Leaving JetBlue and TrueBlue: value is HALF of what old TrueBlue program was! (Proof)
 

Before I explain this, a brief background on me: I have loved JetBlue from day one and have been a regular flyer of the Airline for the better part of 8 years. I fly them on average 14 times a year, that is 14 roundtrips or 28 legs a year. I fly for business mostly with some personal mixed in and I frequent California, Las Vegas, Florida, Phoenix & Denver regularly but have also gone to several Caribbean destinations with the airline. I know every snack by name and brand I've been loyal. I also bought the All You Can Jet Ticket last year. In short, when they fly the route I am taking, I always fly on "the Blue" making me a pretty idyllic customer who spends a lot of money each year on the airline.

I am also new to Flyertalk, registered today at the suggestion of a friend who is a employee in the industry.

When JetBlue started really growing and got a new CEO, I noticed the changes like any frequent traveler would: higher average fares (I remember back when JetBlue was usually the cheapest option), charging for extra leg room, refundable tickets, aggressive route expansion, degraded quality of inflight service, etc. I was fine with it and recognized that JetBlue was going from being "special" to just becoming another airline. I chalked it up to a necessary business move and continued to fly the airline as much as ever. With the recent change of the True Blue program, I was interested, but skeptical as it seemed like I might benefit, because sometimes fares were astronomical these days on JetBlue and I figured I would reap added value in points.

So here's the rub. The new True Blue Program sucks. And it sucks bad and I'm going to lay it out and I challenge anyone to refute it.

I think its too new for people to really know it yet, but as a frequent flyer on JetBlue, I see it now and its plane (plain) as day that this thing is going to hurt their business because if it is causing ME to change airlines and stop using JetBlue, then it will certainly crush the infrequent user who sees significantly less benefit to flying JetBlue than I do and simply opts for another carrier where the path to a free ticket is easier and more clear cut. I am preparing a spreadsheet because I want to spell out to JetBlue's management team why I am leaving but for now, here is the quick math.

Under the old True Blue program, you got to 100 points and bam, free roundtrip ticket. Long haul flights were worth more points and short haul and JetBlue had a cool little picture that showed you your progress. Brilliant and simple. My trips racked those up and I enjoyed building the inventory of free flights up so I could fly my family for free from time to time. I didn't care that they expired in a year...I used them up!

Forget that the new True Blue program is convoluted, its designed to be. If it wasn't then the value you extract as a regular user would be much more clear and people would throw a fit. Make it unclear and people can't really make an argument to complain. Im not saying they were that devious when putting the program together, but why not just equate the program to dollars or miles, two things we all understand? It's like those point systems on the Xbox and Wii Video Game consoles: $1 equals 800 points? What? It feels like Monopoly Money. TrueBlue is set up the same way. And those "big bonus" additions of huge points? Who cares? The amount of points necessary to book flights is so high and so ridiculous that your GO BIG BONUSES are a joke! They don't matter one bit. They advertise "free flights start at 5000 points. Well, guess what. That is for one way trips from JFK to Syracuse when you are up in the air for 38 minutes. Here is a piece of a personal example of mine:

I have flown JetBlue 8 times since November 1 for 16 individual legs. Destinations include the following locations, all initiated at JFK.
Denver, San Francisco, Long Beach, Salt Lake City, & Las Vegas. Some destinations were flown more than once and there was a Florida trip in there as well. The amount of flying I have done would have alotted me roughly two roundtrip tickets under the previous program when you include their old online booking bonuses and the point value long haul of flights. So how many points do I have now? 29,000 because of some Go Big bonuses including some worth 4,000 points. Sounds great, but let me show you some random checks of point values for a handful of destinations to illustrate what a joke the new system is. You do the same thing and see what you come up with.

Based on Checks I did Today: Random Dates Selected
New York to San Diego: Average Points for Roundtrip Needed 32,000!
New York to Salt Lake City: Average Points for Roundtrip Needed 28,000
How about Denver? That is closer! 26,000
And Syracuse? I checked it and its 6,300 points to go there, each way! For a total of 12,600 points. I guess I could fly the Mrs. to Syracuse.

