I told you a few times about the flight challenge by US airline JetBlue, to get hundreds of thousands of points of the more lucrative type. You can still do it until December 31st, by the way. I want to share with you a major change to my own plans for this amazing promotion and an overview of my first impressions so far.
At the travel rewards event where I was a speaker in late October, I was soooooo close to finishing my 20 JetBlue destinations (I was at 16; now at 17 with my latest US/Mexico trip). All this through the staggering number of 50+ flights I’ve taken in the last 4 months…
And then… many (many) people at that conference convinced me to travel even more (you see the kind of crowd that’s there😂).
Here’s an update about my JetBlue “25 for 25” flight challenge.
My new plans for the JetBlue challenge
Let’s start with the major change in my plans.
My initial plans
I’m not going to repeat all the promotion details.
But there are 3 options offered:
- Do 15 destinations to get 150,000 points
- Do 20 destinations to get an extra 200,000 points
- Do 25 destinations to get an extra 25 years of elite status
It obviously makes absolutely no sense at all to do just 15 destinations. That’s clear. Just 5 more is going to more than double the points obtained. The 350,000 points have a value of ≈ 5950 CAD to UNLIMITED.
But the other 5 more were not as clear. At least, I didn’t think so.
I had decided not to do the 5 more and to stop at 20, as I had told you.
For 3 reasons:
- I’ve already been travelling enormously since August (even by my high standards)
- I was mostly interested in the points (I love getting free travel)
- I wasn’t excited at all about the JetBlue status in particular
Firstly, it’s mostly my very busy travel schedule that was pushing me, for once, to be reasonable and not want to do everything. I always want everything. I’m extreme like that (I’ll blame my ADD).
But I told myself I was going to say no to something for once. I’m on the most intense travel sequence of my life.
Secondly, it’s the stash of 350,000 points that excited me the most.
That’ll give me 5 flights of 12+ hours in the world’s best business class, the Qatar Airways Qsuite, which I loved. Each one is worth at least 3000 CAD!!!
Thirdly, and above all, JetBlue elite status is not that useful, unlike an elite status like Air Canada’s or Royal Jordanian’s, which you can get right now with a status match if you already have one (even just with Marriott Bonvoy) or Flying Blue’s (which we just shared in our rewards roundup post this weekend).
It’s an elite status that is only valid on JetBlue; the airline is not part of an airline alliance. And I had only taken 2 JetBlue flights in my entire life before this challenge; they don’t even serve Eastern Canada where I live.
And I certainly don’t plan on using my JetBlue points for flights on JetBlue. As Flytrippers has been repeating for years, partner airlines are the key in the world of travel rewards (please stop redeeming Aeroplan points on Air Canada)!
(Okay, to be fair, JetBlue status will also give benefits on United soon, thanks to a new partnership. But I already have United Silver status automatically by virtue of being a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium elite, and I’ll probably keep having it for a while at least!)
My change of plan
A lot (really a lot) of people talked to me about the challenge during the travel rewards conference, where I was speaking (I spent the whole weekend there with hundreds of other points enthusiasts); it’s the kind of crowd that travels a lot, and that’s obviously doing this challenge.
And literally everyone told me I should do the complete challenge after all (25 destinations instead of 20), to get the elite status for 25 years.
The reason?
Having the status gives a bonus of 15,000 points per year (value of ≈ 255 CAD to UNLIMITED). And it’s therefore completely true that it makes so much sense in theory: it gives me another 375,000 points over 25 years (value of ≈ 6375 CAD to UNLIMITED).
But in practice, it’s just true on the condition they don’t change this perk, which is my biggest fear.
They’ve only promised 25 years of status, not that the status benefits would remain identical for 25 years (obviously). The status benefit that provides 15,000 points per year can certainly change in 25 years (and almost certainly will change).
But seen another way, I just need the benefit to be offered for 3 years to break even on what doing 5 more flights is going to cost me, based on my costs so far.
So yes, there’s a risk that this 375,000 points amount won’t materialize or that the points will become less good over a duration of 25 years.
But no risk, no biscuit. And if I really get 375,000 points in addition to the guaranteed 350,000 I get right away, then that’s 725,000 points and that’s getting closer and closer to the million SAS points and the million Turkish points (I just received those last ones, by the way!).
It’s mostly the time that is an issue, even for me, who can work from anywhere. Because of all my other travels; I travel too much. A good problem to have when you know how to travel for less (which many people clearly don’t, sadly).
But I managed to bring my girlfriend along with me for my previous 1-week trip at the beginning of November, so our time apart was reduced by 8 days with that.
And it’s going to take me 3 days maximum to do the 5 more, considering that I did exactly 5 JetBlue flights in 3 days during my last JetBlue run on my trip to the United States in October, and it wasn’t particularly intense either.
My impressions of the JetBlue challenge
This certainly won’t be exhaustive at all, but I wanted to already share with you a few impressions of my journey so far.
As I said, I was 85% finished with the challenge based on my initial plan to do 20 destinations, but now I’m back down to just 68% finished (17 out of 25) with a month to go.
Here are 6 random thoughts:
- It’s nice to see JetBlue actually lean into this promo
- No flight disruptions at all despite their reputation
- No other transportation issues (with many airport changes)
- I ended up doing this mostly in mileage run mode
- It’s costing me less than I thought so far
- I’ve actually quite enjoyed their economy class
It’s nice to see JetBlue actually lean into this promo
JetBlue is seemingly trying harder to make the most of the promo. I’ve seen ads for the challenge on airport screens, and many flight attendants I’ve talked to actually know about the promo. Quite different from SAS and Turkish.
