JetBlue TrueBlue - Newbie ?: converting AMEX points for reward travel

I read on another post that I can request AMEX points be converted to JetBlue points and someone else said that I can convert AMEX points directly into a JetBlue reward pass; would someone be willing to take the time to explain to me exactly how to do this? I have an AMEX Plat. card (business), but not an AMEX JetBlue.

Also- if I have a lot of miles in one AMEX account, can I transfer them all into a single JetBlue account and then buy multiple reward tickets for different passengers from the one account, or do the miles/reward points have to be transferred into each passenger's FF account before booking?

I want to make sure I am understanding this correctly- a roundtrip JetBlue ticket costs 100 JetBlue reward points, which can be purchased for 25,000 AMEX points- is this correct?

What are the logistics to doing this? Can I hold reward tickets on JetBlue and then transfer the points, or do I have to hope that the reward seats are still available? How long does it take AMEX to make the transfer (someone had mentioned that it was immediate, but I wanted to check if that was true).

A few more questions as to the award seat availability, if you don't mind:
-are they released when new seats are released, or does the availability change with time?
-if I go to JetBlue.com/awards and seats come up with a $0.00 price, I assume that means that there are reward seats- right? And if I have put in for 6 adults and it still comes up that way, that means there are 6 available reward seats?
-Does JetBlue have a set amount of award seats that are released for each flight, or is it variable? Are there any blackout dates for award seat availability?

Thanks for your time in trying to answer my questions!!

Wow - lots of questions! You came to the right place :)

1 - I've personally never transferred AMEX membership rewards points into jetBlue points, as I have a B6 amex, but I have plenty of experience with reward tix. What you would do is transfer the points over to the jetBlue program, and then once you reach 100 points (or 25,000 MR points at a ratio of 250/1), it automatically gets transferred into 2 TrueBlue passes, each valid for a free one way ticket anywhere B6 flies (plus a $2.50 9/11 fee for each way, and any international taxes - all other taxes are mysteriously taken care of).

2 - A TruePass can be booked for any person, and doesn't necessarily have to be booked for the person whose TrueBlue account the points are coming from. Therefore, it's no problem to just put a bulk amount of points into one B6 account and then use the multiple amount of tickets for various people - in fact, it'd probably be easier this way as you'd only have to do one transfer, and then one booking, as well as that everyone would be on one itinerary.

3 - AFAIK, you can't hold any tickets on B6 (paid or reward), so you'll have to hope that the seats are there when the points post. However, from what I've heard, the transfer from AMEX is pretty close to immediate.

4 - Ahh, answers about availability aren't really known except by the revenue management guys. However, in the past, I've noticed that if the flight isn't filling up, as the date of the flight gets closer, new seats are sometimes released. There isn't a set number of seats for each flight, and they say that there aren't any blackout dates, but for holiday and popular flights, you'd want to either get them when they first come out (if there are any), or hope that some more are released in the weeks before the flight.

5 - On the reservations page, if there are no seats left for the amount of people that you input, a message will come up that says that the flight is sold out. So, if you don't get that, and it still comes up as $0.00, there's seats available for all the people you requested.

Hope this helps, and welcome to jetBlue!

One thing I wanted to add is that I've noticed that award seats don't seem to be available for any one way flights that are priced over $129.

Dinosims- Thanks a lot for the info.! It answered a lot of my questions. Now I just need to learn how to transfer the AMEX points and find out a little more about that process.

On the blackout dates front the answer is no, there aren't any, but that is only part of the story. JetBlue essentially assigns a value to the TruBlue reward passes. If there is a ticket to be had at that price they will issue the reward to you. If the tickets are more expensive then they won't. The admitted rather freely in a conversation back in June that they know there are going to be flights that never have reward seats available on them (think super-peak dates to Caribbean destinations), but that isn't because of black-out dates; it is just because they expect to sell the seats on those flights for cash.

Another thing to keep in mind is that your 100 points/25K MR points actually redeems for two one-way tickets, not necessarily a round trip. That may come in handy at some point.

4 - Ahh, answers about availability aren't really known except by the revenue management guys. However, in the past, I've noticed that if the flight isn't filling up, as the date of the flight gets closer, new seats are sometimes released.

If it helps however, as I found out after my ticket reservation: While they can't tell you if there will be future availability, telephone agents can actually tell you how many TB seats remain currently available on a given flight. So if you are concerned about availablility before you make the points transfer , you can at least insure there are at least a good number of seats on a given plane before you book. (Although, the points will likely transfer a lot faster than they tell you they will.)

One thing I wanted to add is that I've noticed that award seats don't seem to be available for any one way flights that are priced over $129.

It depends on the route - it seems they allow reward redemptions for the 2 or 3 lowest fare buckets on each route, and take away seats from them upon redemption. So for a short leg like JFK-ROC, it could be that only seats up to say $89 can be redeemed as reward seats, but for a longer leg such as JFK-SFO, it may be that the 2 or 3 lowest fare buckets come up to something like $179.


(I really just made these numbers up, so I know they're not accurate, but it's just to prove a point)

I read on another post that I can request AMEX points be converted to JetBlue points and someone else said that I can convert AMEX points directly into a JetBlue reward pass; would someone be willing to take the time to explain to me exactly how to do this? I have an AMEX Plat. card (business), but not an AMEX JetBlue.You are obviously enrolled in Amex membership rewards.

After you log in to your Amex platinum account on the amex home page, you can click on the link that will take you to the membership rewards "use points" web page (the link is on the right side of the screen on your account home page).

You will obviously need to have linked your TrueBlue account to your Amex membership rewards account in order to transfer points. If you haven't done so, you can do this instantaneously at the membership rewards site.

When you are ready to transfer points, you will notice that membership rewards will have a calculator to convert the Amex MR pts into TrueBlue points.

Once you've determined how many points you need, you click on the transfer points button and the points should post pretty much instantaneously to TrueBlue.

I have often initiated an award ticket on jetblue.com, gone over to Amex M.R., made the transfer and then completed the award ticket process, so it is very quick.

I have noticed that the Amex M.R. server seems to be sluggish or unresponsive quite often. In those cases, you can just call the 800 number listed on the Amex M.R. page and a representative will transfer points for you.

Thanks!!