What's New with JetBlue - May 20

What's New This Week

This week has been a crazy ride - most notably due to JetBlue giving away 10 free 2-month passes in celebration of their 10th J.D. Power award - but that's not all.

Silver Airways

As I covered previously, Silver Airways is among the newest partner companies that JetBlue offers additional TrueBlue points for. Taking any participating segment from Silver using your TrueBlue number will get you 250 TrueBlue points. But for many of us, Silver is a relative unknown airline and you may be wondering when or why you'd ever want to fly them. 

All You Can Jet Passes - 10 of Them!

A Month of Free Travel on JetBlue!

Wow! What a sweepstakes to offer! In commemoration of JetBlue winning their tenth J.D. Power and Associates award for Highest in Customer Satisfaction among Low-Cost Carriers in North American, they're giving away ten passes for unlimited travel from September 2 to November 2. That's right - as many flights as you want to wherever you want for ten lucky winners! 

What's New with JetBlue - April 14

Few, Big Updates

A new partner airline and some fancy new paint on an airbus happened this past week - click through to read the details.

ShopTrue Points

Earning TrueBlue Points with ShopTrue

Now that ShopTrue is back from the dead, here's a quick primer on using the new site to nab some extra TrueBlue points for everyday purchases - something which hasn't been the easiest to do, until now.

What's New with JetBlue - May 6th

This Week with JetBlue...

JetBlue adds a ton of new flights, flashes some of its corporate structure and annual reporting on charity work, and more!

True Blue Points for Mother's Day

Limited 1-800 Flowers Promotion

Good until 5/12/14, you can earn 30 TrueBlue points for every dollar spent on their site. As I mentioned before, this is a much better deal than the 20pt/dollar FTD partnership that was previously available.

New TrueBlue Partners

More Ways to Earn TrueBlue Points

Seems like the past few months JetBlue has had a habit of making small changes to the TrueBlue program without any large announcements. This has left a bit of discontinuity between the featured partner programs and the badges - it'll be interesting to see if the two continue to get more out of sync or eventually even out.

Case and point - the Bloom Badge is for earning TrueBlue points via FTD purchases. FTD, however, is no longer listed as a partner to get points through - but now 1-800 Flowers is. Will they update the Bloom Badge? Will these types of partnerships always be rotating? I wish I knew.

What's New with JetBlue - April 30

What's New with JetBlue - April 30

This week in JetBlue news - change-ups in corporate structure, more giving back to the community, yet another update to the TSA Pre✓™ program, and more!

The Return of ShopTrue!

At Long Last, ShopTrue is Back!

It's been well over six months since the ShopTrue domain went blank. For a while it had a 'coming soon...' landing page before finally the domain www.shoptrue.com fell off the internet altogether. Despite vaguely reassuring messages from TrueBlue support that ShopTrue would one day return, I had began to give up hope, until...

Bags VIP

Be Ahead of the Pack

JetBlue has started offering a Bags VIP service which allows for a delivery of your luggage to your residential, business, or hotel destination directly from the airport. No more baggage claim, no waiting around!

What's New with JetBlue - April 23

This Week in JetBlue

A spring sale to celebrate the end of winter! Finally some good weather in the Northeast and a reason to cheer. Also this week, a revolutionary twist on the coat check, more inspiring stories of donating all from JetBlue this week.

Using Marriott Stays to get TrueBlue Points

Stay at Marriott & Earn TrueBlue Points

When I took a trip earlier this month upstate, I decided it might be a good time to finally set my Marriott rewards to redeem towards a few TrueBlue points. Marriott allows you to choose whether you want to earn bonus Marriott points for your account or in other reward programs. With the Marriott card from chase, you earn 5x points for Marriott hotel stays.

New Badges from TrueBlue

New Badges for Classic Rewards

Without any real fanfare or official announcement, JetBlue recently released some new badges in the TrueBlue program. What's really left, though? You already get badges for visiting a city once, three times, and so on. There's already a badge for transferring referral points, many for social media, and even one for Thanksgiving Day.

These new badges are worth points and tie in very strong to the rewards one can get, so what are they?

