JetBlue TrueBlue - Strange Award Inventory

So I'm looking to use a Truepass from PDX-BOS on May 27. It seems there's no more awards left for those flights, but when I look at each flight seperately (i.e. PDX-JFK and JFK-BOS) there are seats left. It was my understanding that they allocate a certain number of seats per flight. However, here, it seems they've allocated a certain number of seats for this 'market'. What gives? Is this normal procedure? Is there a way for a supervisor (or someone similar) to combine the 2 open award seats into one pass?

So I'm looking to use a Truepass from PDX-BOS on May 27. It seems there's no more awards left for those flights, but when I look at each flight seperately (i.e. PDX-JFK and JFK-BOS) there are seats left. It was my understanding that they allocate a certain number of seats per flight. However, here, it seems they've allocated a certain number of seats for this 'market'. What gives? Is this normal procedure? Is there a way for a supervisor (or someone similar) to combine the 2 open award seats into one pass?

This is somewhat normal with award allocation, I believe. Rarely, I think, it can even work the other way: A-B has no availability, B-C has no availability, but A-B-C has available award seats. This also applies with fares. Sometimes A-B or B-C will cost more than A-B-C (on JetBlue, this sometimes occurs when JFK nonstop transcons are more expensive than 1-stop transcons through JFK from sale cities). It's how the industry works, it seems.

But, I guess placing a phone call couldn't hurt. Let us know what they tell you.

I've seen this before on all airlines and it is very strange. Never understood it, but I guess everything has a reason. IIRC, American Airlines talked about this in their CNBC special, A Week In The Life of American Airlines, a few months ago.

If they still won't do it when you call, I would recommend booking PDX-JFK on the TruePass and then buying a separate one-way for JFK-BOS, as those flights are not expensive at all.

I've seen this before on all airlines and it is very strange. Never understood it, but I guess everything has a reason. IIRC, American Airlines talked about this in their CNBC special, A Week In The Life of American Airlines, a few months ago.

If they still won't do it when you call, I would recommend booking PDX-JFK on the TruePass and then buying a separate one-way for JFK-BOS, as those flights are not expensive at all.

The airlines don't want all of the seats from just one leg booked when they can book higher priced tickets for a longer trip. So inventory will often show for the longer trip but not the shorter trips.

Read this page (http://flyertalk.com/wiki/index.php/Building_connections_%28SWA%29) from the Southwest FAQ. A similar technique MIGHT work for jetBlue. Build the two-step itinerary and see whether it prices out as half an award or a full award. Then please post your findings here.

Read this page (http://flyertalk.com/wiki/index.php/Building_connections_%28SWA%29) from the Southwest FAQ. A similar technique MIGHT work for jetBlue. Build the two-step itinerary and see whether it prices out as half an award or a full award. Then please post your findings here.
The online system that they have set up for booking award tickets doesn't have multi-city capabilities - only RT or OW, so that won't work. Thanks anyway - I'll call them later tonight, and let you all know how it goes.

EDIT: BTW, this is my 100th post!

Called up late last night, rep said that I needed to call back when the TrueBlue desk was open, but was pretty sure that it could be done.

Called back today, spoke to a rep who was pretty sure that it couldn't be done, but, at my request, 'talked' to someone at TrueBlue, and then came back and told me they said it couldn't be done - that they can't just make connecting flights, and if I wanted it done, I'd need 2 TruePasses.

Called back again, spoke to a rep who said she wasn't sure, so she'd ask someone over at TrueBlue. She initially came back and said that they weren't able to do it. Being the inquisitive one that I am, I basically asked for a clarification as to why there were awards seats on both legs, but not the connecting flight, and she said to hold on, and she went off to ask the Trueblue desk again. After a few minutes on hold, she came back and said they she spoke to a supervisor over there, and that she was able to approve it (didn't give me a reason why though). So I got transferred over to someone at the TrueBlue desk who was able to essentially manually 'create' this connecting flight, and take only one Truepass. She basically made it so that the PDX-JFK flight was the outbound flight, and the JFK-BOS flight was the inbound flight - synonymous to a normal multi-city ticket. She did say, however, to make sure in PDX that they tag the bags all the way to BOS, because at first glance to them, it would look like I'm just going to JFK.

I'm not sure what happened with the first agent (either she didn't really talk to someone, or she spoke to the wrong person), but I'm sure glad that this worked out. So, for future reference, this is possible to do - you just need to talk to someone at the Trueblue Desk, and have it approved by their supervisor.

Called up late last night, rep said that I needed to call back when the TrueBlue desk was open, but was pretty sure that it could be done.

Called back today, spoke to a rep who was pretty sure that it couldn't be done, but, at my request, 'talked' to someone at TrueBlue, and then came back and told me they said it couldn't be done - that they can't just make connecting flights, and if I wanted it done, I'd need 2 TruePasses.

Called back again, spoke to a rep who said she wasn't sure, so she'd ask someone over at TrueBlue. She initially came back and said that they weren't able to do it. Being the inquisitive one that I am, I basically asked for a clarification as to why there were awards seats on both legs, but not the connecting flight, and she said to hold on, and she went off to ask the Trueblue desk again. After a few minutes on hold, she came back and said they she spoke to a supervisor over there, and that she was able to approve it (didn't give me a reason why though). So I got transferred over to someone at the TrueBlue desk who was able to essentially manually 'create' this connecting flight, and take only one Truepass. She basically made it so that the PDX-JFK flight was the outbound flight, and the JFK-BOS flight was the inbound flight - synonymous to a normal multi-city ticket. She did say, however, to make sure in PDX that they tag the bags all the way to BOS, because at first glance to them, it would look like I'm just going to JFK.

I'm not sure what happened with the first agent (either she didn't really talk to someone, or she spoke to the wrong person), but I'm sure glad that this worked out. So, for future reference, this is possible to do - you just need to talk to someone at the Trueblue Desk, and have it approved by their supervisor.

It sounds to me more like a nice supervisor made an exception for you, rather than followed a specific rule about such itineraries (and I'm not sure that if someone else called some other time with the same problem they'd receive the same solution). But, regardless, I'm glad your persistence paid off.

Two years ago I tried to book BOS-MBJ-BON on Air Jamaica using Delta Skymiles. The DL customer service rep had to make sure the individual segments (BOS-MBJ) (MBJ-BON) were available first.

On a side note I couldn't get the return flight home. :(