So I don't have enough yet for San Diego, but I can get to Denver or Salt Lake if I am really flexible with the dates. Yes, you have to be crazy flexible too because they have many one way flights that are 23,000+. Sure you can use the new points anytime but who is going to get 50,000+ points anytime soon if it took me 6 months to get to 30 and I LIVE on those planes!

By my calculations, the program offers flyers 40% to 50% less of what the old True Blue system did. I understand some degradation given the need to compete, but this is enough of a punch in the gut that I am signing off of JetBlue after my currently booked flights are taken. I am actively looking for the best alternative airline. It might mean going to Delta. Might be someone else. I don't look forward to making the change but I need to so that I can ensure the most benefit from my frequent travel.

Bottom line is I'm out. See ya later TrueBlue and JetBlue I will miss you. I will also miss T5. Has been a great place to arrive early before a flight. I don't want to go to Delta, but they do have inflight Wifi now which is pretty good and at least their reward program is clear.

Are you actually spending a "lot of money" or just flying a lot? The new program is very much designed to reward the latter, not the former type of customer.

They did. Points are earned at a very specific rate per dollar spent and are redeemed within a pretty tight range. Most of the bonuses available are based on dollar spend as well.


People who spend more money on their tickets, people who fly more true transcons or people who simply fly more than you. I hate to break it to you, but 16 segments since November 1 actually isn't a ton of flying. Yes, it is a lot - way more than the vast majority of the public would ever do - but there are a good number of folks who fly way more than that. I've personally flown over 50 segments in that same time-frame. I'd actually say that earning 29K points that fast is pretty good.

It has lowered the value for customers who are always buying the lowest fares. For the folks who have to book last-minute or higher fare seats - particularly on shorter flights - the value has increased dramatically. Under the old program a one-way JFK-LGB purchased for $109 three months out was worth 3x the TB points that a walk-up JFK-BOS ticket for $300+ was worth. Great for the customers who can plan ahead but not necessarily "fair" or really encouraging to the folks the airline actually wants to attract and reward.

Yes, the SkyMiles program is clear. As mud. Just wait until you accrue your first 25K points and go to redeem for a domestic flight to discover that they are really more than that. Or you discover that the 100K points you thought were enough for a ticket to Europe in Biz are really a third of what you need for that reward.

I actually think that jetBlue's TB2 program is - along with Rapid Rewards - the most clear about exactly what you earn and what the redemption costs are of the loyalty programs in the USA. That doesn't mean it is the right program for you - it isn't for me either generally speaking - but that also doesn't mean that it is bad, confusing or misleading, at least not IMO.

Um, have you looked at the DL forum? Not a day goes by when people don't complain about not being able to find any award availability on DL or having seats only available at ridiculously high redemption levels. jetBlue's new programme rewards more money coming into jetBlue which is what a loyalty programme is supposed to do--generate more income. Redemption under the old true blue programme was not easy in the last couple of years and now with new partners coming on line, jetBlue/True Blue will only get stronger.

I agree with the OP. I don't fly nearly as much as they do, but I enjoyed the old program. You got 100 points and you got a free flight anywhere JetBlue flew. If you have the JetBlue Amex card then every $200 = 1 point. Now in the new program you earn your points based on how much you paid for your ticket, not just using the airline.

Last year I flew from JFK to Aruba with my girlfriend and earned 24 points (6 points each way and that was doubled because I booked online) I also received a $320 credit because whenever I saw my flight had decreased in price I called up and got a credit. With this new program I feel like I'm being penalized for trying to find the cheapest flight. I won't get as many reward points because I'm not spending as much money on the flight. I originally liked the program because I felt more rewarded for using JB compared to other airlines and the entire program was easy to understand. With this new program it just doesn't seem worth it to me and I'm debating whether or not to keep my Jet Blue Amex because the value just isnt the same.

Though with this announcement of a partnership between JetBlue and American, maybe things will change a little.

Redeemable points are worth about $0.01. Since you get 6 points for each dollar spend, your "return" is 6% (even better when factoring bonus points). I think that is excellent.

Example:

4/3 B6 #635, $182 or 13,500 points. Value: $0.01348/point.