One Thing That's Green

Let JetBlue Plant Trees for Your City

JetBlue is offering a voting contest via Facebook, One Thing That's Green, for you to vote on a city where they will build a green space.

What's New with JetBlue - April 9

What's New

A new ad campaign, educating on the weather, and more this week from JetBlue...

Guide to Badges Part V

Guide to Badges Part V

It's been a while, but here's the next installment in the guide to JetBlue badges. The badges this round aren't quite as big on the rewards, but are helpful to progress closer to level six where more social media badges can be earned, which give out TrueBlue points.

The Breakdown

These are mostly partner badges, so they may require more effort than most badges. I was able to gift $10 worth of TrueBlue points to a charity for just under 1,400 points. While this was probably a badge that I could've skipped, I think it's great to be able to give back by using points. 

The Power Up badge requires you to change electricity providers for a few months. If you do some research, there is a lot of bad info out there about Energy Plus. However, they advertise a lower rate than you already have during the first few months, so as long as you can cancel within ~3 months it will most likely save you money. I cancelled mine already because I didn't want to find out what everyone else seems to know - the prices can skyrocket at random and become a huge rip off. Only tackle this one if you'll remember to cancel.

For More the Marriott, I used a recent stay at a Fairfield Inn to have the points transfer to my TrueBlue account instead of to Marriott points. Using the Marriott card I was able to get about 500 points for a $100 hotel room. This will of course vary by how expensive of a hotel you choose, but can be lucrative if you've had your fill of Marriott points already.

Finally, the Bloom badge was an easy score from Valentine's day when I ordered flowers for my girlfriend from FTD. Although they delivered the wrong bouquet, it was good to get the badge and a few extra points. Can't say I've had good experiences with FTD in the past, so this was probably my last purchase with them, but if you need some flowers, why not grab a few points along the way.

This should put you pretty close to, if not already at, level six. Some easier badges await you there, which I will cover in the next segment. 

 - J

Did You Start the Mosaic Challenge yet?

My Entry to the JetBlue Mosaic Challenge

JetBlue recently re-introduced the Mosaic Challenge for 2014. After about a week and a half, I received a response to my request to join the challenge. The email is extremely simple, with no graphics or real formatting, but covers all the bases none the less. The email isn't personalized in any way, and directs you to track your own progress through the TrueBlue section of the JetBlue website.

Get Money Back for Your April 1st Flight

An April Fools Deal That Isn't a Joke!

It has almost become commonplace for most retail oriented companies to use April Fools day as a marketing opportunity to do a non-joke sale, promotion, or offer. It's an easy way to get people's attention and the consumer wins too.

Flying on JetBlue for Free...from Hawaii?

A Round-About Way for Round Trip Airfare

It's no big secret that JetBlue is the 'little' guy of the airline industry. It isn't a part of any major alliance, and in fact just lost some of its point sharing benefits with American Airlines. But that doesn't mean it doesn't still have a few tricks up its sleeves - one of which is the Hawaiin Airlines partnership. You'll be hard pressed to see any blogger or churning touting the Hawaiian credit card, but if you're looking to fly JetBlue, it isn't a bad deal.

How the Program Works

In an unusual setup, Hawaiian Airlines gives a general guideline to how redeeming miles to JretBlue works, but does not actual transfer them. The Hawaiian website provides a chart giving the estimated cash value that increments of miles count towards JetBlue flights,but to get the actual redemption value you need to call into the Hawaiian Miles Service Center (1-877-HA-MILES) to book your JetBlue flight using your miles. The below chart may serve as a guideline for the value to expect, but I have yet to bok a flight using this method and so cannot verify the process personally.

To compare the value to TrueBlue points, instead of just monetary worth, we can use a trip from JFK to SFO. The flight is on a Friday, because I wanted to to get close to the $339 value category on the Hawaiian chart. This is relevant for the 35,000 miles you get as a bonus from the credit card (to be covered later).

 This flight costs 23,000 TrueBlue points, meanijg that Hawaiian Airline miles are valued at about 2/3 of a TrueBlue point for redemption. However, for the true worth of these transfers the credit card offer needs to be looked at.

