If you have any JetBlue TrueBlue points and plan to travel several weeks from now, this is a great time to redeem them.
JetBlue offering 20% off award tickets
JetBlue is offering a 20% discount when you redeem TrueBlue points for flights:
- This is valid for bookings made by March 13, 2024
- This is valid for travel between May 1 and June 12, 2024; blackout dates of May 23 through May 27, 2024, apply
- Mint tickets are excluded from this sale
- There’s no registration required, but rather the rate shown will automatically reflect the discount
Even if you’re not sure you’ll be able to travel, keep in mind that JetBlue has no change or cancelation fees on most types of fares, so you can always book a TrueBlue ticket now, and then cancel it later. Similarly, if you’ve already booked any travel, you can see if the price hasn’t changed (or has only gone up a bit), in which case it could make sense to rebook.
This is lucrative for a revenue based program
JetBlue TrueBlue is a revenue based frequent flyer program. This means that the number of points required for a ticket is based on how much a ticket would cost in cash. Because of that, there’s ordinarily not a way to get outsized value with JetBlue points, since the points cost is correlated to the cash cost of a ticket. To be able to redeem TrueBlue points for more value is awesome.
For example, take a $141 fare from Palm Beach to New York (Blue Basic fares aren’t bookable with points, so this would be for the Blue fare).
If you booked a ticket with this fare on a date where the promotion doesn’t apply, you’d pay 8,800 TrueBlue points plus $5.60 in taxes & fees. That gives you a value of 1.54 cents per point, after subtracting the taxes & fees.
Meanwhile if you booked this on a date during the promotion period, you’d pay 7,000 TrueBlue points plus $5.60 in taxes & fees. That gives you a value of 1.93 cents per point, after subtracting the taxes & fees.
Suffice it to say that’s a much better value. Also keep in mind that if you have a JetBlue credit card, you can get up to a 10% rebate on award redemptions, stretching your points even further.
The only other potential better uses of JetBlue TrueBlue points would be redeeming on Qatar Airways, which is a fairly new redemption option.
Bottom line
If you’re going to be traveling in May or early June, then it’s definitely worth considering JetBlue’s TrueBlue award sale. At the moment you can get 20% off an award redemption, except on Mint flights. Usually it’s hard to get outsized value with a revenue based frequent flyer program, so promotions like this can really make a difference.
Do you plan on taking advantage of this JetBlue award sale?
