JetBlue TrueBlue - Considering a switch to Jetblue

I have been flying continential airlines for years, however since united airlines bought them the prices have gone through the roof for many of the destinations I fly to. The only downfall with jetblue is I will have to fly out of JFK most of the time which will be a little more of an inconvience but it's tolerable since I can take public transportation.

United has really dissapointed as most flights to dominican republic used to be no more than 475.00 round trip. Now I have not seen them for any less then 650.00. Jet blue has been beating united by several hundred dollars on those routes recently so it makes it a no brainer to switch

I wanted to get some opinions on the mileage program as I may even consider getting the Jetblue amex card. Most of the flights I take are to the dominican republic. I want to be able to earn award points by using the card and flying jet blue. But on the other hand I want to make sure I can find flights to dominican republic and other destinations that I can use the bare minimum 5000 points.

Please advise

We seem to be taking over to the DR. It is one of our quickest growing markets so you will have plenty of options as far as flight schedules and destinations. We will start to fly to Samana here later this fall. We currently fly to La Romana, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Punta Cana, and Puerto Plata. You can connect to Santo Domingo through Boston and San Juan. The other destinations are served from JFK and Boston.

We just announced a new elite level to our frequent flyer program. I forsee us continuing to add frequencies to the DR as these flights are constantly at or near capacity.

Unlike the legacies, you earn True Blue points based on what you paid for the flight which is 6 points per dollar (the fare only not taxes). You do get 2 extra points per dollar spent with the American Express card.

Point redemption is based on the current cost of the flight not a flat rate such as 35,000 UA miles for a round trip to the DR.

5000 points will only get you a JFK/EWR-BOS one way flight which would normally cost you 69 dollars (including taxes). I've seen roundtrips for BOS-PUJ/STI/SDQ range from 23,000 to over 80,000 points.

To make the switch, I would consider the following:

1) You mentioned most of your flights are to the DR? Do you desire to get free flights to just that destination or would you want to go to Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia at some point? If you want to go to other places you may want to stick with United. My parents live in Boston and timeshare in Aruba and St. Maarten making Jetblue/True Blue/Amex Card a perfect fit for them. I want to go to Bali so I stick with United who could get me there through other Star Alliance carriers.

2) How often do you go away? Jet Blue does give you bonus points for earning X amount of points in a year. However, if you fly an amount where you can get an elite status with a legacy I would stay with them.

3)Would you will be willing to always use your Amex card for almost all of your purchases? Would you be willing to pay the annual fee on a card especially if its just to keep your TrueBlue points alive?