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