Hawaiian Airlines Barlcay Card

This card offers 35,000 Hawaiian Airlines miles as a signup bonus for spending $1,000 in the first three months after receiving the card. As noted earlier, this can be redeemed for flights on JetBlue that vary from $260-$339 in worth.

The catch here is that the annual fee is not waived for the first year. If we factor in the $90 annual fee, then the value decreases down to $242 for 35,000 Hawaiian miles for our flight example above. This still puts it within the 35,000 mile range on the chart, but basically any worth is brought down by close to $100 thanks to the fee. While this isn't the best deal out there, it's one of the few opportunities to get be able to use other miles to book with JetBlue. Other than using a generic travel card to book rewards with (a la Barclay Arrival or Chase Sapphire Preferred), JetBlue has rare opportunities such as this.

Final Remarks

While the lack of annual fee waiving is a disappointment, you're still coming out on top with at least $200 in free JetBlue travel. With a low bonus requirement, it shouldn't be too much of a pain to get the miles either, but I don't think this one is high on anyone's list.

 - John 

Is the New EveryDay℠ Card from American Express Useful?

The New Amex EveryDay℠ Card

A little earlier than anticipated, American Express has just released a new card that eschews its classic approach to card holders. The new card is a combination of both the newer direction Amex has been going in with the Blue Cash cards and also the traditional membership rewards program that it is famous and well regarded for.

So is the card worth it for everyday spending? For churning? Paying attention to at all when it comes to JetBlue? The answer isn't so simple.

What's New with JetBlue - March 25

Additional codeshares, an overall services review, a new store at the T5 Terminal, and a story of amazing customer service this week from JetBlue.

Amex Sign Up Bonus Restrictions

One Time Use for Signup Rewards

Word on the street is that come May 1, 2014, American Express will limit the bonuses of each of its card to one per lifetime. Previously, you needed to wait 365 days before signing up again for the same card you had cancelled before. According to rumors, in addition to this restriction you will be ineligible to get the bonus points/miles for any Amex past the first time you get a card.

What's New with JetBlue - March 21

New Routes, New Ways to Give Back

While it is great news that JetBlue now offers flights to Detroit, what is really special is how they made an impact on the community as they began to touch down for the first time. Partnering with the nonprofit First Book, JetBlue went to one of the lowest performing schools in Michigan and donated over 1,000 books, 30 laptops, and an afternoon of time by its pilots and employees to help give children a better shot to improve their education and lives. A great video and a great gesture.

Mosaic Challenge - Earn Free Mosaic Status through 2015

Will You Rise to the Occasion?

Wow! JetBlue has really gone and outdone themselves this time. While many airlines and hotel reward programs will offer matching, i.e. if you're mega ultra platinum on airline A you can get a similar or equivalent status on airline B. This makes a lot of sense in the travel world which is forever becoming more competitive. 

Did You Get the Bloom Badge?

 

Finally, the Bloom Badge!

Well it certainly was nice to get the FTD points added to my TrueBlue account just days after my purchase for Valentine's day, but the badge...that took some time. I waited over a month before contacting JetBlue about my lack of badge. And what did they have to say about it?

The End of American Airlines Partnership with JetBlue

An End to Extra Points

This week American Airlines and JetBlue announced the end of their partnership program, wherein flyers could earn TrueBlue points for certain flights on American Airlines and vice versa. The program was largely a great bonus for those who flew from JFK to Spain or other European countries directly, since JetBlue does not offer those routes. This chance to earn TrueBlue points was a fantastic opportunity - but now it's over.

What's New With JetBlue - March 11

This Week With JetBlue...

This week, JetBlue adds new flights, cancels a partnership with another airline, and throws a curveball at a flight that until now Delta has had a monopoly on:

What's New with JetBlue - March 3

More Storms, Kudos, and Deals

Forbes honors JetBlue's Chief Marketing Officer, Marty St. George, by putting him in the running for the Cojones Awards, acknowledging the great message that JetBlue delivers and communicates when it comes to offering great value to customers for a great price.