I have been using TB through my B6 Amex since 2006 and as a leisure passenger have enjoyed 4 free r/t under the old program. For me I found the program to be a raging success, I would book my flights several months out and achieve low fares upon search. However, I experienced in July of 2009 why the new program is maybe a little bit more "fair" as SMB12 noted. I had to make an emergency flight and paid full fare and only received the standard points for my flight as if I paid a quarter of the price. I didn't complain, I earned my fourth set of truepasses and flew free in Feb of this year.

So far I am building my points up I didn't fly too frequently before, though now I am attending school on the West coast so that is going to change, it appears as though I should get some use out of the points for memorial day. I remember when many people were disappointed with TB1 and I didn't want a change, but now with TB2 I wasn't crushed. I understand why the airline is making this move.

Also, in regards to the free WiFi on Delta, BetaBlue was introduced, what two years ago? I understand that there were some early glitches, totally acceptable, but why after two years is BetaBlue the only a/c with WiFi? My friends flew from JFK-SEA on Delta (737-800) and they had free WiFi and TV. So I thought jetBlue was pioneering the way for WiFi and now, sadly, they are way behind. I wish there was WiFi, when, oh when jetBlue?

I still pretty exclusively fly jetBlue, they are cheaper a fair amount of the time. With TB2, if they are more expensive at least I get points for it! I hope that jetBlue continues to surge forward and not fall into the mundane flying experience that almost everyone else offers.

There was some discussion a few weeks ago about B6 offering a version of elite status past a certain TB point threshold - free upgrades to EML, dedicated/priority phone support, complimentary alcoholic drinks, etc.

I think that would go a long way towards closing the perceived value gap.

Oh yea, and WiFi would of course kick .... WN is going to deploy it across their fleet by end of year. I'm much more loyal to B6 than WN these days, but that service offering could tip the scales a bit in favor of WN.

A frequent flyer program is supposed to create consumer loyalty. TB2 does not do that for the majority of travelers.

TB2 loyalty
 

I think they need to get the current system up and running better (aka no need to send a message to get the points posted ) and then head on to increase the value of TB2. I agree the offering EML upgrades (if available) to the very loyal customers (those who are in the top 10%) would be nice. Call the 'Professional Jetters ' or something like that . If WN can do it then so can B6 . Of course they need to limit this so that you do not have the situation as on other airlines in which 1/2 the flyers are elite . They can also do priority boarding / priority security if desired for the next tier ) . Finally the can create a Jetblue gold (or even orange to match the plane) credit care so one can buy these elite features (like on DL/CO) . But first they need to get the systems up and reliable and get rid of the 30 minute wait for a res agent when their is bad weather. Fix the reliability issues and then add elite processing .

Create or reward?

It can go either way and I think that rewarding it is really what the airlines would prefer to do. Remember that loyalty is about more than just time spent with the partner; there is a value proposition to both the consumer and the company that has to be met to make things work out in the long run.

Folks who spend a lot of time AND money are well rewarded. Folks who spend a lot of either one are slightly rewarded. Folks who only spend a little aren't rewarded much at all.

The program already has "tiers" of a sort with the Go Big and Go Long bonuses. There are rewards there for the most frequent passengers and the ones who spend the most. We can debate if they are enough of an incentive, but there is something very tangible in play.

Solo,

The old program was advantageous for you. That was a good thing for you.

For me it was not. I fly 2 or 3 times per year and risked losing awards. Then I signed up for the B6 AMEX and spend my paycheck using AMEX. I repay the balance in full. I get awards and have to plan accordingly so I still would risk losing awards.

Under the new TB2 I get to continue spending my Paycheck using my AMEX and at 20,000 points I get what is the equivalent of an old TB value or better, and I get to keep it so long as I use my AMEX TB B6 card.

For me and my family the new TB2 program is a win win situation!

Sorry for your loss. But I totally disagree with your opinion.

TB2 Rocks! ^:):p;)

PS Now I don't have to worry about blowing an award on a short hop such as JFK to Boston, or JFK to Buffalo.
I can cash in my TB points and not sweat the small stuff.

