattle), JetBlue offers a free snack service on all of their flights, including their "official snack": blue vegetable chips by Terra. They're pretty good. I also tried one of their snack packs, but I've been spoiled by Alaska Air's fruit-and-cheese plate.
Honestly, it's a tall order for JetBlue to compete with Alaska Airlines in Anchorage. Alaska offers a great frequent-flier plan, lots of departures and I think their customer service is top-notch. As an elite-level frequent flier, I get upgrades to first class fairly often. As a credit card user, I take advantage of the $99 companion fare offer every year. And I pay extra to hang out in the Board Room with free drinks and snacks. Alaska Airlines has worked hard to develop a strong infrastructure in Anchorage.
Delta is better suited for head-on competition with Alaska. As a giant airline, Delta has its share of contracts and corporate accounts that must fly with them if they offer service. JetBlue doesn't have the contracts and the corporate business. Delta offers six flights a day between Anchorage and Seattle. Alaska offers 19 flights to Seattle each day (19!). JetBlue has two.
And while Alaska and Delta are gearing up for battle through the winter, JetBlue still provides only seasonal service through Sept. 21. "We would love to provide year-round service to Anchorage," said Jace Hieda, JetBlue's Long Beach-based marketing manager. "Our route-planning folks have a better handle on what it's going to take to make that happen," he added.
So, between now and mid-September, you can take advantage of some great prices for flights to Seattle, Portland and Long Beach. JetBlue also offers good deals on connecting flights to Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. The planes are clean and the people are friendly. There's more room in the cheap seats than on competing carriers. I did not check any bags -- but JetBlue charges $20 for the first bag, unless you buy a more-expensive fare.
Is JetBlue better than Alaska Airlines? In some ways, yes, they are. The low fares speak for themselves. But if you live in Anchorage, JetBlue cannot provide the same level of service as Alaska, and that's not the airline's goal. After all, Alaska Air serves 19 destinations around the state, plus nonstops to Chicago and Honolulu. And Alaska is adding more cities from Seattle all the time. But this is JetBlue's fifth summer serving Anchorage, so the airline plans to stay.
That's good news for the soccer moms who sat next to me. Each of them had three kids, which means it can be very expensive for the whole family to travel. Both of them were thrilled at the low prices and were thinking of taking additional trips to Portland or Seattle. And they said that yes, they would fly JetBlue.
Scott McMurren is an Anchorage-based marketing consultant, serving clients in the transportation, hospitality, media and specialty-destination sectors, among others. Contact him by email at zoom907@me.com. You can follow him on Twitter (@alaskatravelGRM) and alaskatravelgram.com. For more information, visit alaskatravelgram.com/about.