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.

After the US-American merger, American has deemed that it no longer benefits from the JetBlue partnership since it has an increased footprint throughout the Northeast. It's grown into a bigger, better airline that can stand more freely on its own and will probably benefit from cutting ties ultimately. And while losing the partnership isn't great for those who took advantage of earning extra points on the American routes, there is a silver lining.

In the process of the US-American merger, the airline had to give up spots at Washington to other airlines. During this process, JetBlue was able to grab 20 of the open slots and gives itself a stronger foothold at the key location. Recently, they've started increasing direct flights to and from Washington - showing that they plan to make good use of the newly gained landing strips.

Partnerships with Hawaiian Air and Emirates, however, are still going strong. It is unknown if JetBlue will try to fill the void with another airline partnership, or if it will consider joining an alliance of airlines - though this seems unlikely. JetBlue has made a strong habit of flying against the wind in many aspects of the airline industry, so it may find itself better poised to partner with non-traditional airlines or other companies in the future, just as it has in the past.

Any points earned before March 31st, 2014 will still flow into TrueBlue accounts, but after that the hose will be turned off. Here's the rewards chart for reference if you're planning on claiming points just under the wire:

Reward points for flying select AA flights, good until March 31st, 2014.

- John