While Southwest’s acquisition attempt of Frontier was getting all the press last week, JetBlue quietly started emailing their TrueBlue members about a relaunch of the program on September 27. When I spoke with CEO Dave Barger in March, he assured me that it would be “a best-in-class frequent flier program. It’s going to be very customer relevant.” Is he right? I’m not sure, but I do know that it’s really complicated.
I was planning on writing about the program in one post, but it started getting long and unruly. So, I’ve broken it down. Today I’m writing about the earning side of the program and tomorrow I’ll talk about the redemption side.
Let’s start with the old program. As a reminder, the last program gave you 2 points for a short haul trip, 4 points for a medium haul trip, and 6 points for a long haul trip. You got double points if you used jetblue.com and the only award was a free roundtrip ticket for 100 points. Pretty simple, yes, but pretty restrictive as well. Your points expired in 12 months regardless of your activity, and there were blackouts, inventory controls, and other restrictions.
The new program looks a lot like Virgin America’s in that it’s a spend-based program with varying redemption levels. You now earn 3 points for every $1 you spend on JetBlue or 6 points if you book at JetBlue.com. Well, sort of. It’s based on the amount of money you spend on the base fare, so taxes are excluded. Uh, well, some taxes are excluded. When you go to JetBlue.com, this is what you see:
That number at left is $39 and that’s what they consider the base fare. Technically, that’s the base fare plus a federal 7.5% excise tax that you rarely see broken out, but JetBlue will use that to determine points. You’ll end up paying $49.60 for that ticket once all the other taxes and fees are added in, but the $39 is what the earning will be based on. That means you get 234 points if you book on their site or 117 if you book elsewhere.
That’s not too tough, right? But now we have to talk about the bonuses. When I was first doing the math, this didn’t seem to be even remotely generous but that’s when I noticed that they have two types of bonuses you can get.
First they have the Go Big Bonus. This one rewards those who spend a lot. Instead of trying to explain it, I’ll just show you the grid they put out:
There’s also the Go Long Bonus. If you take 5 long haul roundtrip flights (each segment must be over 2,000 miles) within 12 months, then you get a 10,000 point bonus. So this one is to reward those who fly long hauls a lot, regardless of how much they spend.
Oh, and by the way, if you use the JetBlue Amex card, then you earn 1 point for every dollar you spend, but you earn 2 points when you buy JetBlue flights. So if you use your JetBlue Amex to buy tickets at JetBlue.com, you earn 8 points per dollar. Whew. My head just exploded.
Do you see how ridiculously complicated this is? I like to pride myself on breaking things down into more manageable explanations, but I’m having a lot of trouble here. Heck, I’m having trouble just understanding it myself.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about the redemption side. We actually know very little about it so far, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to get some more info before the post goes live.
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41 Comments on "Earning Points in JetBlue’s Complicated New TrueBlue Program (Part 1)"
While a FF programme based on spend is better than one based on miles, it should really be based on ticket profitability. If that US$70 short haul ticket costs the airline US$50 to operate, the airline should give out miles based on the US$20 difference. If that US$200 long haul ticket costs US$120 to operate, the customer should be credited with US$80 of miles.
Follow this approach, and there is no need to stipulate Go Big or Go Long bonuses – the airline ends up rewarding the customers who help its profit figures, rather than those who just represent turnover.
David SF – That was the old program. The new program lets you keep your miles as long as you’re active once every 12 months.
David – It should be based on profitability, but that’s even more complicated for the customer to understand. It’s really a tough sell, I think, though it is the right way to do it.
Do you know if the JetBlue AMEX cardholders get that ‘Go Big Bonus’ too?
Ember – Nope, AMEX points don’t count for that. You do get the 6 points per dollar on flight spend if you book at Jetblue.com but that’s the only bonus you can get to qualify for the Go Big Bonus.
Does any of us expect companies in this industry to make anything simple? Fares? What may or may not constitute a delayed flight? Mileage/points accrual and redemption? And, on and on!
Good to see UA announce that it has come up with a “new/improved” plan for yet another Chase/Mileage Plus card, actually three cards, each with its own minimal(?) annual fee, mileage/segment/points accrual rules, and invitation to a not-recently-closed Red Carpet Club.
This is so confusing. Why not keep it simple?
Jason H – Partners are coming soon
What I’m amazed at is that they don’t describe “sample” fliers. Its one of those things I want to pull out an excel spreadsheet and start modeling, but I think B6 should’ve done this for us already..
Hey Cranky,
You forgot about double point Wednesdays and the nite-owl bonus if you book between 1AM and 4AM EST.
In my mind, one of the simplest schemes is Air New Zealand’s Airpoints Dollars. I am not sure how the collection of points is calculated, but the rewards part of the programme is very simple – basically, if you have $300 Airpoints Dollars, you have $300 to spend on a ticket. From what I understand, there are no restrictions on which tickets you can buy or times you can buy them – they are simply like a voucher.
I don’t really think it matters how complicated it is. Most people don’t calculate their own points, they follow their account via statements or a program Web site.
CF,
Could you elaborate on how you would calculate profitability? Ron brings up a good point, which you acknowledge is “a problem” but that it is ideal from the airlines’ point of view. If calculating it is a problem, then why is it ideal?
[…] even a site like CrankyFlier.com needs two articles (Part1, Part2) to explain it, something seems wrong. It is just too […]
Cranky in this blog from Aug 3 you said the new JetBlue program “….looks a lot like Virgin America’s”.
Is there something brewing between JetBlue and Virgin America? This morning Virgin America announced in November they would be starting service between SFO-FLL and LAX-FLL with 2 daily nonstops between each city pair.
So what does JetBlue announce in the afternoon, you guessed it, nonstop service between SFO-FLL starting in November with 1 daily flight between the two cities.
Is JetBlue trying to wage war against Virgin America?
David SF – I think the move today is clearly aimed at Virgin America but the frequent flier program thing is probably just an agreement that they like the model. Let’s talk about this more tomorrow.
I wonder what happened to the idea to integrate JetBlue more into Lufthansa and his Miles&More program. Any words and information about this?
Christoph wrote:
It’s coming. JetBlue tells me that they’re working on partnerships now, and Lufthansa is on that list.
The company is screwing people with the magazine offer for old true blue points…they dont tell you if you click on it all the points are transferred to a host company…I lost all my points, spoke airline they dont care :-(
Yea i’m done too. I’ll go ahead and cancel this subscription. You state one thing than state the completely opposite. Enough is enough.
the new system sucks i take 20 flights a yr with jetblue what used to take me appx 6 round trips to earn a free tickt will now takes appx 12 round trips so who is really benifiting from this i guess delta will since i will not fly jet blue anymore
@ catty:
I calculated it will take me double the number of points,
which mostly I got from the jetblue blue amex card.
I am starting to look other airline loyalty programs.
I might switch to a hotel loyalty program instead.
A round trip that took 100 points now takes approv 22,500 points.
But also amex dollars are translating to 3 points to a dollar when
spent on non-jetblue purchases when they should be 6 points to the
dollar.
The only advantage of the new program is if you visit frequently
booked flights but if your destination always had trueblue seats
available you not getting a better deal.
I HAVE SOME POINTS BEFORE AND I WANT TO NOW HOW TO RECUPERATE THEM.
I actually like the program. I think it’s the best one out of all major carriers, especially considering 90% of the time jetblue has the lowest fare between TPA and JFK, which are my two major destinations. I’ve only been using it a couple months and already have redeemed a ticket and halfway to the next ticket.
I hate this new program. It’s complicated and misleading and even though i fly almost every month from FL to NY i only get enough pts to redeem 1/2 a flight a year.