Tl;dr – JetBlue’s promo, while intriguing, is more of the same.
Yesterday, JetBlue announced a big promotion in celebration of its 25th Anniversary.
Here are the key details:
- Fly to 15 destinations & earn 150,000 bonus TrueBlue points
- Fly to 20 destinations & earn a total of 350,000 bonus TrueBlue points.
- Fly to 25 destinations & earn Mosaic 1 status for 25 years.
You don’t need to register for the promotion, but you will need to attach your TrueBlue number to all qualifying flights. Qualifying flights are those flown between June 25, 2025, and December 31, 2025. Flights must be operated by JetBlue; award fares are eligible, and connecting flights will be treated as separate destinations.
BTW, “Let’s jet the party started?” You know I can’t let that one slip by. Did anyone else hear that terrible Black Eyed Peas song when they read that one? Shout out to JetBlue’s marketing team for really digging into the ole back of tricks on this oh so momentous occasion.
Why This One is a Pass for Me
JetBlue has been experiencing a challenging period. The airline’s financial health is currently under pressure, facing challenges related to profitability and increasing debt levels. JetBlue reported a net loss in the first quarter of 2025, along with negative operating margins, despite its cost-cutting efforts. Recently, the airline made waves with its announced hopeful partnership with United Airlines (which Spirit has launched a challenge to). With all that said, my concern has little to do with JetBlue’s financial performance and more to do with its core operating philosophy – JetBlue is still, at its core, a glorified regional airline serving the Northeast. JetBlue is the DiMeo Crime Family of US Airlines.
Yes, I know JetBlue flies to Europe. JetBlue flies transcontinental. JetBlue has a mini-hub in the Caribbean in San Juan. These things are all true, and they still make things less than efficient. There’s not enough intra-network connectivity that makes this challenge worthwhile. I don’t live near any of JetBlue’s major hubs, and frankly, my travel doesn’t take me to these places, even on a semi-regular basis. Accordingly, I don’t want to keep going back to Boston, New York (any of its three airports in the greater NYC metro area), Miami, or San Juan, chasing 350,000 TrueBlue points.
That’s why I say it’s more of the same. JetBlue’s failure to expand its connectivity between destination cities is a significant reason for its operationally over-leveraged status, and its continual pursuit of partnerships (such as the one it previously had with American) and this latest one with United.
You need only look at the more modern strategy employed by JetBlue founder David Neeleman in his latest venture, Breeze Airways. Harnessing the best of the ‘low-cost’ carrier playbook, Breeze typically opens up each new city it flies to with direct flights to more than one destination. At scale, you could string together multiple destinations and hop around the country (and to the Caribbean) without having to return to the carrier’s hubs of Tampa, New Orleans, Norfolk, or Charleston time and time again.
Additionally, the Mosaic 1 status, although offered for a lengthy 25-year period, isn’t particularly lucrative. 350,000 TrueBlue points are cool – but the most compelling uses of these points, to me, are on Qatar Airways or TAP Air Portugal – and so what, I’m going to fly 25 JetBlue flights to fly QSuites twice or redeem for TAP when Aeroplan almost always has more competitive rates?
Those points are best utilized for JetBlue’s increasingly available Mint service, which, again, is most useful for a Northeast-based traveler.
I love the creativity here, but for a non-JetBlue hub resident, this, like JetBlue’s entire current operation, feels like a pass.
