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. 

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.

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...

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.

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?

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

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 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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?

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:

TrueBlue Rewards Partners

What's Worth the Trouble

Like any airline or hotel program, Jet Blue's TrueBlue program has some affiliate partners that give bonuses or offer point earning crossovers. They are of varying qualities and amounts - some easy and a great way to nab some extra points and others aren't as worth the hassle. 

A quick run down of points offers.

So, to get a quick idea of what may be worth your time, I've made this handy chart. What isn't listed is the badges that can also be earned from some of the affiliates, but I talk about those in my TrueBlue badges section.

So far, I've redeemed the e-Rewards and JetBlue by Amex offers. The e-Rewards is pretty quick and easy and so is the JetBlue Amex. These are by far the best two to start with for getting bonus TrueBlue points.

I'm currently waiting on some Marriott points to post from my Marriott branded Chase credit card, which will net me 5 points / dollar from booking directly with Marriott (+ 20% for the platinum level membership that comes with the card). I think the points are more valuable so I have them set in my Marriott profile to automatically transfer to JetBlue. It's been a few weeks since my statement posted and I am still waiting for the points.

Unfortunately the ShopTrue site has been "under construction" since November - but once it is back up it should be a great shopping portal to earn some extra rewards. I also tried to switch to Energy Plus, a third party energy retailer but their site doesn't seem to be letting me sign up. The last page in the registration process times out and leaves me without anything useful. I'll be checking back on it in a few weeks and posting if it goes through.

Next up I am planning to give Laithwaites wines a chance. The introductory offer is good, 15 bottles of wine for $69.99 plus $19.99 shipping and handling. It's a service, though, so be sure to cancel right after the first delivery or you'll be paying a lot more for less wine come the next billing period. This makes for some well-priced bottles of wine and nets over half the points needed for a domestic flight.

Have any experience with these other affiliates? I'd love to hear.

 - John

What's New with JetBlue - Feb 15

What's new with JetBlue

• JetBlue's stock has been rising lately - a great sign of the fortitude of the company despite the recent run-in with Hercules.
   

• Book by today (1/15/14) and receive 20% off domestic flight prices!

• From now until January 31st, you can earn a bonus 2,014 TrueBlue points when booking as a new customer through RocketMiles.

• Book a Getaway to Charleston, SC by January 15 and get 12 TrueBlue points per dollar spent! 

• Finally...by using the hashtag #IChipInFor to tweet about how you volunteer in your life and what organizations are important to you by January 20 and you could win $1,000 for a charity of your choice! That's a great way to get a guy who never tweets to be active on Twitter :D

- John