JetBlue Plus Card Review (60K Offers?) [2020]

The JetBlue Plus Card is a popular travel rewards card. It has fantastic earning potential for JetBlue flights and some pretty solid perks that can save you money when flying JetBlue. In this article, I’ll break down everything you need to know about the JetBlue Plus Card, including things like the welcome offer (which could be up to 60K), bonus categories, and benefits. 

JetBlue Plus Card

• Welcome bonus (ranges)
• 6X on JetBlue purchases
• 2X on grocery stores and restaurants
• 1X on all other purchases
• Free first checked bag
• 5,000 points after first year anniversary
• 10% points rebate
• Points don’t expire (standard JetBlue policy)
• No foreign transaction fees
• TrueBlue Mosaic benefits for one year after you spend $50,000 or more on purchases annually with your card
• 50% savings on eligible inflight purchases including cocktails and food
• $99 annual fee (not waived)

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Welcome bonus

The welcome bonus for this card will fluctuate over time. Over the past few years, I’ve seen the offers fluctuate pretty widely from 30,000 miles all the way up to 60,000 miles — this card is known to offer limited time offers. For the most part, though, you’re probably going to find an offer around 40,000 to 50,000 miles. 

Barclays is known for having low minimum spend requirements for their cards and for the JetBlue Plus Card, you might find it as low as $1,000 in three months, which is great. 

How much are these bonuses worth?

The value depends on how much you value JetBlue miles. At a valuation of 1.4 cents per point, you could be looking at up to $800+ worth in value which is very good.

Remember, JetBlue has a dynamic currency so that means the price of your redemptions are tied to the cash value of the ticket. The value of your points will often be on average around 1.4 cents per point but it can definitely fluctuate.   

Here are some of the lowest redemption prices that I found for one-way flights:

• LAX to JFK: 6,400 points + $5.60 in fees
• JFK to FLL: 6,500 points + $5.60 in fees 
• IAH to JFK: 12,800 points + $5.60 in fees
• SFO to BOS: 11,900 points + $5.60 in fees

JetBlue Mint

One thing that’s awesome about JetBlue is that you can fly on a very nice business class, known as JetBlue Mint. Mint routes have gotten more expensive over the past few years but here are some of the award rates that I’ve found for one way flights in the past: 

• JFK to SFO: 65,000 one way + $5.60 in fees
• JFK to LAX: 57,700 one way + $5.60 in fees
• BOS to LAX: 45,300 one way + $5.60 in fees
• FLL to LAX: 53,100 one way + $5.60 in fees

This means you could cover a one-way journey across the US if you caught the right bonus. 

The one major drawback to JetBlue is that they don’t have the most expansive flight network. For example, they only fly to Houston from the Northeast (Boston and NYC). So if I wanted to fly their Mint class, I’d need to route through BOS or JFK just to connect.

Credit card strategy tips

A non-Chase airline card should generally come after you fill up your 5/24 slots. As long as you haven’t opened up five accounts in the past 24 months, the Chase Sapphire Preferred (full review) or Chase Sapphire Reserve might be better options to go with first if you want better bonus earnings on dining and general travel expenses.

You can also transfer Chase points to many partners (including JetBlue). Also, if you really wanna maximize your wallet, go with the Chase Ink Business Preferred first since that card will generally not account towards your 5/24 status.

Finally, if you’re interested in airlines cards, the United Explorer and Chase Southwest credit cards could also be solid options. 

After you have maxed out your 5/24 slots, then I’d start looking at non-Chase co-branded cards for airlines like American, Delta, etc. And again, JetBlue is not ideal for many people because of its limited route network, so always think about which hubs you’ll be flying out of before jumping on a card.

Eligibility

Barclays imposes something known as “6/24.” This is a soft rule that means that if you’ve opened six or more cards in the past 24 months, you might not get approved for their cards. This is not always enforced so you don’t always have to worry about. 

And there are other eligibility rules at play with this card as well. Personally, I would just recommend that you check out the free app WalletFlo so that you can automate your eligibility for all of these terms and conditions.

Bonus categories

• 6X on JetBlue purchases
• 2X on grocery stores and restaurants
• 1X on all other purchases

Earning 6X on JetBlue purchases is better than most Southwest credit cards that offer only 2X on Southwest purchases (read: Southwest vs JetBlue). Eligible JetBlue Purchases are items billed by JetBlue via JetBlue channels like jetblue.com, JetBlue reservations, JetBlue Vacations, etc. 

As for the 2X on groceries, note that large warehouse-type stores (Target, Walmart and Costco) are generally not classified as grocery stores.

Assuming JetBlue points are worth 1.4 cents per point, getting 6X on JetBlue purchases means getting 8.4% back on JetBlue and 2.7% back on grocery stores and restaurants. 

That’s great for your JetBlue purchases but pretty average on grocery stores and restaurants. It’s not that difficult to earn ~4X on grocery stores and restaurants these days so I wouldn’t necessarily want to put those categories on a card like this. 

