HatAndJacket

I'm sure this question must be on many peoples' minds - The JetBlue Amex really didn't offer too many perks compared to other airlines' credit cards, which offer things like free checked bags, companion travel vouchers, elite qualifying points, etc.

Now that we know that Barclays will provide the new credit card, do you think they might offer:
-Free checked bags, since now B6 charges for checked bags?
-Companion travel voucher like Barclays used to offer on their US Air CC?
-A feature of spending a certain amount of $$ per year in return for Mosaic qualifying points?
-Other features?

What are your thoughts? I'd be surprised if they didn't offer a way out of checked bags, though with a higher annual fee than the AMEX had, I'd like to see the other features, too - they could really make a great product... on the other hand, does B6 need it?

djplong

Do they need it? I don't know. I signed up for the Amex card less than 5 years ago. I put all my monthly 'autopay' bill on that card and tried to funnel as many major purchases through it as I could. In less than 60 months, I can say the following:

- My wife and I got free round trip tickets for a California vacation (BOS-LGB)
- I paid points for a round trip ticket to Honolulu (BOS-JFK-HNL) so that my wife could accompany me when my employer (the Air Force) sent me to meetings at PACAF in Hawaii.
- I currently have over 39,000 points in my account.

JetBlue is the only airline where I've actually been able to GET free tickets.

In that time, my wife has flown to Phoenix a couple of times and we've done round trips (all from Boston) to Washington, Tampa (twice) and San Diego in addition to the freebies I mentioned above. It really hasn't taken much, compared to all the other rewards programs, to get free flights.

RWPrincess

I hope they will change it up a bit and at least offer the free checked bag however, keep in mind that JetBlue still has to approve and fund these offers. They do get some money from the bank and perhaps MC/Visa but the airline still does the primary funding on the offers. So if they haven't done it before, they may not do it in the future. Unless their card membership isn't where they'd like it to be.

I used to work on the bank side of some co-branded credit card products, including another airline card.

HatAndJacket

They've never had a bag fee waiver before because they've never had bag fees to waive... Afaik all of the major airlines who have fees have CC waiver options (spirit and frontier don't count as major airlines as far as I'm concerned and I wouldn't put B6 in their category)

sbm12

I would bet yes on a 1st bag waiver.

Leaning towards no on the companion pass and Mosaic qualifying points but less certain on those.

RWPrincess

Do you think if we cancel the American Express Card that we will be able to take advantage of a signup bonus on this new card? I'm thinking they will be tracking the TrueBlue numbers. But perhaps we need to let a certain amount of time elapse.

sbm12

Yes.

HatAndJacket

As per this thred:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/jetbl...d-partner.html
It looks like Barclays may pull current B6 Amex holders right in so it may be safer to cancel now to ensure being able to capitalize on the new card sign up bonus... I don't see why you shouldn't be able to get the bonus on the new card, though, after all, it IS new product.

Dylane

What do you think the chances are of Amex offering some kind of deal to transfer to a new card with them? I'm debating whether to transfer my existing card to a new Amex card now, or wait and see if Amex makes an offer. Waiting might mean I lose out on any sign up bonus for the new Barclays card, but I'm not 100% sure that I'll sign up for it anyway.

HatAndJacket

I just spent 20 minuets on the phone with a rep from AMEX trying to ascertain what my options were for the card and he told me that at this point he could not give me any details no matter which direction I tried to approach the question from, which I think means that they are trying to hold on to us until the last minute so we have as few options as possible... I don't foresee such great retention offers from AMEX beyond the standard sign up bonuses for other cards that you would get simply for opening a new account, but I'm not a prophet... I plan on cancelling my AMEX this week and I'll hedge my bets with the new card, or I won't, depending on what the new card offers.

Personally I'd like to see two versions of the new card - one that mirrors the current AMEX with the same annual fee, and another with an $85 or $95 annual fee that waives checked baggage fees. I'd even consider one with a higher annual fee that offers a way to earn points toward Mosaic.

sbm12

Very, very low.

HatAndJacket

I'd really like to see something like $20k spend gets u 3000 points toward mosaic or something like that

Dylane

I spoke with a rep at Amex a couple of weeks ago and was told that offers were already being sent out either via email or postal mail, but they couldn't tell me what that offer was or when I might get it. This is my only credit card, so closing it outright could impact my credit score more than I'd like.

HatAndJacket

You can open a new AMEX card (like blue cash or blue miles) with no annual fee and transfer all of your credit except for $500 that you have with AMEX over to the new card. AMEX will consider it all one account for purposes of reporting to FICO, Experian, etc. according to the rep I spoke to.

pc0880

Spend 20k for only 3000 points?

I would tend to believe that AmEx would do anything in their power to keep cardholders considering that they lost not only Jetblue, but Costco too..