When JetBlue hired Brad Farmerie to design the airline's first business class menu in 2014, the chef didn't bother to study airplane food. "I didn't want to be daunted by what the onboard cooking possibilities looked like," he says, "I was going to make sure our headline dishes got onboard."

For the executive chef of New York's swanky, meaty Saxon + Parole, that includes a dry-aged beef burger topped with Havarti and bacon relish at 30,000 feet. "It's a real burger, not one of those wimpy nebulous patties," Farmerie says. JetBlue's "Mint" class flyers get lobster poached in a corn custard with pickled chili peppers and French toast with figs and toasted pecans. A watermelon salad with feta, basil, and the nutty crunch of pumpkin seeds. Fontina-stuffed gnocchi, black truffle crostini. Cold carrot and ginger soup. Brooklyn's hippest ice cream. Portobello mushroom mousse with whiskey jelly. Oxtail pot roast.

Eating this well usually means spending $1,500 to fly first class across the country, but JetBlue charges half that, or less, for Mint. Yes, Mint is still a luxury service. But if JetBlue can make it work on a big enough scale to put pressure on its larger competitors, it might incentivize some much needed competition and innovation, and make flying better for everybody.