I couldn't agree with HandSolo more. Everything they said is exactly what I have been saying since this new program was initiated.I despise the new True Blue program. The old program was so much simpler to earn a reward flight for me.Why should I be penalized for being a good consumer who does not want to pay top dollar to fly.Yes,I have had to travel last minute and the flights did cost a lot more than I would usually pay, but I never felt beat out of points under the old system.The new system is great for the traveler who is not cost conscious.It is also good for that last minute business trip or emergency. The hold times to speak with a True Blue agent are ridiculous and redeeming old points is now like a job. The agents seem quite overwhelmed by the new system (as several have stated to me)and forget about trying to get points that are owed to you processed since they are so backlogged with requests(I was told that this evening).Using the speak up on their website gets you an automated response that they are also backlogged and it will take longer than usual for a reply.I have flown Jet Blue since day 1. I was at the run through of T5,I was excited to be a part of it.I am a Jet Blue amex cardholder. I belong to the Jet Views Forum from Jet Blue and the way they packaged the new True Blue is not what it ended up being.I loved flying Jet Blue. I am glad that the new program has found its fans and I respect other views,but for me the new True Blue is a failure.

i have the jetblue AMex card for the past 3 years. love the card. the first year we had 4 free flights, this year we have 5 free flights to Vegas. BUT with this new jetblue program i won't have a free flight until next year. i always get my points from using the AMEX card for dining, movies, and theater tickets so all points are doubled. i very rarely pay for a plane ticket, so this new program is not working very well for me. if i get 20000 points a year with the new program i might get a free one way ticket on a trancon flight, where the old program would have gotten me a free round trip transcon. it is what it is but i do not like it.

Well, let me turn that around and ask, why should you be rewarded for being a customer who does not want to pay top dollar to fly?

Trueblue is truecrap. This is officially the worst FF program in the industry, period.

They want it to be confusing and try to encourage people to purchase higher fares. It has absolutly ZERO perks for regular weekly fliers.

It caused me and many other people I know to leave Jetblue for Airtran or Southwest out of there secondary hub Boston.

Jetblue has none of the following perks-

Companion Pass - both WN FL
Priority Boarding - both WN FL
Elite - FL
Security lane "fly by" -both

No brainer!!

My answer to that would be that I believe the majority of people would look for the best fare they could get, especially in this difficult economy. Getting less points to fly to the same destination that I have been flying with Jet Blue for the past several years just does not make sense to me.If I use a coupon in a store should I get less of the product I am using the coupon on compared to the person paying full price for the same item?
Again, I will say that while I am sure the new True Blue will have it's fans,I am just not one of them.

Well, you have status on CO and AA.

Both will give me the same points for a $300 transcon as they will for a $600 one, right?

But more on the $1000 one. @:-)

Every loyalty program out there in the USA and most around the world reward the higher spend with more benefits/points/credits. TB2 is not at all unique in this approach.

Oh, there was never implication that TB is unique, nor that legacies don't give bonus miles for Y/J/F fares.

Up until now I was a Staunch defender of the new TB2. Not anymore!!!!!

I have just been doing some preliminary plans for some future trips. I am astounded at the points B6 wants for some ONE WAY flights......

22,500 to Phoenix from JFK!!!!
17,500 from Phoenix to JFK... Come on now...... this is outrageous

30,000 from JFK to Aruba... Get the hell out of here..

My benchmark is 20,000 points equals an old RT award on TB1. B6 when they rolled out TB2 said some one way flights could be had for 5,000 pts with other long haul flights around the 10,000 mark. When I checked soon after TB2 was rolled out the points charge was within that 5,000 to 10,000 range for a one way trip.

Now when I look around I feel like I am being ripped off. Especially when I see awards for one way trips at 17,500 to 30,000 points.

I have already told my son to cancel his B6 AMEX. As for my plans I will likely hang in there for a while but I am NOT going to totally loyal to B6. I will look outside the BLUE BOX now. I used to be restricted in my plans to the B6 route map.

Not anymore. In a way I feel unchained.

Sorry B6 but you have really let me down.

Also where has True Blue gal been? She posted a handful of times then fell of the map? :mad:

TrueBlueGal posted for about a month (this was a year and a half ago) and then disappeared (except for a couple posts 3-6 months later).

There was also TrueBlueGuy who appeared for a day or two last summer.

cancelled my JetBlue AMEX card today, no more real use for it anymore... AMEX didn't really seem to care much, other than of course an automated e-mail soliciting a survey for the way my phone call was handled.

