Why i$ B6 Getting $o Expen$ive?

[jetBlueNYFL]

Originally Posted by magiciansampras

Not in my experience. The damn things keep expiring on me.

That's just because you don't jet on JetBlue enough.

Key words: easier, redeeming
Not: extending the life of the points. If that's the case, then just get the AmEx.

After all, it is a customer loyalty program. Not a program which rewards infrequent travelers.

[magiciansampras]

Originally Posted by jetBlueNYFL

That's just because you don't jet on JetBlue enough.

Key words: easier, redeeming

Your first sentence and easier are contradictory.

Originally Posted by jetBlueNYFL

Not: extending the life of the points. If that's the case, then just get the AmEx.

This sentence and easier are contradictory.

Originally Posted by jetBlueNYFL

After all, it is a customer loyalty program. Not a program which rewards infrequent travelers.

Other airlines have managed to give travelers reasonable time to accumulate and utilize their miles/points. Not B6, however.

[jetBlueNYFL]

Originally Posted by magiciansampras

Other airlines have managed to give travelers reasonable time to accumulate and utilize their miles/points. Not B6, however.

Other airlines have also managed to give travelers unreasonable blackout dates and difficulty utilizing the miles/points that have been accumulated for preferred flights/times/city pairs. Other airlines have started charging fees for redeeming "free" flights. Not B6, however.

[nerd]

Originally Posted by jetBlueNYFL

Other airlines have also managed to give travelers unreasonable blackout dates and difficulty utilizing the miles/points that have been accumulated for preferred flights/times/city pairs. Other airlines have started charging fees for redeeming "free" flights. Not B6, however.

Most airlines have done away with blackout dates.

If you have evidence that jetBlue makes it easier to redeem points for preferred flights/times/city pairs, then by all means, do share.

[magiciansampras]

Originally Posted by jetBlueNYFL

Other airlines have also managed to give travelers unreasonable blackout dates and difficulty utilizing the miles/points that have been accumulated for preferred flights/times/city pairs. Other airlines have started charging fees for redeeming "free" flights. Not B6, however.

I think nerd makes a very good point. If you could post some info on how it is easier to redeem TrueBlue points than say AA or UA miles, I'm all ears.

[jetBlueNYFL]

Originally Posted by nerd

Most airlines have done away with blackout dates.

If you have evidence that jetBlue makes it easier to redeem points for preferred flights/times/city pairs, then by all means, do share.

Most airlines have done away with blackout dates because.............?

Do you think it was out of their customer goodwill? No, no, no! It's called the JetBlue Effect, of course! Competition, that's what it's all about.

Evidence? I am sure there are numbers/stats somewhere out there on FF miles redemption levels, as I believe it's in annual reports. Don't quote me on that. And it's not something I am willing to invest time digging into. However, just judging by word of mouth and skimming through this forum compared to other airline's forums, it seems that there is just a greater number of TB seats available for those seeking to book a free ticket. I recall a long post by our friend, TWA Fan 1 some time ago on this very topic.

[BlissWorld]

Originally Posted by jetBlueNYFL

Most airlines have done away with blackout dates because.............?

Do you think it was out of their customer goodwill? No, no, no! It's called the JetBlue Effect, of course! Competition, that's what it's all about.

I give credit where credit is due, as much as I hate the airline I'm about to mention...It's actually a Southwest effect, if you want to call it that.

Originally Posted by jetBlueNYFL

Evidence? I am sure there are numbers/stats somewhere out there on FF miles redemption levels, as I believe it's in annual reports. Don't quote me on that. And it's not something I am willing to invest time digging into. However, just judging by word of mouth and skimming through this forum compared to other airline's forums, it seems that there is just a greater number of TB seats available for those seeking to book a free ticket. I recall a long post by our friend, TWA Fan 1 some time ago on this very topic.

There are definitely more award seats on LCC than legacy airlines. However, I have never, once, redeemed my miles from UA for a coach ticket. It has always been something far more valuable like Singapore Airlines first class ticket to Asia.

I think B6 has a lot to offer. Many of their products are far superior than legacy airlines in Y. However, frequent flyer program is NOT one of them.

[magiciansampras]

Originally Posted by jetBlueNYFL

Most airlines have done away with blackout dates because.............?

Do you think it was out of their customer goodwill? No, no, no! It's called the JetBlue Effect, of course! Competition, that's what it's all about.

Evidence? I am sure there are numbers/stats somewhere out there on FF miles redemption levels, as I believe it's in annual reports. Don't quote me on that. And it's not something I am willing to invest time digging into. However, just judging by word of mouth and skimming through this forum compared to other airline's forums, it seems that there is just a greater number of TB seats available for those seeking to book a free ticket. I recall a long post by our friend, TWA Fan 1 some time ago on this very topic.

OK, let's do a test.

Boston to Hong Kong starting today through the end of the year. What the first available date for B6 fights?

Thanks!

[sbm12]

Originally Posted by jetBlueNYFL

Most airlines have done away with blackout dates because.............?

