JetBlue Airways and Alaska Airlines have a lot more similarities than differences, but there are still a few key differentiators that separate the two from each other. I recently split a New York-Seattle roundtrip between a JetBlue Airways Airbus A321 and Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900ER, both of which are each airline’s transcontinental workhorse. On the New York to Seattle leg, I flew Alaska, opting for JetBlue on the return to New York.

Having recently matched my Delta Gold status to Alaska MVP Gold, I was excited at the prospect of potentially being upgraded to First Class, a perk that JetBlue does not offer with its Mosaic program. Unfortunately, I missed the upgrade by one and instead ended up in Alaska’s relatively new Premium Class