JetBlue Plus Benefits

• Free first checked bag
• 5,000 points after first year anniversary
• Get 10% of your points back every time you redeem to use toward your next redemption
• 50% savings on eligible inflight purchases including cocktails and food
• Annual $100 statement credit

Tip: Use the free app WalletFlo to help you travel the world for free by finding the best travel credit cards and promotions!

First checked bag free

Unlike Southwest that gives you two free checked bags, when flying on JetBlue, you’ll have to pay for your checked baggage. But if you have the JetBlue Plus Card, you can get your first bag checked for free for the primary cardmember and up to 3 travel companions on the same reservation (so a total of four people).

That could save you over $120 per one-way flight and you find out more about JetBlue baggage fees here.

It’s worth noting that to get this perk, the purchase must be made with your JetBlue Plus Card and the account must have been open seven days prior to air travel and reservation must include the primary cardmember’s TrueBlue membership account seven days prior to air travel. 

5,000 points anniversary

Every year you’ll get 5,000 anniversary points which is very nice. These points could be worth about $70, so this bonus alone could almost offset the entire annual fee of $99. It’s worth mentioning that the Southwest Premier card offers a bonus of 6,000 anniversary points.  

10% rebate

The 10% rebate puts value back into your wallet and increases the value of the welcome bonus and bonus earning. So if you earn a 50,000 miles bonus, it’s like getting an additional 5,000 point bonus (equivalent to the anniversary benefit). There is no maximum number of points you can receive from this benefit so this can really add up over time.

50% savings

It’s not uncommon for an airline card to offer you in-flight discounts on food and drink purchases but they are often capped at around 15% to 25%. So it’s nice to see this benefit knocking off 50% off your in-flight purchases.

Eligible purchases include the inflight purchase of cocktails, beer, wine and meals on JetBlue-operated flights when you use your card. However, the discount will not apply to any other inflight purchases, such as pillows, earphones or upgraded seats or cabins.

Annual $100 statement credit

You can get this benefit after purchasing a JetBlue Vacations package of $100 or more with your JetBlue Plus Card. Just keep in mind, your purchase must be $100 or more and there is a limit of one $100 statement credit per calendar year per Account. 

Chip + PIN technology

This card will come with Chip and pin technology which is very useful when traveling to certain destinations where you might need to use a kiosk. I always make sure to carry at least one card with Chip + Pin technology when I travel. 

No foreign transaction fees

The JetBlue Plus Card does not come with foreign transaction fees.

JetBlue Plus Mosaic benefit

• TrueBlue Mosaic benefits for one year after you spend $50,000 or more on purchases annually with your card

JetBlue only has one level of elite status and it is known as Mosaic. It can be earned by meeting the following requirements:

• 15,000 base flight points within a calendar year OR
• Fly 30 segments plus 12,000 base flight points within a calendar year.

Or in this case, you can earn it after you spend $50,000 or more on purchases annually with your card (each calendar year). Many airlines often give you credits toward elite status for spend but you don’t often see elite status given outright just for spend on a credit card. 

Here are all of the TrueBlue Mosaic benefits.

• First and second bag free
• Change and cancellation fees waived
• 15,000 bonus points upon qualifying for Mosaic
• Expedited security line
• Early boarding
• Complimentary drinks
• 6 points per dollar if you book a Blue fare on jetblue.com

With the JetBlue Plus Card + Mosaic status, you could be earning 12X on Blue fares on jetblue.com, which is pretty awesome and could start to add up pretty quickly. You’d also get the 15,000 bonus on top of the JetBlue Plus bonus of 5,000 anniversary points for a total of 20,000 points.  

Benefit changes

Barclays announced in the fall of 2019 that changes were coming to its cards. It sent emails out to cardholders stating the following: 

Your Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver and Identity Theft benefits will be enhanced. For example, you will now have access to an online monitoring dashboard and resolution features that scour the internet and Dark Web for compromised credentials and financial account takeover.

Also, you will be eligible to receive Cellular Telephone Protection, which provides coverage for certain damage to or theft of your cell phone effective November 1, 2019.

Your Extended Warranty, Price Protection, Purchase Assurance, Satisfaction Guarantee and Trip Delay benefits will be removed; however, claims can be submitted for eligible purchases made through October 31, 2019.

So we saw some key benefits removed like Extended Warranty, Price Protection, Purchase Assurance, Satisfaction Guarantee and Trip Delay benefits. When more details come out about the cell phone protection, I’ll add more of those to this section. 

But it’s worth noting that you have to use your JetBlue card to get perks like the free checked bag. That means losing out on much better travel insurance benefits you get with cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Reserve, etc. So that’s definitely something to think about. 

Annual fee

• $99 annual fee 

Barclays can be good about waiving fees and sending out retention offers. So many people won’t even have to pay this full annual fee every year.

Final word

The JetBlue Plus Card is actually a pretty solid airline card. The highlights for me are: 

• Strong limited time offers of 50K+ miles
• 6X earning on JetBlue
• Free checked bag, anniversary points, and rebates/discounts

I just don’t like that it lost so many protections in November 2019. I don’t like to miss out on solid travel protections like trip delay so I’m not overly crazy about this card because of that.