JetBlue has a very exciting promotion running, generating tons of buzz going after customers with points in a Virgin America account.
They will match whatever balance is in your Virgin America Elevate account by July 4 (up to 50,001 points but and in some cases matched better than 1:1) if you register and take a single roundtrip with them by August 31.
While I’m sure they didn’t intend for folks to go out and secure Virgin America points just to be eligible to participate – buying points, transferring them in from Citibank, American Express, or Starwood – it shows just how big a deal the offer is — the kind of excitement that JetBlue can be proud of.
By transferring points to Virgin America for a balance of 50,001 or more and taking one roundtrip you’ll get those 50,000 Virgin America points plus 75,000 JetBlue points. At a value of 1.4 cents apiece, 75,000 JetBlue points are worth over $1000.
Dan’s Deals yesterday flagged problems that some people were reporting registering for the promo, and suggested that JetBlue had “added a clause [to their terms and conditions] that the points must have been earned via Virgin America flights.” Several commenters mentioned similar problems registering.
So I reached out to JetBlue’s Director of Loyalty Marketing who confirmed for me that:
- There have been no changes to the terms and conditions of the promotion
- There is no requirement to have points from flying in your Virgin America account
He tells me that he shared my note with customer support to reinforce this message as well, and invites folks to reach out to them if there has been a denial in error.
My sense is that there may have been some confusion here as JetBlue wanted to ensure the submissions they received were real, not like someone who wanted help doctoring a screen shot. Send a full screenshot taken from a desktop as an attachment to be safe.
Virgin America points are worthwhile, the JetBlue points will be great for paid airfare, I really love this one. And remember:
- Their ‘Mint’ product is fantastic on premium routes, at a fair price
- JetBlue points don’t expire and they offer family pooling of points
- They have reasonable change fees
Is it too late to submit a request?
What do you suggest if I haven’t heard back from them? Initially I received an email saying I need to re-submit as my screenshot was not the right format, which I did some days ago. Heard nothing since.
Thanks for following up Gary, theres been a lot of unecessary panic
@Vivek D – No, you have until July 4 to submit your request.
Wow that Dan actually suggested contacting the DOT before the non-existent change of terms even happened. What a waste of space.
IMPORTANT QUESTION: Can the roundtrip JetBlue flight be purchased using points? Or does it have to be purchased using cash?
I booked a flight and will be flying with JetBlue where before I would have chosen to drive. And JetBlue is getting lots of goodwill from this. That’s invaluable. Hope they don’t turn around and devalue their points cos that would just nullify everything…
Wait- does JetBlue not actually confirm the balance with Virgin America somehow? It’s laughably simple to change the points balance that shows up on any loyalty program’s web site. I always assumed with the status matches that they actually confirm status, not just accept a screenshot as full evidence.
I’ll be actually transferring miles, since I travel out of Boston, it’s a great deal.
@Frank, so what did they say WAS the correct format for the screen shot? I sent a .PNG fil as that is better definition than a .JPG
I looked at the promotion page and could not find where it said. Did I miss that? @Gary Leff, can you answer?
@Carl, If you look at the original Dan’s Deals you can see the format. I had to change my screen resolution so it would look correct.
Still no reply though.
@Zachary Gore Must be a Revenue ticket. Non-rev is excluded under the T&C.
@Gary Do we have confirmation whether a roundtrip flight (technically an open jaw) that is booked as a single reservation like this would meet the qualification requirements for the promo?
July 24. JFK to BUF
July 27 BUF to BOS
Lastly, one other question: Do we know whether two separate one way bookings also qualify assuming they were on different days both before August 31, 2016?
Why do you perpetuate the lie that jetBlue points do not expire? If you don’t take a flight within a certain amount of time, they do expire. It’s newspeak.
@Ren that used to be true but changed 3 years ago
http://viewfromthewing.com/2013/06/18/jetblue-points-will-never-expire-and-thats-not-a-good-thing/comment-page-1/
Anyone still waiting for a response? I submitted a request on the 1st of July, but still waiting.
I submitted July 4th, and got a confirmation yesterday (July 6th).