Puteshestvennik

This is my first post on this site and unfortunately it is negative.
Can't say that i travel a lot with Jetblue but I was happy when they came to my town Richmond VA and it was great because it helped to bring prices for air travel down.

I signed for their Amex Jetblue credit card and got reward with their old program. I heard about a new program and hope that it would be beneficial
for their customers but seems like so far I can't say it.

Here is my situation and it is really not big deal but is is show how they care about us customers.

I have 85 old points and as I remember I thought that as long as I use their credit card they would not expire and with addition of new program I thought those points will be transferred to new one but recently I noticed online that there is expiration date and I should use them before October.
Also I have about 9000 new points and because of expiration date I tried to check online to book flight using my old and new points. System show my new points when I enter information but not my old ones. I read online that I can transfer my old ones to some kind of certificate but only when I am ready to make reservation. I can't do it until I see how it works together or until somebody exlplain to me little bit more to make sure if I do it right.
So I decided to call Jetblue to check all my questions with rep.
I called their customer service # and choose option to speak about True Blue program. I was told that it is 20 minutes hold and I thought it is little long but I want to check how everything will work so I wait. When resp pick up phone something happened and we disconnected.

As you may be understand I don't want to wait another 20 minutes so I tried to use different option to see if I can be transferred to alive reps without such a long hold. I called their reservation line where I can rech them pretty quike but I was told that they can't help me and need to transfer me.
I hope they will transfer me to person but it was the same hold line and voice told me that hold time I think 15 minutes. After holding for some time voise informed me that hold time 40!!!! minutes.
I hang my phone.
In a couple of days i decided to try again and called their reservation #.
As on firts time rep. answered almost right away. I let her know that I have several easy questions about True Blue rogram but I can't get in contact with this line but she immediattly told me that she can't answer my questions about this program and will transfer me to them. I asked if she can transfer me to alive reps. but she said she needs to transfer to regular line. I asked for superviser but answer was negative.

I desided to go online and wrote in their speak up section that I would like to be contacted by customer service resp. about my True Blue plan. It was on 04/24/2010.
Later I received automated response to I will be contacted in 7-10 business days.
May 3 received response
******************************
Dear Mr. #######,

Thank you for contacting JetBlue Airways regarding your TrueBlue account. We appreciate the
opportunity to review your TrueBlue account.

Our records indicate that you have 85 points in the old TrueBlue Program and 8819 points in the new
TrueBlue Program. To access your options for using the old TrueBlue points, click on the the Old
TrueBlue Program link. If you have any questions regarding your options, please call us at
1-800-JETBLUE(538-2583) and one of our friendly TrueBlue crewmembers would be happy to assist you.

We appreciate your loyalty to JetBlue Airways and look forward to the privilege of serving you many
more times in the future.

Sincerely,

Lori
TrueBlue Customer Service Crew
JetBlue Airways
Crewmember 85080
******************* ******************
It doesn't help me with anything and simly give to me information that everybody knows.
I answered that I need somebody to call me and received the same response.
*************************************************
Thank you for contacting JetBlue Airways. You can expect to hear back from us in 7 - 10 business
days. If you need immediate assistance with your reservation, please call us at 1-800-JETBLUE
(538-2583) to speak to a Reservations crewmember.

Sincerely,

JetBlue Airways
http://www.jetblue.com
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Now I can agree with you that nothing bad happened to me but is this looks like customer service to you?
All I need is answer on few simple questions which I can't really ask online becuse they will depend on rep answers.
It is why now I have Spirit Air card and even though I had reservation about them first. Aafter my first purchase of their round trip ticket for my family of 4 I saved around $1000 and was pretty happy after travel.

I don't give up on Jetblue but I will if it continue like that because I will have no choice.

Thank you for your attention.

Gene

sbm12

Welcome to FlyerTalk!!

You're correct that the hold times are pretty much abominable right now. That sucks.

The good news is that you came to the right place to get the correct answers for what you're trying to accomplish. The old points cannot be converted to new points but new points can be converted - at a ratio of 200:1 - to the old program. That means you would need to move 3,000 new points to the old program to top it off and get the TruePasses issued. If you follow the instructions in the email they sent you'd find yourself on this page where you can convert TB2 points to old points to get the reward you're looking for. Of course, you'll still have to wait on hold to talk to a rep to book the reward or even to inquire about availability, so there will still be plenty of hold time involved in the effort, but it is possible.

Glad to hear that you don't mind traveling on Spirit. That's not an experience that I'd be happy repeating very often. But if it works for you and you can save money no reason not to go that route.

robgrose

After years of flying almost exclusively jetblue, I had such an issue redeeming Jetblue's Trueblue Awards miles that I wrote a letter to the president explaining the situation. As a marketing exec. myself I find it extremely frustrating when airlines play games with their loyalty programs and it ended up, in this case, costing Jetblue a loyal customer of several years.

below is the letter.


