JetBlue - $599 "All You Can Jet" -- Read The Fine Print, And The Finer Print, Too.

JetBlue has a new ALL YOU CAN JET pass for $599. In general, it is a good idea (September 8 to October 8 is generally a slow travel time for airlines) and it hits a decent price point if you plan to fly cross country more than twice.

At the very top of JetBlue's page, it says "$599 for a month of unlimited travel, any available seat." This sounded pretty radical, so naturally I was skeptical. I figured JetBlue's lawyers would tell you that their best seats are not "available" for this promotion. Nope. They chose a different escape route. They REDEFINED the word "seat"!

Bravo. I didn't see that one coming.

Take a look at JetBlue's Full Terms and Conditions here. As you can see in the excerpt below, they've redefined their best seats as "products and services":

I think what pisses me off the most is not that they tried to exclude upgrade seats, but that they didn't have enough integrity to do it up front. This is especially shady when JetBlue defines its best seats as "seats" everywhere else on its website:

The only way you can get one of these seats is if you (1) pay more up front; or (2) gamble. And by gamble, I mean you have wait until the last minute, and hope that it is the only seat left, in which case JetBlue is forced to give it to you. Seems like a shitty incentive for anyone booking early.

The diagram below illustrates the moral of the story: the leather chair in my living room is not a chair, but my "recliner product and service."