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If you haven’t heard yet, JetBlue’s frequent flyer program TrueBlue is running an incredible promotion right now– read this learn how to enter. They will match your Virgin America Elevate points balance for simply sending them a screenshot of the dashboard of your Elevate account, and then purchasing and flying a roundtrip flight on JetBlue before August 31, 2015.

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The screenshot you send to JetBlue should look like this.

The fact that you can easily pad your TrueBlue account balance (with up to 75,000 more TrueBlue points) if you have any Virgin America or SPG points (you can transfer SPG points to Virgin America Elevate at 1:1) makes the JetBlue Plus by Barclaycard a lot more interesting.

Why You Should Apply for the JetBlue Plus Card if You’re Doing the TrueBlue Points Match

On March 10 Barclaycard announced the issuance of four new JetBlue credit cards:

  • one that will replace the American Express JetBlue card that will now be called the JetBlue Rewards Card
  • The JetBlue Card
  • The JetBlue Plus Card
  • The JetBlue Business Card

Here is the summary of their benefits:

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(click to enlarge)

Read my post comparing these cards here.

JetBlue uses a revenue-based redemption system, so the award prices depend on the cash price of the ticket. One TrueBlue point is generally worth about 1.3 cents, sometimes more and sometimes less. That makes the sign-up bonus on the JetBlue Card worth about $130 (womp, womp), and the sign-up bonus on the JetBlue Plus card worth about $390 (not totally captivating, but somewhat more interesting).

As One Mile at at Time aptly pointed out, if you look at the rest of the benefits that come with the JetBlue Plus, you’ll see what makes having a large balance of TrueBlue points from the current points match promotion worth a lot more: a 10% redemption bonus. This means you get 10% of your TrueBlue points rebated after every redemption.

Let’s assume for a second that you sign up for the JetBlue Plus card. If you…

  1. rake in the maximum amount of TrueBlue points from the JetBlue/Virgin America points match promotion (75,000),
  2. meet the JetBlue Plus card’s minimum spending requirement of $1,000 in 90 days, and you get 30,000 TrueBlue points for that,
  3. redeem all 105,000 TrueBlue points over time, and get the 10% rebate for being a JetBlue Plus card holder (an additional 10,500 TrueBlue points)
  4. redeem those 10,500 TrueBlue points over time, and get the 10% rebate for being a JetBlue Plus card holder (an additional 1,050 TrueBlue points)
  5. etc, etc, until the end of time

…that means all in all, you would earn 116,550+ TrueBlue points worth $1,515+ in travel, of which 41,550 TrueBlue points ($540) would be thanks to the JetBlue Plus card.

I haven’t factored in the $99 annual fee that is not waived the first year, but the free checked bag and 50% discount on inflight purchase benefits should make up for it. If you want to keep the card past the first year, you get a 5,000 point bonus (worth about $65) on every account anniversary that helps balance out the annual fee that much more.
Screen-Shot-2016-03-10-at-3.20.02-PMIt may or may not be worth it you to sign up for the JetBlue Plus card, depending on how many points you’ll be earning from the JetBlue/Virgin America points match and how often you fly JetBlue, but I certainly think the card is worth more investigation now. Run your own evaluation with your own numbers to see for yourself.

Bottom Line

When I wrote about my opinion of JetBlue’s new credit cards back in March, I said the only card worth consideration is the JetBlue Plus– and pretty much only if you are a regular JetBlue flyer (three to four roundtrips per year). But with the current promotion JetBlue is running that can easily boost your TrueBlue account balance quickly, the value of the 10% rebate on redemptions you receive with the JetBlue Plus card would be magnified.

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.

With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!


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