Worthless tile perks!
 

So, my minor son recently earned >20 tiles from recent international travel. With the first 10, we selected the 5k bonus, which went into the family pool -- great. That leads us to the second perk... which is completely useless:

We can choose from:

1. Priority security: we all have pre-check, so this is moot. Also, even if we didn't, he's a minor, and not going through security by himself.
2. Alcoholic beverage: once again, a minor, so this is moot as well.
3. Group B boarding: I have the JetBlue Biz card, giving us all Group A boarding by default. Again, useless.
4. Bonus points on a JetBlue vacation package: lol, what? No one books these -- certainly not little children. Useless.

I feel like JetBlue really dropped the ball here. They should at least let me pick the 5k points again, if we can't possibly derive any value from the other four options. Leaves a really sour taste in my mouth for their much-hyped tile revamp.

Looks to me like children aren't the target demographic for Mosaic and tiles.

Shocker.

I think in this case you are out of luck. You could get the alcoholic beverage one and enjoy it yourself (tell your son this is the tax he has to pay for his parents paying for all of these tickets for him ;)). The JetBlue Vacations thing is another option -- plenty of people use these. You could book from your sons account and add the bonus points back into the family pool.

Again, it sucks that you're in this situation. But none of this should have been a surprise. Maybe status match to another airline with a more traditional program that would better suit your family. Your profile says it best ;)

-J.

I understand he's not the target demographic, but it's odd to have the value proposition drop off so significantly after the first tile, particularly given how frequent travelers -- the target demographic, in general, for sure! -- are likely to already have access to priority screening/boarding from another source.

Another thing to consider: priority security and Group B boarding cost JetBlue nothing, but are material benefits for some travelers. The alcoholic beverage costs JetBlue around 50 cents (30-33 cents for the nip, the rest is my very generous estimate for fuel, advertising, labor, etc.). It's ironic that the bonus points are arguably the most expensive for the company, but you can see here that these second-round tile benefits have little-to-no value.

-J.

Right, that's sort of my point. The first tile has overt (modest) value -- $55-$70 dollars, let's say. But then the value proposition falls off a cliff. It doesn't make much sense that frequent flyer perks should become less valuable as you fly more segments, and really reiterates what a schizophrenic airline JetBlue is. We'll continue to fly them because of our preferences for (relatively) cheap extra legroom bulkhead seats at booking, something no other domestic carrier can match.. but it really feels like their identity, as an airline, is out to sea.

LOL. What will status matching do? $2,000 of spend in a year on one of the US3 carriers gives you nothing aside from the regular points earned from the flight.

Also those 20 titles aren't "status" with B6 yet anyhow

Not being the target market is obviously the key here, but it is a long-time gripe of mine. I have a child that qualifies for Mosaic every 2-3 years (basically when I drain the points bank completely and need to fly him on cash). In particular, alcohol as a benefit, just seems outdated. My standard feedback was that it should be some small in-flight credit towards an eat-up box, etc. They probably would have ended up with more of my cash. :D

A website which works, flights which are more so on-time and the same crappy seat.

I think this would make so much more sense as well.

-J.

I like the idea of a free Eat-Up Box or Alcoholic Beverage.

Agree that the perks are quite useless. I also don't really understand why travelers would choose to be loyal to B6 over practically any other airline given that (1) they're not part of any international alliance and (2) they don't have high enough traffic where the potential for better IRROPS handling as an elite exist.

Don't know if it would be "loyalty" but I am now used to saving $500+ R/T on Mint to Europe via B6 for a product in many ways superior to other carriers. Can have a lot of fun with $500. YMMV but international point to point is good value on B6.