JetBlue moved over from American Express to Barclays as issuer of its co-brand credit card in 2016. There’s probably a seven year deal in place expiring late in 2023. But JetBlue is already shopping their co-brand business to Goldman Sachs as they renegotiate with Barclays on an extension.

Goldman Sachs issues the Apple Card (which it wrested away from Barclays) and successfully outcompeted Capital One to become the new issuer for General Motors.

Part of any good negotiation can include testing the market. Discussions with Goldman Sachs do not mean that JetBlue will pull the plug on re-upping with Barclays. But it is certainly a possibility. This comes after “Goldman has reached out to many U.S. airlines to see if they were interested in partnerships.” Goldman already makes loans for JetBlue consumer travel packages (JetBlue Vacations).

You do not see large travel brands changing card issuers frequently outside of a brand’s mergers or acquisitions. The credit card co-brand world was rocked when American Express lost Costco. They quickly locked in extensions with Delta and Starwood. They aggressively worked to gain sole issuer status of the Hilton card, which Citi had also issued and who won the Costco business.

American’s Citibank relationship dates to the start of their card program in 1987. United Airlines cards were issued by predeceesor banks today owned by Chase. (Continental’s card was issued by Chase before the United merger, though originally was the first airline cobrand issued by Marine Midland Bank.) Delta has been with American Express since the start and has a deal running through 2029.

• A mature program with a large cardmember base is expensive. It’s also usually more valuable to an incumbent issuer than to a new bank that has to start from scratch or buy the portfolio’s back book.

• The large program cards are generally issued by big banks with deep pockets. It’s tough for a newcomer to compete away a big portfolio from Chase.

It’s much more likely to see smaller brands with less lucrative products changing hands, which is why JetBlue could move again after just seven years.