DELTA may not be the best option for redemption, there is no low season. I think 25,000 miles on delta may get you to Syracuse.

Really?

How many points is a BizE ticket from JFK to CDG? Or JFK-BKK? If you can provide an answer that isn't a broad range which depends on a wide variety of parameters, details DL is not willing to publish to their members, you'd be a hero in the FT DL forum.

TB2 is simply going for Corporate America clients. Those who are not as price sensitivity, since their company is paying the bill.

It is a big failure for Main Street - those of us who are paying for their own flights, and are able to plan in advance.

I'm in the latter category, and no longer fly JetBlue (I came on here to see if I can do anything with my 44 old Trueblue points - looks like nothing).

That's really low compared with today's Rapid Rewards. I spend at most $800 for 16 credits, earning a free transcon RT worth $300 or more. That's a 37% return. In the past it has been as high as 100%. I expect Rapid Rewards 2.0 (similar to TB2 and proposed for late this year) to deliver 10% or less. That will be a huge step down for me. I hope it never happens, but we all know that devaluation is the way of the world.

I am no expert on TB1/2 but I did reap regular benefits from TB1 with flying only 3-4x per year. I have the B6AX card and continue to earn thousands of points a month. I was able to Xfer some of my new points back to old in order to earn truepasses earlier this year (which I already used). So far the TB2 program, as many of you are suggesting, does favor the business passenger. I am by no means a business passenger, but because I fly in combination with my AX card I have a significant number of points already.
In 2009 I had to make an emergency trip south and booked the flight the day before travel. I had to pay full-fare and had to purchase EML seats because they were the only remaining seats on the a/c. I earned as many points on TB1 as if I had a deeply discounted fare because the program didn't award based on purchase price but on how long the haul was. I didn't complain, because I earned a truepass after completing travel, but it would have been nice to get more points for spending more, especially since you earn 8 points for every dollar you spend on B6 travel with the B6AX card.
I am not really sure which program I like better yet, I do spend more on travel now that I am going to School in Seattle, WA (For my ATC CTI!!). It seems that the new program seems to be pretty rewarding for me so far since I already have enough points to get a r/t back home to NYC.

TB2
 

You should never have to buy an EML seat . If you do not want the EML seat then don't pay for it and they will seat you at the airport . B6 needs to make money to stay in business so making it harder (in some cases ) to earn the free flight is part of the costs of staying in business.

TB2 is a rip-off
 

In 2007 I flew about 50 legs on JetBlue. Nearly all of my flights were paid for using my AMEX points and nearly all of them were to LAS. In 2008 I would spend 25,000 AMEX points and I nearly always got a round trip ticket from JFK to anywhere I wanted to go. I didn't always get my exact travel day but generally got my preferred date and nearly always could find a round trip ticket within a day of my desired travel day.
In 2008 I didn't fly much.
Now I'll be flying often - probably doing 35 rt flights a year for the next many many years. I just went to book my first 10 rt flights via TrueBlu and am outraged!!
First - the conversion rate from AMEX to TrueBlue is 250 to 200. Could you be more disingenuous? The only and I mean ONLY reason to not have 1 to 1 is that you want to confuse people. You want people to say - hey I can get this flight for 50,000 points on AA but on JetBlue it's only 45,000 points. Of course 50,000 points on AA cost me less than 45,000 TrueBlue points.
Next - I can't find any rt flights for 25,000 points - ever - not one. And even if I could, remember, 25,000 TrueBlue points cost me 31,250 AMEX points now. SO I used to pay 25,000 AMEX points and now I can't even find a ticket for 31,250 points. And in fact most of the flights would cost me more than 40,000 points. It's more than a 50% increase in my costs.
Finally -their website speaks of how these changes were made with the traveller in mind? THEY WEREN'T MADE WITH THIS TRAVELLER IN MIND!!
Why did they ever get rid of Dave? Stupid move - 50% increase for this traveller is outrageous.
I won't fly JetBlue again unless they change their program.

On the other hand
 

Here are people on the Delta forum praising Jetblue.


http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...onnection.html

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! :)