Marriott Points

Best Earning Strategy for Marriott Rewards

One of JetBlue's partners is the Marriott hotel chain. You can earn TrueBlue points 
instead of Marriott reward points when staying at any of the branded Marriott hotels. Once you add your TrueBlue number to your Marriott account and set your preferences, points will automatically be deposited into your account with Jet blue. There are some details to 
the partnership which may not be obvious at first, so be sure to be mindful when using 
the partnership to cross-earn points.

Go Packs are Back!

JetBlue Once Again Offering GoPack™ 

What is a GoPack™, you ask? It's a great opportunity for people who take popular flight routes often to save a ton of money on flights. You can purchase a pack of 6 or 10 flights for a flat rate and they last for several months, during which you can take the number of flights purchased anytime.

What's New with JetBlue Feb. 25

The Altitude Adjustment Sale

Another Sale and New Routes!

As seems to be the norm, JetBlue has another sale going on currently with flight tickets starting at $55. They've also taken the first flight on a new route!

JetBlue Community

An Online Forum for Everything JetBlue 

For those of us interested in making the most out of travel, there exist many 
communities of like minded people to share and cultivate ideas,strategies,and tips 
around cost efficient and enjoyable air travel. Whether it be for business or pleasure, 
the internet is is a great place to share and find information pertaining to airlines and 
their reward programs. Websites like flyer talk, blogs like well traveled mile,and many 
different subreddits are all dedicated to travel in general. 

I Decided to Buy JetBlue Points

Oops, I Bought TrueBlue Points...

In my never ending quest for more TrueBlue badges, I had a great idea recently: to buy TrueBlue points. Usually this thought should never cross anyone's mind, as even the most lucrative and highly valued airline reward points are never even close to what they cost when purchased directly from an airline. In this case, JetBlue starts points at an increment of 1,000 for $37.50. Certainly they're not the most expensive in the industry, but this isn't a deal by any stretch either.

What's New with JetBlue Feb. 18

Birthday Cakes, Customer Feedback, and more!

This week in the world of JetBlue, employees duked it out to see who could make the best birthday cake for JetBlue's 14th birthday! As well as...

Family Pooling

Keeping It All in the Family

What's Family Pooling

Family pooling is an original twist on sharing airline rewards with people in your family. Many airlines will allow spouses to transfer or share miles together if you can provide you have the same name, but JetBlue's pooling program allows you to establish a family with anyone you consider family - whether or not you're related. You can all pool points to more easily book reward flights for free and plan a vacation with ease. In addition, it's another badge for your collection once you have your first family member join you!

Is ShopTrue Gone?

The URL That's Been Down for Months

Back in early November, I wrote about the JetBlue ShopTrue portal being down. When I reached out to the customer support, I was told to keep an eye on it as they were re-designing the site and a new version would be up soon. Now over three months later the domain is a dead end - what gives?

JetBlue and Winter Storm Pax

What's New with JetBlue Feb. 12

This week in JetBlue News...

• JetBlue turns 14 years old! Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday JetBlue!

You're an Angsty Teen Now

Today JetBlue turns 14! It seems like just yesterday the first flight was taking off...

JetBlue Joins TSA Pre✓™

Now On Board with the TSA Security Program

While I wrote about JetBlue starting to accept TSA Pre-check™ back in November, at the time only a handful of airports were able to accommodate JetBlue with the expedited screening process. As of this week, however, JetBlue has expanded the program!

Guide to Badges Part IV

Getting Those Points

By now you've amassed a little over 3,000 TrueBlue points without spending a dime if you've been following my badge guides - nice job. It's going to get a lot tougher from here on out to reach level 5, but it's still attainable. The next round of badges will take a little more time and effort, but are still quite worthwhile in the long run. If you've been flying JetBlue at all, you'll also be adding first time visit badges (or third of sixth visit badges) to any of the locations you've been flying to or from. In addition to those, check out the following:

Blue's News Feb. 5

What's New with JetBlue

• Hope you were paying attention during the Super Bowl - JetBlue gave away FREE FLIGHTS during halftime, to anyone who went to their site and clicked a button! Incredible giveaway, incredible value! Those who got flight vouchers can see hundreds of dollars towards free travel - where would you go if you had a one way trip somewhere for free (or where are you going to go)? 

