Under the old program, I got about $600 worth of travel (West coast to San Juan) for 100 points. At $200 per 20k points, TB2 is at least 3x less generous on the redemption side.

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.

I agree with most of the above. I am going to cancel my Jetblue Amex too. Hopefully I will be able to use my last 2 TB1 passes. It's a shame because Jetblue is a great airline to fly, but I can't justify using them with such a terrible FF program.

I get where the bonus structure in TB2 comes from. "Go Long" bonuses are basically a promo to encourage transcon bookings, and "Go Big" works kinda like Mileathon in CO's OnePass. However, putting these bonuses front-and-center in the program really confuses the heck out of me -- and disadvantages those of us who live in the middle of the country.

Creating a table like this to explain how points are accumulated really misses the point. Instead of trying to simply display a complex system, why not have a simple system?

I'm not looking forward to cashing out my last TB1 pass -- and my little dalliance with B6 ended with TB2.

Wow that is one painful chart. It definitely is a turnoff to trying to work through this program. It feels as if this program is targeted to an aspirational audience who likes a lot of leisure travel. Give than the route system continues to overdevelop to vacation destinations and underdevelop everywhere else people fly, it probably makes sense to the B6 bottom line to keep these people happy.

I think its hard to see what the better options are though if you want to leave for another program.

Personally, I am now flying mostly on DL. Even as an FO I am doing pretty well on getting upgrades. I do see that redemption is really awful on DL, but at least for the short term, I am OK with this. DL hit me with a targeted promotion last year that initially gave me 100K miles that didn't require much of a change in travel habits other than giving up B6 for them. So I kind of calculate that in the back of my mind when looking at redemption value for now.

I hope WN continues to develop a presence at LGA, though, so that if/when I give up on DL, I have a better option than TB2 which seems so disappointing. I had a rapid rewards ticket that my partner used recently, and I found redemption on WN to be super, even out of LGA with a relatively small flight schedule.

The table is a real-world example. The real world isn't simple. There is a much simpler table available on the main site, too.

A comparable table for most other carriers would be similar, just no bonuses in most cases. Is that a good thing? I tend to like bonuses more than not.

Airlines mission
 

I think the airlines goal is to make money . Jetblue did that last year so if there if there frequent flyer program is not as generous as others so be it .

I'm about to join the TB2 haters
 

I really like JB, extra leg room and no checked luggage fee probably make it my 4th preffered airline, with the FF program, limited locatiopns actively working against it.


But it was greatfor a few transcons

At the transformation of the True blue program i got 2 old JB passes. I used 1 to book a transcon flight to homecoming, IAD to SFO. Got a call that the flight times were moved from a 5:30 pm to a 1 pm. Called to switch the flight to the 5:30 pm to Oakland.

20 minutes to get an agent.
20 minutes to get the flight switched.
and now the system has no knowledge of my confirmation.

Hopefully it will show up in an hour or a day or two.

Then tried to use my last TB one way, no availibility on any desired flights thru August

So I have one more flight to book by nov 2010, for travel by nov 2011, then its bye-bye for me also

Hi, little bit of a lurker here.

But I've been reading this thread, and, like anyone else, I hate to get screwed :)

So I reviewed my history and put some numbers into excel. I'm not a mega-flyer by any standard, but I fly enough that in the old program, I started earning 8 free segments per year. I've been ramping up travel for work and am in full swing now!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15646/Random/jetblue_old.png

A free round-trip per quarter I thought was pretty good! I punched the new program data into excell too.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15646/Random/jetblue_new.png

In about 5 months, with the old program I would have had another 4 free segments. The Blue rows are JetBlue Amex points (I think the math was 200-to-1), and the Orange rows are where the Go Big bonus tiers kicked in.

As you can see, I do a good number of "long" trips, so I assume some point this year I'll also get the extra 10k points.

55k points, however, isn't that great. I booked my wife a one-way to SFO to meet with me (and used the last "old" program ticket because I TOTALLY agree with the comments about the huge pain it was to get rid of them!) and that cost me 28,000 points.

In the old program, I would have had 4 free segments anywhere. In the new program, I *might* get a solid 2-3 segments.

And when I consider using a free segment, the gimmick that a "short" flight for 5-10k points isn't where I'm going to use my free segments. I'll gladly pay the $49 each way instead.

I'm in a city that Virgin serves, and with decent food and WiFi, I'm definitely considering switching because of the new JetBlue program changes.

Which is sad; I've had quite some loyalty to JetBlue! My wife wants me to write a letter...

Hope this info helps for the discussion! :)

So with all the negative feedback, is anyone at jetBlue listening? Are they going to make TB2 more worthwhile or are they going to continue to simply lose loyal customers because they unveiled a program that simply doesn't suit people anymore?

I have 15,000 points on TB2 mostly earned from my AX. I would have to use almost all my points to fly home (one segment) back to NYC from SEA. I have also flown to earn points and under TB1 I would have earned a free rt by now, instead I am stuck looking at the outrageous number of points I would actually need to fly back home.

I really enjoy jetting with jetBlue, and despite the disenfranchising feeling that I feel by TB2, I am still likely to fly jetBlue mainly because I still think the value is good for the fare. If the turn away from great customer service continues then jetBlue becomes less attractive for me, especially because NYC has plenty of alternate options.

Hope the point value for TB2 can be made higher!

Can't we assume JetBlue knew the changes in TB2 would suck for some people?

But would you have been able to redeem on those JFK-SEA flights that you're going to get with the new points?

At 15K points each way - 30K return - you're looking at roughly a $300 ticket. In many cases that would have been above the level that was redeemable on the old system so either way you'd not be getting the reward.

TB1 v TB2 v other airlines
 

The specific examples given in this thread regarding the decreased value of TB2 points vs. TB1 points are compelling, and I can see how a semi-frequent business traveler (especially one who doesn't 'go big', 'go long', or book on jetblue.com most of the time) might get noticeably less value out of this new program (AmEx spending could also lose some value if you used to redeem TB1 points for expensive flights). Hopefully, both customer feedback and real usage data from the first year of the program will be used by jetblue to 'tweak' TB2 over time. It seems like jetblue specifically needs to make changes to cater to those who are potentially most loyal, otherwise known as elites on other airlines.

I do think, however, that jetblue's program--where points have a near-fixed and tangible dollar value, and redemptions slide based on the fare--might be a better fit for some people than programs on majors, where 25,000 miles is thought of as a roundtrip flight, though it is often difficult to redeem at this level, so the value of a point is less certain.

You would think such was true but certainly they didn't convey that to me in their email responding to my dissatisfaction.

After laying out very specific details of how the new program is SIGNIFICANTLY worse for me they have the gumption to respond -
"We have every confidence you will love the new benefits and no
black out dates in the New TrueBlue Program."

Are you kidding me? I use to fly JFK to LAS 30 rt a year on JetBlue and get the extra legroom seats - each trip cost me 25,000 AMEX points plus about $100 in fees (including the extra legroom).
Now flights cost me 40,000 AMEX points plus about $150 in fees.

SO JetBlue agent - the only way I'd "love the new benefits" if I am the only moron on the face of the planet (that's 6 Billion people remember) who likes paying two thirds more for the same product.

Where's Dave Neeleman when you need him?