June 14th, 2010

Mr. Dave Barger
President & CEO
JetBlue Airways Corporation
118-29 Queens Boulevard
Forest Hills, NY 11375

RE: Trueblue Awards Program Issues

Dear Mr. Barger,

I am writing as a marketing executive, CEO of my own company and former loyal JetBlue customer.
As CEO of JetBlue, I thought you would like to know about missteps that I believe were made by your Trueblue unit that has costs Jetblue at least one loyal customer (and I suspect many more) and resulted in achieving the opposite of what a loyalty program aspires to do, reward and retain loyal customers.

In 2009, when JetBlue announced the switch from the “old” Trueblue program to the “new” Trueblue awards program, I received numerous automated emails assuring me that my old miles were safe and could still be used. This was important to me, as I had built up quite a few award points as a result of using the airline almost exclusively for my business for many years.

In December of 2009, when I had an issue trying to redeem some of my awards travel, I was emailed (enclosed) by Jetblue’s Reward “Crewmember 19393” Casey that my miles had expired. This was erroneous and I had to spend precious time digging through emails to prove that I did indeed have unexpired reward points available to travel. I finally received a corrective email (enclosed) from Arlene crewmember 81865. After this hassle, I was finally able to use the rewards travel I had earned but the whole experience of fighting over points I had earned had left a bad taste in my mouth.

When finally able to book this Trueblue awards trip in January 2010, I was informed by a True Blue agent via telephone that I had accumulated enough points for another one way ticket and she advised me that these points would expire by mid May 2010 and to be sure and use them before then. I made a note in my calendar to do so.

On May 13th I attempted to book a one way Trueblue awards flight and was shocked to find that many of the old points that I had been told did not expire until mid May had already expired, leaving me with less than enough points to book the travel.

When I called for further explanation, I was told that 66 points (more than enough to book one way travel), had expired without any notice between Feb 2010 and May 2010 because I didn’t have 100 points (enough for round trip travel). This was the first I had heard of this.

If this was the case, why was I told by the True Blue Agent in January that I already had enough points for a one way travel ticket that did not expire until May 2010? Wouldn’t Trueblue agents inform me accurately? If not them, who should?


When I sent an email asking your customer service reps to please provide an explanation and give them a chance to rectify the situation, I received a standard “sorry but we can’t help you” response, with a few glib words about how I was a valuable customer (see enclosed from Nancy crewmember 44476).

This is not the kind of service I had become accustomed to a JetBlue that made me such a loyal customer in the first place.

I believe that the handling of the switch from Trueblue’s “old” rewards program to the “new” one, has been mishandled and not only left your customers confused but also your own employees as evidenced by misinformation given by JetBlue’s own employees on two separate back to back occasions

(1) In December 2009 telling me that my miles had expired when they indeed had not

(2) In January 2010, informing me that I had enough miles for one way rewards airfare until mid May 2010 when this was not the case.

Your Trueblue personnel have dropped the ball and I believe the program now has the opposite of its intended effect, causing loyal customers like me, to flee the airline and to do business elsewhere, which is exactly what I have done.

I have not flown JetBlue since this latest incident and I do not intend to. JetBlue has proven it does not value loyalty, so why should I? It’s a shame that your rewards program has this unintended effect, because the other elements of Jetblue’s operations are excellent in my opinion and I shall miss flying your otherwise excellent airline.

As CEO I felt it important to make you aware. I have attached appropriate email correspondence chains in case this proves helpful in any way.

Regards,


Robert G. Rose

CC: Andrea Spiegel, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for JetBlue Airways

sbm12

I'm a bit surprised that you didn't choose to address the letter - or at least CC it - to the VP of Loyalty. Seems like you missed an opportunity there.

As for expiry of the old award points, did you ever check online? That information has always been accurate IME.

Dieuwer

That's why there is FT. People on this board are more than willing to help answer your questions

Puteshestvennik

I am happy I found this board. There is a lot of great info. here.
For examle 877 # for True Blue let me speak with alive True Blue reps for the first time and I was able to learn some info. Thank you again guys.
I was told that if I transfer my old points to their pass I will have one more year to use it. I hope this info. correct b/c I forget to remember res name but anyway if it incorrect nobody will stay behind it.

sbm12

There is no way to "transfer" old points to a pass. If you have enough points in the old system a pass will be issued and it will be valid for one year. If you are short a few points on the old system you can transfer new points to make up the missing old points.

Puteshestvennik

Yes, it is what they told me to do. I will transfer some of my new points to old and I hope I can get this pass and use it.

Dieuwer

I just called to ask for a price drop voucher. Hold time was less than 30 seconds. ^

sbm12

Nice! Maybe things have gotten better in the past 6 weeks. I'll find out in a couple days when I call to book pass travel.

ellinj

I was on hold for about 12mins the other day when booking my pass travel.

Dieuwer

Price drop again. This time I was on hold for about 30 min. because the rep didn't know what I was talking about.
But in the end she figured it out with the help of a supervisor and I got the credit

JBLU421NYC

Called to fix a TB issue, connecting to the AMEX card, and jetBlue resolved the issue in a couple of min. Wait time for a rep was about 1min.