JetBlue Plus Credit Card: Review
I hope everyone is enjoying the festive spirit and wishing everyone a belated Happy Hanukkah! Today we are going to talk about another credit card, the JetBlue Plus credit card. JetBlue has recently been voted the top airline and ranks high on categories such as passenger experience and extensive routes to the Caribbean and Central/South America. This is a card that has proven to be very useful if you make frequent flights on JetBlue to destinations like the Caribbean or live in a hub like Boston and New York (JFK).
Loyalty Program
JetBlue’s loyalty program, TrueBlue, is like any airline loyalty program, free to join, simple to earn points through flights mostly and use those points for reward flights.
If you know you will be flying on JetBlue a lot, for example as medical student who flies to Grenada for medical school, it may be useful to lockdown on a credit card to get the sign on bonus (absolute must when opening a credit card!) and get a card which provides an elevated earning rate AND additional perks when traveling.
Key Features
- Earn 40,000 points after you spend $1000 in the first month of opening the card and paying the annual fee.
- Earn 6x points on JetBlue purchases, 2x points at restaurants and grocery stores and 1x points on everything else.
- Mosaic (premium status) benefits when spending $50,000 in a year.
- $99 annual fee and 5,000 points every year
- Enjoy an annual $100 statement credit to be used on JetBlue Vacations, and 50% off flight refreshments when using the card
Basics
This is primarily for earning JetBlue points and flights are your best bet. As you can see above, restaurants and groceries also earn you 2x points per dollar (the grocery can be useful, although you could find a better card for the restaurants.)
The other thing to note is that while the card earns you points on all your purchases, when you use this card to pay for JetBlue flights, the card payment will earn you 6x per dollar and then partaking in the actual flight (rewarding the “loyalty”) will gain you at least 6 more points depending on the class of the ticket. We can go into this a little more in another post. Essentially had you used another card to pay for the ticket you are missing out on the fact that Barclays have linked up this credit card with your TrueBlue account. This is not specific to JetBlue though, this is generally the idea for most Airline credit cards.
Pros
Sign up bonus
As with any credit card, you have to plan your finances when opening up a credit card. The sign up bonus is what gives you the biggest perk once you have the card. 40,000 points will go a long way, and one good thing about having this card, as opposed to its “little brother”, the JetBlue Credit Card (n.b no plus), is that when using points for travel, you will get 10% back as a rebate. Therefore had you used 30,000 points for a round trip, you would get 3,000 points posted back into your account once you travelled.
There is also an anniversary bonus should you wish to keep the card after 1 year. 5,000 points are probably worth around 75 dollars depending on the value of a point (I’ll explain what I reference for this information in another article.
Flight Perks
Checked bags. Pesky items which cost a lot these days. With the JetBlue Plus credit card, you and 3 others on your reservation will get 1 bag checked in for free. However, this is only really useful if flying on the cheapest class of ticket with JetBlue under the “Blue” fare, as you have to pay for any baggage you check in. Other fares (blue plus, blue flex which allow 1 bag and Mint which allow 2) allow luggage to be checked in anyway.
You can also get 50% off refreshments (cocktails and food) when using this credit card as well.
Vacation Packages
Every calender year (so get it done before the New Year!) you are eligible to get $100 statement credit if you purchase a JetBlue Vacation package which is more than $100.
Mastercard perks
This is a World Elite Mastercard which means it has additional perks not specific to the card issuer. Mastercard is a payment network but does have its own perks depending on the level. Some of the perks with the JetBlue plus include:
- Cell Phone insurance: As long as you pay with the JetBlue Plus Card, your phone is covered by damage or theft by up to $800 per claim with a maximum overall of $1000. There is a $50 deductible.
- Travel Delay protection: If the trip is paid for by the Plus card, you can get up to $300 if your trip is delayed by 6 hours. This can be unto twice a year, and it is important to note that this is secondary coverage (pays after any compensation your airline may give you)
- Trip Cancellation: If the trip is paid for by the Plus credit card you can get up to $5,000 back in nonrefundable expenses per trip if you need to cancel a trip for a covered reason. This can be done twice a year.
- Lyft Credits: If you pay for 5 rides in a calendar month with the JetBlue Plus Card, you will get $10 credit for future use (expires after 30 days).
- Postmates Discount: Once you use your card on Postmates, you can $5 off after spending $25 (excluding delivery and tax).
- Shoprunner: Free two-day shipping and free return shipping with more than 140 online merchants.
- Onefinestay: Get 10% off home rentals in cities worldwide. This is essentially an AirBnB premium.
- Mastercard experiences: Mastercard have their own services such as airport concierge and hotel concierge services.
- Boxed: Earn 5% “cash rewards” on purchases from this online wholesale club (excluding taxes, fees, delivery etc).
- No foreign transaction fees
Cons/Alternatives to Consider
Compared to some of the other travel credit cards (I say travel because the biggest bang for your buck is with JetBlue purchases which comes under a travel category), this card may have some drawbacks. Firstly, you are stuck with JetBlue and so if you are in a hub where you have other options and you can get a credit card with another airline then that may be a better option depending on what your travel plans and destinations are.
Alternatives to consider are some of the other credit cards that have more than 1 transfer partners such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve or even the Preferred if you want a card with a lower fee. With this card you can earn points and transfer them over to another airline or hotel. If you aren’t in a hub that flies predominantly with JetBlue then these other options may be better.
How does the Penny Pinching Doc use it?
Family ties and previous work meant that a destination I travelled a lot to and plan to travel to is the Caribbean. JetBlue Airways flies me there when no other carrier is available, For this reason alone the sign up bonus paid for the annual fee and made it worth it as it can usually get me a free return trip. I planned to open the credit card once I knew I was going to need to purchase a ticket. For my family staying on the island, I know that groceries are a necessity and the 2x points can be utilized for that (a competitor would be the Bank of America Cash Rewards card but they have fees for purchases abroad). For this reason alone, for a foreigner residing in the Caribbean I would get this card as an additional perk. Getting a car on the island may be difficult, so using this card to get the Lyft Mastercard perks is also an additional benefit along with the Cell Phone insurance.
Traveling back and forth to visit family who may be studying at a destination may also require a lot of belongings to be brought over, so the checked bag for free allows me to utilize this and still pay a cheaper fare. I can also utilize the card for food on the flight if I’m feeling peckish (I’m not a big believer in alcoholic drinks on a plane!) The last thing is the $100 statement credit for a vacation package. I make sure I use this as some of the small islands do not have space for visiting relatives for students. This way I can use the 100 dollars to get a significant discount on a package for other relatives to visit and still make a holiday out of it by giving them a 4-5 star experience.
The only “perk” which I don’t utilize is the Mosaic status “buy in”. Essentially if I pay $50,000 I automatically get Mosaic status. This is a lot of money and I would rather spend this amount on other cards. If I really want to obtain this status (which I am not bothered about currently) it is easier to maximize the payments through JetBlue and their flights. In order to get Mosaic status you have to get either fly 30 flights and accumulate 12,000 points (base points only which is $4,000) or accumulate 15,000 points (equivalent of $5000). I personally don’t think this aim is worth it, and I just use the card for purchases mentioned (groceries in another country and JetBlue flights)
Conclusion
JetBlue is an airline which is getting accolades for its service and its expanding network will increase its value, especially as a British expat wanting increase his options of traveling home. I’m a firm believer in using the right credit card for certain airlines and if traveling on JetBlue more than twice a year I would recommend opening the credit card and utilizing it if suits your travel plans.
I hope you enjoyed this post, wishing you a Merry Christmas!
Featured Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash