OK, so the GF and I broke up and now I'm stuck with two tix to Vegas in late Feb/early Mar. Well, really only stuck with hers - as I am going either way with 2 of my friends now. Only problem is that I booked her ticket using points. I knew that award tickets (or any tix, really) are nontransferrable in names, but I thought that I would be able to cancel her ticket, paying the change penalty, and then rebook under a different name. However, I just found out you cannot do that with award tix - you can only postpone dates, not change names. This really sucks - I would have to forfeit the ticket, which I have only done once in my life on AA (long story).

Any suggestions? I am in NY and her itin/conf. # is in FL, so I guess I will try calling the TB desk and speak to a supervisor and/or write in to Speak Up. Let me know what you guys think...thanks!

Sorry to hear that, jetBlueNYFL

Unfortunately you can't cancel award tickets or change names on them - always sucks in situations like these. You can always try to talk to a supervisor and plead your case, but they probably won't budge.

What to do with the extra ticket though? I guess it depends how civil the breakup went, lol. If you hate her guts, you could probably just move the flight to in the very close future and let it expire, telling her you got the ticket back. If you're still talking, perhaps you could give her the ticket and tell her to change it to some other time when she wouldn't be on the plane with you (ie, not on the Vegas trip).

Situation sucks, man - I'm sorry

sorry about the gf breakup, but two things that "in theory" work (and are not exactly legit):
1-if your gf has an ambiguous name on the ticket (jamie, sammy, etc) one of your friends who is going with you to vegas can claim it's his ticket, and tell TSA he doesn't have ID (give it to you until you're well clear of security)
2-bring a new ladyfriend along, and tell her to do the same (doesn't have ID, lost it, etc)
They'll have to go through additional security, but its not much, and IME, it seems that theres no line for the secondary, so its usually quick and painless...
like i said, this isn't legit, but it could work

good luck in vegas!

Thanks for the responses, very much appreciated. Unfortunately, we are not talking - for the better, and let's just leave it at that.

I am ethical, so the two ways around that are definitely not legit are not the path I'm going to take. I am sure it would work, especially since TSA is a joke - but to be honest, I am single and ready to mingle now...I must have been nuts to want to go to Vegas with a girl in the first place

I'll give TB a ring, plead my case, and if no luck even try it with Speak Up. I've also found that different supervisors bend rules, while others don't budge. So, I will call a few times before officially giving up. If/when I have to give up and forfeit the ticket (b/c unfortunately, it looks like it will have to go that way), if worse comes to worse, I will keep the "invisible her" on that flight, but move it to a middle seat, so my friend and I can have the row to ourselves - sort of like our own-made biz-class. Sucks to lose a TB ticket, but it is what it is. I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks again!

I just noticed this in TrueBlue's T&C:

What I can't understand, is wouldn't it be beneficial to jetBlue from a revenue standpoint to actually allow TB tickets to be cancelled? Think about it...they would gather the $50 for cancellation from the original TB ticketholder, in addition to opening up that seat - most likely a REVENUE seat to a paying cusstomer, instead of letting that seat fly empty for those who won't postpone dates like in my above situation.

Even though I LOVE jetBlue, sometimes I really wonder why airline execs don't crunch the numbers better and look at the BIGGER picture? That added revenue would of course be in addition to the positive reputation of even more flexibility with tickets at jetBlue!

Well let us know what happens with calling/emailing them

it's actually really easy to change someone's name in the b6 res system. (Coming from a former b6 CS agent) it's just that fare rules disallow it. If you get someone nice on the phone it'll take a matter of seconds. Just simple as changing the name in the customer name field. It's just like filling out a form. As a csa agent at b6 i had to do change people's names because they used nicknames to book their tickets and TSA sent them back. Or because the baggage tags didn't print because people's names were too long to fit. Explaining the situation clearly should probably be able to change the name.

It's not like other airline system's where it's actually a pain to be able to change the name in a reservation.

It is definitely possible to change a name on an award ticket. I had a case where I made a reservation over the phone and they misspelled the name of the relative I was gifting the True Blue ticket to. A quick phone call after I saw the mistake took care of the issue.

Keep in mind I called very soon after the mistake and I wasn't the one to type it in but point is that namｅｓ　ｃａｎ　ｂｅ　ｃｈａｎｇｅｄ．

Those two posts above are very reassuring, thanks guys! I'll call in a few weeks when I get back down there, and will keep trying until I get that nice supervisor.

you might have a better chance getting back together with the ex, than getting the name changed with a nice csr.

Also, if one of the flights is cancelled or significantly changed to a time that doesn't work for the originally ticketed party anymore, you shouldn't have a problem getting the points redeposited into your account because at that point its a change generated by B6.

Or, like you suggested, petition B6 to charge for award ticket changes like some other airlines do. If your request is implemented before you travel you're golden.

If for some reason this doesn't all work out, I say keep the ticket as is, do the online check-in for your ex, and as long as no one is trying to go standby, hope you get to keep the empty seat next to you or one of your friends during your trip. Unless you're feeling overly generous, no need to relinquish your ticket just so that B6 can re-sell that seat that you've paid for, albeit with points.

As promised, an update on this situation...

I just called JetBlue and was transferred after a few minutes to the TrueBlue desk. The nice agent said she will make an exception this time and make the name change, mentioning that she will make a note on my TrueBlue account not to do this again in the future. I did not care for the latter comment, however, it is still far more generous than most other airlines would have budged. I did not have to pay any fees either! Thanks jetBlue!

Glad to hear it worked out. Maybe after a few months you can ask someone to remove the comment if its really in your TrueBlue account and not just in the trip locator.

Or get a new trueblue account?

I was going to suggest changing the pax's name if the name of the ticket couldn't be changed.

With all due respect: I really hope the comment is not so easily removed. If people get exceptions to the rules, then B6 is in the right to monitor for a pattern of such requests.

In any event however, this seems like the right outcome to me, mainly because I agree that the better system would be to allow cancellation for a fee. Heck, even credit balances on reservations that aren't in your own name are transferrable on B6.