

The verdict was easy: The JetBlue single seat in Mint was the best domestic business-class hard product in the US. Of those 159 seats, 16 are Mint, in three rows of 2-2 and two rows of 1-1 throne seats. Mint-equipped A321s have 159 seats, far fewer than JetBlue's standard A321s with 200. Madonna was followed by another 1980s throwback, The Smiths' "This Charming Man," definitely not a cheery song, and then by The Cure's "Friday I'm in Love," a far better tune for putting people in a nice mood before boarding - which began at 10:50am on the dot, as the gate monitors had promised. The soundtrack provided by those loud songs over the PA was interesting. The seat map showed clearly that the odd-numbered rows in Mint were arranged 2-2, while those four coveted thrones were found in the even-numbered rows. When we booked, only one solo seat was left, 4F, and we quickly grabbed it on the JetBlue site. You'll have no seatmates and a minisuite with a door, a luxury found only in long-haul international first class (and rarely business) on some airlines. If you're flying Mint, there is one thing to keep in mind: You can experience the unique (for the US) "throne" seat in rows 2 and 4. The flight earned 4,464 True Blue points in my account, worth $58. The one-way fare for the flight we selected, a Saturday-morning run from JFK to San Francisco (SFO), came to a relatively cheap $758 which we paid for with The Platinum Card® from American Express, earning 3,790 points worth $72 at TPG's current valuations. So it was time to review Mint again after our most recent take on it in 2017. With an excellent seat and service plus attractive prices, Mint has become a TPG favorite for coast-to-coast flights.

Available only on the largest airplane JetBlue flies, the Airbus A321, Mint rapidly gained a loyal following and challenged the legacy carriers to keep up - especially since the airline expanded Mint service in 2016 on flights from Boston and other cities, not just New York-JFK. In 2014, it launched its Mint business class on coast-to-coast flights, featuring lie-flat seats as well as the airline's trademark live television. Just 18 years old, JetBlue is a newcomer to the lucrative market for transcontinental business-class seats in the US.

These scores were used to determine the winners at the 2018 TPG Awards, where JetBlue’s Mint product on the A321 was named the Best Domestic Business Class of the year.

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