Southwest vs. JetBlue: Battle of the Brands

Tina and Southwest supporters,
How dare you make fun of the best airline ever. MOST (and all companies have traitors and disgruntled employees working for them) JetBlue employees are happy about their job. Southwest treats me like **** when they booted me of a flight due to their retarted cattle call open seating policy. Guess what, you can select your seats when you book online, over the phone, or in person, so it's not like JetBlue is giving you a random seat. Plus, you are guaranteed that seat and guaranteed a ticket on THAT flight. As a Southwest RapidRewards and JetBlue TrueBlue member, I love JetBlue 100% better and always fly it. When I was an unaccompanied minor on JetBlue to Long Beach from Oakland for the first time, the pilot took a picture of me in the cockpit at the controls with his personal camera, got them developed and mailed the pictures to me with a toy (for free). I also asked for more biscottis from my grandmother, the flight attendant gave me ten. Their Terra Blue chips sure beat old peanuts and 36 cannels of TV beat SkyMall magazines. On JetBlue, everyone is first class. Plus, JetBlue's check in kiosks are so much less crowded, quicker, and easier to use than Southwest's.
Long live JetBlue! Crush Southwest! ;)

I fly Southwest exclusively because I trust the "made in the USA", "all Boeing" fleet they fly. Jet blue's airbus interior aside, it's still produced by a foreign company that is government subsidized. Maintenance has always been an issue with these airbus' which hurts the Jetblue reliability. Frequency of flights and not being held hostage are just "gravy" benifits for flying SWA.

That's hilariously head-up-the-ass.

So Boeing receives absolutely no subsidies? None? Like maybe bloated DOD contracts? Seriously, dude, come on.

I like flying on Airbussen because they're wider (=slightly more ass room) and quieter. My God, the noise on a B767... what the hell were they thinking? Gimme an A340 across the pond any day.

Oh and don't forget that most of of the "Made in USA" 787 is made outside the USA. "Assembled in USA" is I guess better than "Made in China" for our workers, but I expect Boeing to have an assembly plant there any year now. Airbus already does.

How can you say that Southwest is better. You've
never travelled on Jet Blue. As to the dirt under the seats on Southwest can you imagine the attention to the moving parts on the aircraft!
I'll take Jet Blue anytime;never lost my luggage.
Southwest did,,,

How can someone whose never even been on a JetBlue flight even write this article or have an opinion?? Are you kidding me? Is this even real journalism?

Southwest is cheaper and has more destinations (including MacArthur Airport on Long Island, which sure beats schlepping into Queens) but the inflight experience is *soooo* much nicer on JetBlue - cleaner, more room, an idiot box to stare at - I will always prefer JB for any flight longer than two or three hours.

I've flown thousands of hours on Southwest. They are reliable, safe and fun. Jet Blue's CEO stole the plans for Jet Blue from SWA, then he's too arrogant to stick to the formula. (He added a second aircraft to his fleet, duh?!) When Jet Blue has to start paying their employees union scale ($200/hour for captains) they will fade like the Cubs in August!

I fly both Southwest and jetBlue and I perfer the jetBlue brand over Southwest. jetBlue offers inflight amenity kit on "shut eye" flights which also include a hot towel service. In addition to their shut eye service, jetBlue also have more snack selection than Southwest. When it comes to inflight entertainment, jetBlue wins hands down with their DirecTV and XM Radio. The A320 and E190 are both really nice aircrafts and the A320 that jetBlue flies offer 34" to 36" of seat pitch in most rows and up to 39" in the exit row seats so their you actually get more legroom with jetBlue, plus a wider seat. Southwest seems to have one type of aircraft, but because they operate both older 737s and the NG 737s, they actually operate two type of aircraft since the older 737 and the NG 737 have different certification which means its like operating 2 aircraft so southwest itself does not follow its own model of operating one aircraft. On top of that, Southwest was looking into adding the E190 into their fleet and a simple google search will show that. When it comes to pay, jetBlue pilots may seem like their being pay below the average... however, when you look into it even more, most of jetBlue pilots are only with the company for a couple of years... and when you compare jetBlue's pay for new pilots and compare that to new pilots of other airlines, jetBlue actually pays alot more. But since this poll is about the brand, we should be more focus on what jetBlue and Southwest offers its customer and not its corporate structure... so with that said, jetBlue in the end have a better brand.

I can't speak to investing in one airline or the other; history seems to indicate that anyone who invests in airlines is on a fool's errand. With regards to brand strength, Southwest may have a more formidable presence because it serves more markets, has been around a lot longer, and is thus better known, but I will go out on a limb and say that only people who don't prefer JetBlue are those who have never flown JetBlue.

