sfozrhfco

The point values and rules have been loaded into the system and are live on www.jetblue.com.

Although some of the peak flight point values are quite high, it is still possible to get a seat even during a major holiday. It will be interesting to see if LH and other reward partner redemptions will be based on the cost of the flight as well. Guess we will have to wait a few more months to see what other partners are added and how points for them will accumulate and can be redeemed.

sfozrhfco

One nice thing is that I had 98 points in the old program and was given an option in the "old true blue" section to redeem it for an old award. Now all of my earned points from now on (including my jetBlue AMEX points which will post this week) will go straight to the new program.^

bmg42000

Here are some sample point values .

5900 points will get me JFK-PIT in January (fare is 79$)
6300 points for JFK - Pit in August (84$ fare) .
14400 points for JFK - Las on May 27th (179$ fare)
47000 point for JFK - PBI DEC 26th (449$ fare)

sbm12

The point values are pretty decent. If you book everything online and travel a decent amount there is a reasonable opportunity to realize a 10% return on travel investments in terms of TB2 point value that comes back out of the system. If you fly all transcons that number can go up to 16% in a hurry.

The points are not worth any specific amount per se. But they are about a penny in value for redemption, ranging from .87 cents to 1.35 in what I've seen thus far.

A bit more analysis is here: http://www.wanderingaramean.com/2009...-is-alive.html

And there are going to be a lot more things coming after the Sabre transition happens. The existing system just isn't sophisticated enough to handle everything they want to put in it.

bmg42000

It looks like a good deal to me . Delta would require 25000 miles (using Pay with miles ) for a NY PIT Round trip (183 or 197 $) (They list it as 197 on the non stop flight and with the same flight number under 1 stop flights its 183 (even though the flight 6565 (a crj-100 (yuck)) does not make a stop )). Time to start using my Jetblue Amex again now that I see what return I can get . Good job Jetblue .

nerd

Points seem to be worth the most on cheap fares. An unscientific survey of fare vs. corresponding point value (in cents per point):

$84 1.33
$179 1.25
$179 1.35
$219 1.25
$254 1.05
$254 1.15
$297 1.05
$357 0.95
$449 0.96
$475 1.05

bmg42000

One can also use the old true blue points for magazine subscriptions. Its better then losing the points .

somedude24

Predictably, I found the availability of 5,000 point flights on JFK-BUF to be extremely good, and essentially non-existent on longer, more expensive routes (on a tiered redemption system, this makes sense). With a little flexibility, I found flights to Florida (PBI) for as little as 6,600, and transcons to SFO and LGB for as little as 8,100. I can see situations in which the old system might have been marginally more generous (fly 5 RT transcons in one year, have more than enough points to redeem for 1 RT transcon if you are very flexible on dates), but the new system offers much better deals for shorter flights, and once you add up all those online booking and go-long and go-big and go-whatever else bonuses--which make the system a bit complicated, but can effectively more than double your base points--I think that frequent flyers will realize at least as much value from the new program as from the old one. I also think this program compares very favorably in terms of value to those offered by other airlines, unless you need to be able to redeem your points for international flights (perhaps coming soon through Lufthansa?).

dinosims

Another option that it gave me was to redeem my old points (I had 51) for one TruePass, ie a one-way ticket. I really like that it gave me this option, as I was really too far away from 100 to buy up to it, and too far away from 0 to just forget about them. It also tells me how many points I'd need to get a full TrueAward (rt) - 6800 points in the new program. That comes out to 34 TB1 points, which when added with my balance, comes out to only 85 TB1 points needed for an award. Same threshold for SO's award....Are they reducing the cost of the TB1 awards in order to cash everyone out?

Also, they still have the partnership with EnergyPlus, but it lists it as accumulating points at the old rate (1 point for every $100 spent). I'm assuming they just haven't updated it, but at that ratio, I would guess that the new rate would be 2 points/$1 spent (equivalent to the rate of 1 TB1 point=200 TB2 points). Does anyone have a confirmed ratio for this?

m61376

I was looking up flights from JFK to AUA and was surprised at the non-linear way they are calculating point requirements:
Fare Point cost
$174 12,900
$234 18,800
$264 23,000
$304 29,000

From $174 to 234 is ~ a 34% increase in price, yet there is almost a 46% increase in points. Similarly, $174 to 264 is about a 52% increase in cost but a 78% increase in points and $174 to 304 a 75% increase in cost but a 125% increase in points.

At least for the NY to Aruba flights, the old system was a much better value, because there were still awards available when flights were in the low to mid $200's each way.

As I suspected, new isn't always better. The trade-off here appears to be availability but those longer flights are certainly not the bargain that they were.

sbm12

I'm only being offered the option to buy up to 100 points for 2 TB passes. I have 43 points currently and probably would have bought the 7 points to get a one-way reward. No way I'm going to buy 57 points though. Still, it is nice that they are offering the one-way redemption for some folks.

cquenzel

In order to redeem for magazines, I signed in to my TrueBlue account. Found the link to the magazine page. Browsed the lists of magazines. Confirmed I wanted to use my points. Jet Blue generated an order ID # and provided the link to jetbluemagazineawards.com. I entered my TB# and order id - then made my magazine selection. It was pretty easy and well worth it.

Dieuwer

B6 just WIPED OUT my TB1 point!! WHAT???
I cannot even log in to the new program??
With some trick I could retrieve my booked flights for Thanksgiving!

nerd

There's a bug in the website.

One the summary page it shows me having 0 TrueBlue1.0 points, but on the activity page, it shows 24.

Dieuwer

Switched browsers from Firefox to IE. IE seems to correctly show my TB1.0 points and does not require me to log-in zillion times. Now the question is, what to do with 6 old TB1.0 points. 1) Magazines? 2) Wait for 16800 TB2.0 points? 3) Forget about them?