In Flight Reviews, Flung writers provide key information about flights they take in order to leave the flying public better informed in an age of frustration, obfuscation and increasingly unfriendly skies.

LAX —> JFK on JetBlue Flight 524

Flight: JetBlue 524 from Los Angeles LAX to New York JFK in Mint class (the airline’s equivalent of business class)

Scheduled Date and Time: Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018 at 12:43pm

Check In and Security: I checked in online before arriving and was not checking bags, so didn’t need to deal with check-in at the airport. There was, however, a separate check-in line for Mint and Mosaic passengers.

I was through security in less than five minutes in the TSAPre line. The other lines looked much longer.

The Terminal: No real advantage came with Mint class while I was waiting to board–in other words, there was no lounge for Mint passengers, even though it’s the equivalent of business class.

The terminal itself was fine but not inspired, with decent food options, but no real shopping/browsing to be done.

Boarding and Departure: Boarding was on time and blissfully uneventful. I boarded before most passengers because of my ticket class. Departure was on time.

The Seat: The key factor in considering Mint class on cross-country flights such as this one–the seats lie flat. With six hours in the air, this is no small perk. The seats aren’t as wide as what you get in business class on international flights, but they’re pretty dang good.

The seats are arranged in a 2-1-2-1 format, meaning that every other row has, on both sides of the aisle, either two seats next to each other or a single seat to itself. I didn’t know about this and ended up in a window seat next to a perfectly nice guy who right after takeoff promptly converted his seat into a bed a fell asleep. In this seat, in this situation, there is no escape without waking your neighbor or climbing over him. This is Mint’s principle defect, in my opinion, although you’re still in a lie-flat seat for generally less than half of what other airlines charge for the same privilege. The seat also doesn’t go into as many positions as I would have liked between sitting up straight and lying down flat, but this is a seriously small quibble.

If you are traveling alone do everything in your power to get one of the single seats–you will have so much space to yourself. (Although the lie flat is a little longer in the double seats, so if you’re tall, there’s that). In my seat, on the other hand, there wasn’t a lot of tabletop space and I had to share what I did have with the guy next to me, which if you have the guy next to me might mean no table space for you, ahem.

I loved the bottled water nook with a bottle waiting for me when I boarded, and also the nook for my iPhone. I quickly discovered that one of my USB ports didn’t work very well. Luckily I had another–each seat comes with two, and also comes with traditional power outlets. There was a cool little glove compartment, like in a car, but nowhere good to stow my laptop.

The pillow and blanket were great.

Food and Drink: The food offerings felt very business/first class, starting with a welcome drink that was super, sort of like a virgin mojito (or with Greg goose vodka if you so chose). The food I had was good, but the vegetarian options were a little limited. Each passenger chose three of the five dishes listed on the menu, all created in a partnership with the NYC restaurant Saxon + Parole–only two were vegetarian, and neither of these was served hot. I chose just the two–a watermelon salad and an orzo salad, both pictured above. (The other three dishes were pan-seared seabass, lemon chicken, and pulled pork rice rolls.)

My pre-landing cappuccino made with Brooklyn Roasting Company beans was delicious, and I drank it alongside a Compost Cookie from New York City’s Milk Bar.

Bathrooms: A dedicated bathroom served Mint passengers, and they had access to two shared with economy class as well. All were standard airplane bathrooms.

Entertainment: The headphones weren’t of the noise-canceling kind, which came as a slight disappointment, but they worked well. Movie offerings were fine but not the most extensive ever: I watched Red Sparrow when I wasn’t asleep in my lie-flat bed.

Staff: The crew could not have been nicer. Even in business class, it rarely feels like anyone is genuinely happy to make your flight a, as it did here.

Misc: Items in the amenity kit came in a bag from Hopper Goods that I like so much I’ve replaced my permanent makeup bag with it. The bag contained socks, eye mask, lip balm, lotion, refreshing face spray, toothbrush kit, and earplugs.

Landing: We landed early, thanks to favorable winds and, as I always suspect, estimated flights times that give the airlines wiggle room.

The author used a combination of Chase Ultimate Rewards points and cash to pay the $648 one-way fare for this flight.