I'd just like to thank "wendell" up there for bashing B6's maintenance of their A320's. They recently signed up with Rome, New York based Empire Aero for C checks on their Airbus jets so maintenance issues are entirely America's. Living for so long in Buffalo, NY having to put up with such crummy US Airways and the other mainline carrier's crappy service and sky high fares that made Canadian airline's fares look good, both B6 and WN have done a wonder on our upstate NY economy. I fly them both whenever I can.

Having flown on both JetBlue and Southwest, I echo Bruce's comment above, that the only people who could possibly prefer Southwest over JetBlue are those who haven't flown JetBlue. The JetBlue brand is just overall superior - newer planes, much more legroom, those wonderful TVs, and a wide variety of snacks. I repeat, there's just no comparison between the two airlines. It's like comparing a bus ride to a limo ride.

If Southwest is so superior, why does Jetblue continually beat them in all travel rankings?

There is absolutely no comparison when comparing brands between the 2 LCC's. JetBlue blows Southwest away when it comes to what the customer gets for their ticket. Anyone who has flown both will attest to that. There is definitely a mutual respect between these 2 airlines. Unfortunately, JetBlue doesn't have the warchest to take on the Southwest behemoth right now... Only time will tell how this story ends...

Having flown both SWA and JetBlue recently my choice is definitely JetBlue. Assigned seats, great choice of snacks, entertainment, more room, clean, less hassle, etc.

I've used both carriers. JetBlue gets my vote hands down. No cattle car boarding, you get assigned seats and no overbooking. That alone is a winner. But add free TV at every seat, extra leg room and leather seats and it puts JetBlue as the clear winner. The only problem is they usually don't fly to the same destination from the same airports.

Having flown on both airlines, without a doubt JetBlue is the best. Live direct television, 100 channels of satelite music, plus extra wide leather seats and super legroom, have I said enough. Add your choice of five different transfat free snacks and as many whole cans of sodas as you can drink, or bottled water or juices. And did I mention, free headsets!!! Southwest doesn't even come close. Oh, I noticed that JetBlue has the newest planes.

Southwest is VERY proactive in handling customer complaints BEFORE the customer has a chance to complain. If an "incident" happens that could potentially generate complaints from a mojoity of people on a flight, ground crews are instructed to give those customers a form to fill out with their names, addresses, phone...etc. After this data is collected, it is overnighted to SWA headquarters in Dallas where response letters are generated and compensation is sent out with 48 hours. This limits the complaint letters that SW gets, which is why they are usually in the top 2 spots.

I'm a mother of four and I dont need to tell you what that means when I fly. I have flown both southwest and jetblue. Jetblue accomidates my family better. There is more room (confort is a must!) and as many snacks and drinks as my boys can put down. My boys always want to know if we will be flying jetblue because of the tv that they dont need to fight over the remote for! Let me tell you, peace and quiet for hours on end for me and fun for them. I love the assigned seating for obvious reasons and the free headsets are great! I'm not "up" on what percentage of the airplanes are made in the US or what the big deal is about the airline having two different types of planes but I will tell you what mothers and any person for that matter really care about and that is overbooking!!!
That's just mean! With jetblue, I have rights! You heard me! I have my bill of rights.... need I say more

I would not chose JetBlue simply because of the appalling way they treat their employees who are the reason those exectives make those six figure saleries. They make there money on the backs of the little people. Abusing and overworking the employees, cutting the four flight attendants down to three, with no pay raises for the extra work the three are taking on. Over working customer service agents without compensation and threating all employees job it they call in sick, so all employees come to work sick so as to not get in trouble. Flight attendants waiting for their aircraft arrive for seven hours and make two dollars an hour because they are not in flight so they do not make flight pay. Ridiculous! It was even more distressing to see David Neeleman's response to his own employees’ comments. His disparaging union-busting comments were totally without merit and entirely insensitive as he ridiculed publicly his own, overstressed employees. This was a unique moment when he should have reached out to them, complimented them, respected them, listened to them, and empathized with them. Obviously, this mismanagement has caused the employees to reach out for legal, union representation. And what workers wouldn’t want to join a union after operating in an environment of total management disorganization?

As they establish the “customer bill or rights,” perhaps they should also establish an “employee bill of rights” and the first “right” would be the right to join a union and bargain collectively without being trashed publicly by the CEO of the company.
I would encourage everyone to write JetBlue and protest the treatment of the employees who deliver that "JetBlue Experience". I will not be using JetBlue until they address these issues. SouthWest airlines embraces the employees rights, works with their union, has happy employees and customers, and makes money. They are clearly the winner!