American carrier jetBlue is currently celebrating its 25th year of operation. And amidst ongoing news of blown mergers, failed partnerships and subsequent financial troubles, the airline fires back with a spectacular promotion. If you fly jetBlue to 25 different destinations before the year ends, you will be rewarded with 25 years of Mosaic1 status, a frequent flyer tier that grants free checked bags on jetBlue (and possibly even United Airlines) flights.
The terms and conditions of the promotion are straightforward. All you need to do is to own a jetBlue Mosaic account and credit all necessary flights with the airline to it. You will be rewarded like this:
- Travelling to 15 different destinations: 150,000 TrueBlue points
- Travelling to 20 different destinations: Additional 200,000 TrueBlue points
- Travelling to 25 different destinations: 25 years of Mosaic1 tier
The biggest catch of this promotion is that Blue Basic fares are excluded from this promotion, making the cheapest tickets ineligible. Your origin airport also won’t count towards the promotion – if you fly from New York to Orlando, only Orlando is registered. You’d have to book (and fly) a roundtrip to have both cities registered. If you have a connecting flight, both your destination and connecting airport count towards the promo. Award Flights, Cash + Points bookings and JetBlue Vacations bookings, are eligible for this promotion, too.
While the airline recently cut several destinations from its network, among them notable names like Miami International Airport, jetBlue still serves more than 100 destinations. Roughly 2/3 of them are in the United States, with the bulk of international destinations in the Caribbean, Canada and Latin America. From Europe, jetBlue connects Amsterdam, London, Madrid, Paris and Rome to its hubs in Boston and New York.
jetBlue also offers a status match to American citizens.
TrueBlue Points
As mentioned before, you can earn up to 350,000 TrueBlue points. That seems to be the much more worthwhile part of the offer. Redemption options start at 23,000 points for an economy class roundtrip between Los Angeles and New York, with very low surcharges of only US$11 (~€10). That price drops to 16,000 points when travelling without a checked bag.
Flights in Mint business class on the same route start at 60,200 points per way, with the same low surcharges applying.
Finding fares like this requires a bit of work, as jetBlue uses dynamic pricing. The airline’s best fare finder is a worthwhile tool in that regard. Sadly, during our research, it frequently crashed when looking for transatlantic award availabilities.
TrueBlue Status Benefits
Since jetBlue is not part of any major alliance, you won’t get perks like alliance-wide lounge access out of this promotion. However, you can enjoy the following perks:
Mosaic 1 benefits on jetBlue flights:
- Priority boarding
- Priority security (where available)
- Priority check-in
- Free same day flight changes (available 24 hours before original departure – Blue Basic fare excluded)
- 2 free checked bags
- Free Even More Space seats during check-in (Blue Basic fare excluded)
- 24/7 Mosaic support hotline
- Free beer, wine and liquor on board
All in all, this seems like a pretty great bundle to enjoy for the next quarter of a century… but: As mentioned in the introduction, jetBlue is currently passing through financial difficulties. Even a merger with (or acquisition by) United Airlines is possible. Because of that, there is no way to say how many of the supposed 25 years you will be able to enjoy your status. Maybe jetBlue’s new owners will honour the promotion, maybe they won’t. Maybe the airline goes bankrupt on its own.
While it would be nice to get the status benefits even for only five or ten years out of this deal, it’s very well possible you won’t be able to enjoy them 25 months.
Bottom Line
While we have seen a fair share of spectacular promotional offers in the past, this only counts among them on the surface. The challenge seems fun and the reward is fair. But the terms & conditions of the promotion are structured in a way that it seems more like a cash grab to bump summer and autumn sales by the airline, than actually rewarding customers. Add the fact that the promised 25 years of perks seem fairly questionable, and you have an offer that seems unattractive when aiming for the biggest prize.
If you are still interested in doing a run, forum users have calculated that you need to spend approx. US$4,000 (~€3,435) to reach the required 25 different destinations. The (cheaper) goals of 15 or 20 destinations seems far more attractive – as the price is lower and the TrueBlue points are quite valuable. Also, when doing that, you should reach Mosaic1 or Mosaic2 tier in the process, anyway.
Cover Picture: Photo by Sachin Amjhad on Unsplash