Plan Your Meetings

JetBlue launches new service for corporate meeting planners

Corporate meeting planners have a new outlet for booking group travel — this time with a low-fare airline.

JetBlue’s new CompanyBlue Meetings program steps into a niche market legacy carriers such as Southwest and Delta seem to have abandoned, providing booking services and discounted tickets for corporate meeting planners at jetblue.com/companybluemeetings or 888-JETBLUE, option 4.

The service is dedicated to planners booking for 15 or more corporate employees flying to the same destination with a single company-billing source. Special promotions apply to groups booking prior to July 1; afterwards, planners will receive one complimentary travel certificate per every 40 people booked to fly to the same destination on the same date, and a credit for future travel equal to the dollar value of the average fare (minus taxes and fees).

For travel at least 60 days in the future, JetBlue will hold seats for two weeks without a deposit, allowing final payment and submission of traveler names 30 days prior to departure. As long as the 15 person minimum is maintained, the airline also will allow planners to release 10 percent of seats up to 60 days prior to departure without penalty, or change 10 percent of total number of seats booked without paying the airline’s $30 change fee. Cancellations may be made up to 30 days prior to departure; the $50 per person deposit would not be refunded, but no additional penalties would be applied.

The airline’s newly instituted Customer Bill of Rights insures customers will receive meaningful compensation for inconveniences caused by flight delays or cancellations. The airline serves 51 destinations with more than 550 flights daily to destinations such as Austin and Houston, Texas; Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.; and Nashville, Tenn., as well as Bermuda, Cancun and Aruba. In May, the airline is scheduled to begin service to San Francisco, Calif.