Do you think it was out of their customer goodwill? No, no, no! It's called the JetBlue Effect, of course! Competition, that's what it's all about.

I strongly disagree with this. Airlines removed "blackout dates" because it was bad business and they realized it. They replaced them with efficient revenue management. When blackout dates first started the revenur management systems were not mature enough to allow for no seats to be released on the 2pm flight ORD-SFO on the day before Thanksgiving even though 3 seats were made available on that flight during non-holiday periods. The blackout dates solved those problems for the programmers. Now that the revenue management systems are more functional and granular the need for blackout dates does not exist. The airlines don't like looking like schmucks or being the target of David Spade's "just say no" campaign, and now they have the ability to operate that way (and they have for some time now. Blackout dates on airlines have been disappearing for a while. JetBlue did not spark a revolution on this front.

Remember during the discussion of TrueBlue reward seats at the T5 DO that Dave stated that trying to get a reward seat on the JFK-SEA route was going to be incredibly difficult, as would getting JFK-CUN/SXM/AUA on the dates surrounding holidays. The dates aren't blacked out, but he was pretty blunt in suggesting that we just shouldn't expect to ever see them available because they are worth too much to the airline as revenue seats. That B6 doesn't have a rule buster reward option - something I've only ever used once in 15 years of flying that I've controlled my destiny on - is a limitation of the program, but hardly the only one.

Originally Posted by jetBlueNYFL

Evidence? I am sure there are numbers/stats somewhere out there on FF miles redemption levels, as I believe it's in annual reports. Don't quote me on that. And it's not something I am willing to invest time digging into. However, just judging by word of mouth and skimming through this forum compared to other airline's forums, it seems that there is just a greater number of TB seats available for those seeking to book a free ticket. I recall a long post by our friend, TWA Fan 1 some time ago on this very topic.

The stats that the airlines release reflect number of seats redeemed. They do not reflect the ease of getting a reward seat. Here's what the numbers look like from CO. That doesn't tell me how easy it is to get a J seat last minute from NYC to Paris, but it does tell me that a lot of people booked rewards of some sort. Like I mentioned above, I've only ever not gotten seats I wanted when I wanted once. I have reasonable requirements so I'm not expecting the last minute premium cabin seat in peak season when the airline is selling all the seats for real money. Maybe B6 has it easier because they don't have a premium cabin for people to complain about not getting redemptions for. I think that you will very rarely find complaints about Y rewards not being available on legacies.

[bmg42000]

I looked on Delta for the skychoice awards (50000 miles round trip) for December 24. Even though the non stop flights are 80% empty there are no skychoice seats available (they did offer me change of planes in atlanta though). One nice thing with B6 is that you change use the awards for 2 1 way flights instead.

[sbm12]

Originally Posted by bmg42000

I looked on Delta for the skychoice awards (50000 miles round trip) for December 24. Even though the non stop flights are 80% empty there are no skychoice seats available (they did offer me change of planes in atlanta though). One nice thing with B6 is that you change use the awards for 2 1 way flights instead.

Delta is a pretty bad example relative to the other legacies in terms of the rule buster awards. Delta has removed last seat availability from those rewards while all the other carriers still permit it.

[bmg42000]

But they are B6's main competitor on the NY-Florida shuttle (from LGA & JFK). Thats why I chose them . IMHO I think AA has the best chance of getting a free seat (+ 15 luggage charge).

[jetBlueNYFL]

Originally Posted by magiciansampras

OK, let's do a test.

Boston to Hong Kong starting today through the end of the year. What the first available date for B6 fights?

Thanks!

You already failed the test. The topic is the odds of getting a seat you want on a flight you want on a date you want with miles/points. NOT about to where you can redeem those points/miles. Stay on topic.

[jetBlueNYFL]

Originally Posted by BlissWorld

I give credit where credit is due, as much as I hate the airline I'm about to mention...It's actually a Southwest effect, if you want to call it that.

Agreed and disagreed.

Agree: The Southwest Effect is the impact on the industry in 1978 (and still today) in the markets that WN serve(s/d). But you can't tell me there's no "JetBlue Effect" in those respective markets. Southwest introduced the effect - JetBlue just expanded it to other markets/routes.

[sbm12]

Originally Posted by bmg42000

But they are B6's main competitor on the NY-Florida shuttle (from LGA & JFK). Thats why I chose them . IMHO I think AA has the best chance of getting a free seat (+ 15 luggage charge).

I'm not arguing your reason for choosing them, just pointing out that you're looking for rule buster seats and complaining that the availability isn't there; I was trying to explain why it is not there.

Oh, and JFK-MCO has no TrueBlue seats on B6 for 12/18-1/1. Tell me again about the no blackout dates benefit that B6 has?

At least DL lets you redeem for 2x points, even if there is a connection. CO and AA would let you book for 2x points into any seat they have for sale, though CO has no standard seats for redemption that week, even for a platinum elite.