JetBlue Implementing Mixed Points + Cash Booking

Got this today. Will be interesting to see if anybody else follows suit. Seems like this would mostly kill off buying points.

I didn't look to see if they are devaluing points at all when you do this method. The usual ratio is around 70pts = $1 cash for regular seats and 100pts = $1 cash for Mint seats.

• Pay for your flight with almost any combination of dollars and TrueBlue points—starting at just 500 points.
• Use Cash + Points for any JetBlue-operated flight, any time—with no blackout dates—just like when you pay for a flight with only TrueBlue points.
• The cash portion of your Cash + Points flight will earn TrueBlue points, so you can maximize your point-earning potential.

 

Cool! I might do this in order to get a direct flight and avoid the foolishness Southwest is pulling with switching flights.

 

JetBlue removed some non-stops but they may be finished for now, maybe through August.

 

I was able to book a direct flight this morning, using all my points up (in case they go under lol) for only $101. Very pleased, thanks @Chuck2009x ! I like to gamble, but not with Southwest when others are depending on me to get to my destination.

I'm used to choosing a seat near the front so I'm not fighting to get out. Looks like it might not be a problem this time. Flight is about 1/4 full so far...

 

Delta has been doing this for awhile. No points for cash portion and hasn’t really been an attractive deal in my opinion.

JetBlue points for paid portion is more attractive.

 

I wouldn't even consider taking a connecting flight from the east coast when direct flights are available. The only way it would work for me is if I had a layover in Hawaii on my way to Las Vegas.

 

I've been watching the seating plans for current dates, now that they removed several flights, the daytime ones are generally filling up pretty well. Here's Thursday's 7:25am flight. The aisle seats in Mint and middle seats in the main cabin are kept empty. So 96 main cabin seats available and 77 are booked. Although I think they also usually block out
Row 6 D-E-F and the last row for some reason I don't know about. They haven't committed to keeping middle seats empty past July 31, but they're still blocking them from booking through Sep 8.

 

Looks like they're not quite done consolidating.

Over the weekend they consolidated two morning non-stops on my departure day into one flight that departs at the midpoint between the two originals. I noticed this on Saturday but haven't gotten an email about it yet.

I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happens on my return flight, but it hasn't yet.

So if you're on a morning non-stop in either direction BOS <-> LAS in August, you might want to take a look at their schedule and see if anything changed.

 

Yeah they changed my return flight from 6 am to around noon. I don't mind, but the email didn't state that they changed the flight. It looked as though I bought 2 return tickets! I shot them an email about it because it also looked like they charged me again. They probably didn't, but I just was being a brat and want them aware of how half assed this was executed.

If they cancel or change my outgoing flight I will be more upset. But, I do love a direct flight. I hope they still keep the middle seats empty come August. I think they've only committed through July.

 

Yes, they moved from July 6 to July 31 as of now, although they're not promoting it as much as they were a couple of weeks ago. And they can change it anytime.

 

Man, now both my flights have changed. Morning one is an hour earlier. At least they asked this time. Also, maybe it's just words, but I went from "Blue" fare to economy. I don't want a bummer seat, gonna have to investigate.

 

i have a trip in august and my non stop was changed to depart two hours later in the am, which i think is better, but my original booking i reserved mint, now when i look at the new flight info, it is the same plane and under my fare it says business instead of mint but when i look at flight seating the mint seat that i chose from the previous flight isnt available so is it still mine and i didnt get bumped down?

 

ETA: Just read @illmatic9434 's post and "Economy" may just be another word for Blue. Probably log in and see if you have a seat assigned.

My original message:

Just a guess:

When they consolidate flights, there's bound to be two people who have the same exact seat reserved.

One of the flight numbers is going to be the "surviving" flight.

In that situation, the person who was booked on the "surviving" flight number gets to keep their seat and the other person gets bumped to "no seat assigned" status.

JetBlue added this "no seat assigned" economy fare several months ago.

They are supposedly boarding from back-to-front during Covid.

It's easy to board back-to-front if everybody has an assigned seat, but I'm not sure how they're handling it when you have a mix of people who have reserved seats scattered across the cabin, plus people who have no seat assigned.

I would have thought that if you booked a Blue fare and they consolidated flights, they'd at least assign you a different seat. Because then you could go in and change it online if you didn't like it.

 

Sounds like you probably still have the same seat. Mint is considered business class (as opposed to first class). Not sure why they used the word business. You should be able to log in and see what seat you're currently booked in, under "Manage Flights"

 

I've noticed a couple of other things over the past week or so from looking at the JetBlue schedule and also rates for late August at MGM properties:

JetBlue did another round of removing flights, so bookings are not coming in as much as they originally hoped/expected
They are also raising prices to an arm and a leg for Mint seats to try to make up the diff. And the price floor for Mint seats months out went way up. I booked the first Mint seats on two flights in January for $449 but I cancelled. When they reset the prices they were $849 and $749.

Between mid-May when re-opening was announced and the actual opening day, MGM rates went up for the rooms I've been looking at. Now they're starting to collapse. I saw a suite for a weekend night go from $239 to $259, back down to $239, and now it's $179.

 

i was able to get mint for 311 for me and my wife both individual cubicles as well. this is her first time flying mint, and if we get bumped i will be pissed!

 

I saw your trip is in August.

From what I've seen, they aren't selling very many Mint seats in advance. If you got in at $311, you probably booked the first couple of seats on your flight.

I just don't know how they are actually handling it when they consolidate two flights and there are people who have the same seat booked. I think the easiest thing for them to do from a systems point of view is to leave the seating for the "surviving" flight number alone, and relocate people from the flight that got removed.

If they do the consolidation early enough, there's generally going to be enough Mint seats available for them to relocate people without bumping them totally out of Mint.

I'll just add that I was booked on the first flight (2577) out in the morning, it got consolidated with a later flight, and 2577 was the surviving flight number. There wasn't anything mentioning "business" designation in the email I got, and I didn't notice it when I logged in to accept the change, but I may have missed it.

 

yep late august, hope things begin to get better for august, when i went and booked they were allowing 5 mint seats to be booked at 311, it was actually cheaper than their blue plus fare on the day i booked. Wife had travel bank credit, and i used my true blue points, we bought the insurance which was cheap so either way it should work out. The 2577 was the flight I booked as well.