JetBlue Introducing New Elite Benefits Including Confirmed Business Class Upgrades At Booking

by Gary Leff

Two weeks ago JetBlue introduced a generous status match offer to poach disaffected Delta Air Lines elite members who felt SkyMiles no longer valued their loyalty. We should finally hear soon the details of how Delta plans to stop the bleeding of top customers walking away from brand loyalty. In the meantime, JetBlue’s offer stands through the end of the month. Alaska’s offer is, too.

JetBlue only just launched a meaningful status program five months ago, completely revamped as part of aligning its offerings with historically more loyalty-focused American Airlines. Now they’re using it to compete with Delta, which has a big presence at JetBlue’s New York and Boston hubs. JetBlue is even placing personal welcome calls to Delta elites making the switch.

Now JetBlue has announced new benefits for elite members, which should make them more attractive to Delta elites – and to their existing frequent customers.

  • Confirmed business class upgrades at time of booking. Currently third-tier elites receive 4 upgrade certificates and top tier elites receive 2 more, and 2 can be used for a transatlantic segment and 1 for any other flight – provided space is available 24 hours prior to departure.

    Starting January 4 these certificates can be used at time of booking, rather than confirmed only if JetBlue fails to sell out the cabin. These certificates cannot be gifted (but can be used for the passenger and a companion) and aren’t eligible for use on basic economy fares, but will not be capacity controlled however “[t]he number of certificates required to redeem will be dynamic and change based on the route and other factors, like flight prices.” The number of certificates required will vary from one to four.

  • Car rental and hotel status. IHG One Rewards Platinum status becomes a new choice benefit for elites in 2024, and all elites will be eligible at some point in 2024 for an Avis status match.

  • Dedicate elite phone lines for Mosaic 3 and 4 elites.

  • Gift elite status Mosaic 4 elites will be able to gift Mosaic 1 status (but without a choice benefit selection, 5,000 bonus points or travel package bonus).

The current status program was itself a big improvement, and it appears that the 2024 changes are generally improvements as well. Confirmed upgrades are special, and JetBlue’s business class product is very good. The airline still has progress to make operationally, and still lacks airport lounges. But they’ve investing heavily in their status program.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Pingbacks

  1. […] JetBlue is revamping their status program starting January 4. There is one significant change from my perspective, and that is that Mint Upgrade certificates can be used at any time, not just within 48 hours of travel. This makes the status match for Delta Elites even more valuable. (Thanks to VFTW) […]

Comments

  1. @ Gary — I think this sentence needs a major edit (shouldnt that first “Delta” be “JetBlue”?) — “Now Delta has announced new benefits for elite members, which should make them more attractive to Delta elites – and to their existing frequent customers.”

  2. Thank you, JetBlue!

    Now watch Delta also assign tiers to their Diamond elites (like they should have done from the beginning).

  3. I would switch to JetBlue in a minute IF it had a domestic first-class in addition to Mint business-class for international and transcontinental routes.

  4. “The current status program is a big improvement” are you insane? The new program was a significant downgrade in benefits. Mosaics went from being able to book extra legroom for free at the time of booking, to having to wait until check in to get a decent seat. Yeah, huuuuuge improvement.

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