Once I realized how awful TB2 was last month, I canceled my JetBlue Amex and have moved most of my travel to other airlines with more competitive FF programs.
Sure I prefer the service and planes of JetBlue, but not enough to support a horrible loyalty program like TB2.
My 5 main reasons for leaving JetBlue and TB2 are:
1) Redemption rates are atrocious compared to other programs, even when booking JetBlue's own flights!!! Amex rewards and Starwood have superior programs that let you book flights on any airline using your points depending on the price of the ticket on their website. This almost always adds up to less points than TB2 asks for the same ticket. Even Delta and Continental FF programs asked for much less points for my upcoming trips than TB2.
2) When a corporate ticket is purchased not on JetBlue.com, you get half of the potential TB2 points. This is extremely unfair to those of us whose tickets are booked by corporate travel agencies.
3) Converting points from Amex Rewards to TB2 is now an unfair conversion rate for the consumer. It used to be even. DL, CO, British Airways, etc allow you to convert points on a 1:1 basis. In Starwood, you can convert points to American and other airlines on a 1:1 basis. TB2 is VERY uncompetitive.
4) With every other FF program run by major NY area carriers, I receive the same amount of FF points whether my ticket costs $100 or $700. Also, I receive the same amount of points no matter if I book the flight on the carriers website or if a corporate travel agent books it for me.
5) I detest how difficult JetBlue has made it to redeem TB1 points. If I want to check availability, I have to wait on hold for a minimum 45 minutes to speak to an agent. I believe they purposely took away on-line TB1 redemption and are not properly staffing the phone lines in an effort to make it as difficult as possible to redeem them. I should not have to pull teeth to redeem my TB1 truepasses! Also, after I wait 45+ min., there is almost zero availability for the 20 potential different trips I was trying to book. The agents even complained to me about how hard it is to find seats on TB1 passes and they don't understand why the hold times are so long or why JetBlue won't allow TB1 redemption on it's website.
Last edited by Ringside; Apr 21, 2010 at 9:55 pm