No, JetBlue isn’t looking to be your BFF. But the rumors regarding a new "elite" program coming from the company have been growing in recent months, culminating with an internal memo about TrueBlue Mosaic being leaked earlier this week. The memo offers details on both the qualification requirements and the benefits the program will offer.
This is NOT an elite program. At least the company is trying to make that claim in the memo. Makes sense given their history of operating a relatively egalitarian operation and any change to that structure presents potential problems. Still, looking at the details in the memo It is clear that there are very real benefits being provided to those "elite" customers.
From the memo:
TrueBlue Mosaic reflects the way our airline has always treated Customers, and will grow our relationships as JetBlue evolves over time. It’s an innovative way of bringing together meaningful benefits to form a better way to fly. While other airlines categorize their Customers, we’ve always steered clear of items that feel elitist or exclusive, and this strategy has helped carve our name in the industry.
TrueBlue Mosaic—named for one of our iconic tailfins—identifies with this value, and will provide our most frequent travelers with useful, solid benefits that will make them feel special.
Much like other aspects of the TrueBlue program, qualification will be based on annual spend. A minimum spend of $5,000, or 30 one-way trips with a spend of $4,000, in a calendar year will qualify customers for the TrueBlue Mosaic badge. The benefits for reaching this level are being reported as:
- 100% bonus on base flight points. This translates to an additional three points per dollar spent on flights.
- Free Even More™ Speed
- Early boarding (even for travel companions!)
- Access to a dedicated Customer Service line available 24/7
- A second bag checked free
- Ability to use TrueBlue points to purchase an Even More™ Space seats
- Six Even More™ Space seat upgrades
The Even More Speed product for using the premium TSA screening is available at more than 30 of the carrier’s 75 stations. Even More Space is the new name for the Even More Legroom product and it includes access to early boarding of the plane in addition to up to 4" of extra pitch. Being on board first allows for early access to overhead bin space, hence the product name change.
These benefits sit somewhere between the bottom and middle tiers of most legacy programs and the qualification requirements sit somewhere in the same area, too, for most customers. While the $5,000 entry point is a lot of money in annual spend, it does not appear to be too far out of line compared to what other mid-tier elites would spend based on flying 50,000 miles at an average RASM price point. Sure, folks on mileage runs would be able to beat these numbers pretty easily, but that’s never been a component of the TrueBlue program and this would be an unlikely place to see it change.
JetBlue officials offered no comment on any potential changes to the program.
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- Are you ready to be "BFF" with your airline?
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Seems pretty elitist to me 🙂
Creating an elite tier, and not calling it an elite tier, does not mean it is not an elite tier. However, I can appreciate JetBlue’s efforts to avoid making it sound elitist. I’m sure it doesn’t help at airlines like United where some casual flyers may always find themselves in boarding group 7, and wonder why 6 other groups of people are more important than they are.
Sorry, I have a hard time getting excited by B6. I’m grateful they’ve come to ANC and lowered fares here, but I’ve seen how little value some friends of mine who fly B6 get out of their miles–and that’s on top of them being relatively harder to earn. $5,000 is well north of my annual spend on airfare, and I’m hitting United Platinum and Alaska MVP Gold with that.
B6 has a decent product, but until the other airlines all go to similarly-sucky revenue-based rewards programs and leave me no incentive to choose one carrier over another, I have no incentive to fly them (and don’t).
For a customer like you, jackal, the program doesn’t make sense. I completely agree with that. It doesn’t make a ton of sense for me as a FF program either. That said, JetBlue is in my top set of carriers I consider when looking at flight options on routes they serve. I look for them ahead of Delta or American. The in-flight experience is, for me, better enough that I don’t really worry about the points, especially since the flights are also reasonably short. I’ll gladly fly on their A320s or E90s with 33-34″ pitch on JFK-JAX rather than earn ~800 miles each way on EWR-JAX on United and 31″ pitch (unless I can get row 12 on the ERJ).
And if I were traveling for business and not only buying the absolute cheapest fare out there then the JetBlue program starts to look a lot more attractive. Being rewarded for higher spend is quite nice.