JetBlue Giveaway 2x for V-Day

Instagram, Tweet, or Facebook to Win

Currently JetBlue is hosting a really easy promotion with two grand prizes. All it takes is posting a picture of you and your significant other to win a romantic trip for two this Valentine's day. You can post on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram using the hashtag #SAVacation.

Blue's News - Jan 29

What's new with JetBlue

• JetBlue has partnered with Eithad Airlines, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, to codeshare 40 routes throughout the US. Eithad plans to start routes to Los Angeles this summer and more routes will be shared after.

Free TrueBlue Points for Valentine's Day

Use a JetBlue Partner for Valentine's Day

Valentine's day is fast approaching, and being the forward thinking person I am, I have begun to consider what to do this year for my not-insignificant other. Last year we enjoyed an amazing dinner at Delmonico's in NYC, but this year I am certainly tempted to kill two birds with one stone and incorporate a gift from FTD into the holiday.

As a JetBlue partner, FTD will let you earn 20 points per dollar when you use the JetBlue partner link. The fine print on the deal is pretty standard: gift card purchases are not eligible, shipping and service fees do not apply, etc. 

With a reasonable purchase of $20-40 worth of flowers or chocolates, you can easily net 400-800 TrueBlue points! Conveniently (and dangerously) FTD displays the points you'll earn beneath their products, just in case math isn't your strong suite. 

While this is nice, it doesn't help narrow down the seemingly unending combinations of flowers, chocolates, and ribbons that FTD seems more than ready to sell to you - which is why I have chosen my top three picks from the site in order from least to most expensive (least to most points!):

1. The Deeply Devoted™ Bouquet by FTD® - VASE INCLUDED - No one was ever upset by received a rose on Valentine's day, so most likely your significant other won't either. It's definitely on the lower end of FTD's selection t $29.99, even though it could be had for a lot less if you went to the store and got it yourself. But, for the "deeply devoted" person, this may make a suitable gift that'll net you 400 TrueBlue points. Be warned, the page will automatically try to upgrade you to the $39.99 version!

2. Memorable Moments Bouqet - VASE INCLUDED - Yeah, you know what you're doing with this one. At $69.99 you're not breaking the bank but you're also clearly out to let that special someone know that they're...memorable. It's not tacky, which means it was hard to find on FTD's site, and will rake in 1,400 points if you choose to go with it. Again, beware the automatic "upgrade" on the page.

3.Gifts from the Heart Ultimate Valentine's Day Gift - Woah, are you planning to propose or something here? Dropping $169.99 on this ultimate gift will result in not only a romantically fulfilling evening, but also a whopping 3,400 TrueBlue points which is the better half of a free domestic flight. This gift is so ultimate that there isn't even an upgrade option that they try to push on you - you've already hit the highest tier of romanticism and financial carelessness. Kudos to you, friend. 

And don't worry, I'll remind you again before the big day hits.

 - John

JetBlue Bill of Rights

True Customer Care

One of the best parts about JetBlue, besides the awesome in flight perks, cool company culture, and affordable tickets is their dedication to customers via their Bill of Rights. JetBlue established a guidelines so that when unforeseen circumstances arise you can know exactly what to expect. This is especially important with all of the recent delays and cancellations in the northeast with the snowstorms and vortexes. 

Blue's News Jan 21

What's new with JetBlue

• Another killer storm caused some outages and delays for JetBlue in the Northeast...
  
   
• Detroit Free Press has an article on getting a better seat for your next flight, and rightly notes that JetBlue has 2-3 more inches on many of its planes. Check out the article for more tips as well.
  
  
• Otherwise a slow news week! Check in Friday for a review of JetBlue's Passenger Bill of Rights.

- John

Travel Alerts & MLK Day

Change/Cancellation Fees Waived for Jan 21 and 22

With some incoming storms in the Northeast, there have been many preemptive flight changes and cancellations. JetBlue is waiving change and cancellation fees for flights tomorrow and Wednesday as a result. Most of the affected airports are NYC metro, Massachusetts, and other northeast hub regions. The full list of affected airports is available at the JetBlue travel alerts page.

In slightly better news, happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day and thanks to JetBlue to celebrating it in a really meaningful way! The philanthropy this company puts forth is amazing and always uplifting.