JetBlue even rolled out a tracker on their app and website recently, about 4 and a half months into the 6-month challenge. While late, that’s still better than SAS and Turkish, who never had anything at all to make it easy to 100% confirm all flights posted correctly.
They’ve even come out with special merchandise for sale, although it’s honestly not very pretty (and it’s expensive). And that came late, too. But at least they tried.
I’m also in a 200-member WhatsApp group of travelers participating in the challenge, and I’ve heard JetBlue has someone somewhat monitoring our feedback and thoughts from within the group.
I just felt that given the huge investment (hundreds of millions of points), there was kind of a lost opportunity for SAS and Turkish not to at least milk it and capitalize on it to generate more awareness and more goodwill.
No flight disruptions at all despite their reputation
I absolutely love it when my flights are cancelled, normally.
That’s because I’m a savvy traveler who flies a bit early if there’s something I can’t miss (the most basic thing) and who gets free luxury hotels during delays and thousands of points for future free hotels (thanks to credit card flight delay insurance, another of the most basic tips).
But these are not normal trips. For example, when taking 13 flights in 13 days like I did on my first big JetBlue run in September, an IRROPS situation (irregular operations; the technical term for flight disruptions) will mess up the entire itinerary. In these situations, it’s really not the same.
JetBlue has a reputation for having poor operational reliability.
In fact, the data confirms this; only 73% of their flights have arrived on time so far this year. Their 1.7% cancellation rate is also higher than United, Delta, Southwest, Alaska, and even Spirit (basically ahead of only American and Frontier).
So I scheduled my flights with a lot of buffer time, to be safe. I had 3 disruptions on my round-the-world trip for the SAS challenge, and having built in a lot of buffer time saved me during the 2 more major ones.
Of course… not a single one of my 17 JetBlue flights was delayed. I could’ve squeezed in many more flights, and now I kind of regret not doing so. Oh well.
No other transportation issues (with many airport changes)
I made it this far without ever having to book a flight that wasn’t necessary for the promo (not even one).
That’s very good considering JetBlue’s hub model. Normally, since only the destination counts, returning to one of the 4 hubs would always not count apart from the 1st time for each. But I never did a single positioning flight.
That meant I had quite a few airport changes to do via other modes of transportation.
Not a single thing went wrong, which, to be fair, is not that surprising given the above stat about all my flights being on time.
I took many trains, subways, and even buses (some of them with only a few hours between flights):
- Worcester to Boston
- Philadelphia to Newark
- Newark to Westchester
- Westchester to JFK
- LaGuardia to JFK
I had put in the time to plan well in advance of the trip (one of the most basic tips to save money), so everything went well.
I ended up doing this mostly in mileage run mode
I’ll soon share a separate post listing all my destinations, like I did for the Turkish Airlines challenge.
I certainly considered trying to visit a bit of these destinations, but I mostly did the challenge as a mileage run after all (flying just for the flight itself, without visiting).
Not ideal… but with all the trips I already planned, that was the reasonable approach to save time. I had also already visited almost all of these destinations.
Many of the flights replaced flights I had to take anyway (and I have one like that left):
- To Buffalo for the Toronto marketing event I was speaking at
- To Chicago for the travel rewards event I was speaking at
- From Las Vegas for the music festival I was attending
- To/From New Orleans for the entrepreneurial event I was facilitating
- To Orlando for the Vans Warped Tour and to get to Mexico
- To London for the beginning of my Turkish challenge
So I obviously enjoyed those destinations, at least.
I did get to fit in a few nice experiences elsewhere despite the hectic pace:
- Explore Santo Domingo, the oldest European settlement in the Americas, for a whole day
- Eat 1.5 USD pizza slices in New York City quite a few times (I love pizza)
- Spend more time in Boston (a city I’ve always loved)
- Visit Buffalo for the 1st time (and see Niagara Falls again)
- Do some shopping at Target for my girlfriend in Florida
And I’ll complete my remaining destinations as mileage runs too, as I have been at home for only 6 weeks since late July.
It’s costing me less than I thought so far
So far, I’ve spent a lot less than I thought I would on my 17 flights. I’ll share the final numbers when I’m done. But given the value of the points I’ll get and the fact I know how to do math, I’m very comfortable with the cost.
Given my relative lack of flexibility on dates (due to all my existing trips), I feel pretty good about having kept the flight costs pretty low. And I might be able to do even better with my remaining flights, surprisingly.
The net cost of this challenge is also much lower, as these flights have allowed me to unlock an extra welcome bonus (1 more than I would’ve unlocked with my spending this fall).
In this case, I got another RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card with a welcome bonus worth ≈ 780$ (or $2000+ if redeemed for business class flights). That offer expired last week, so instead, take advantage of the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card and sign up to our free newsletter so you don’t miss the next increased offer on the other one.
I’ve had to book a few extra nights of lodging of course, but not that many since I was already traveling to a lot of these places anyway. I’ve stayed at affordable hostels a few times during the runs, I’ve used Marriott Bonvoy points to get free hotel nights, and I’ve used our other tips to save on lodging.
The other transportation costs were very minimal because I obviously avoided Ubers/taxis, which are the biggest scam (in expensive countries at least). As for almost all my trips, the extra cost of food compared to what I would’ve spent on food at home anyway is very negligible since I avoid expensive restaurants.
As I said, I’ve avoided needing positioning flights entirely, so there weren’t any other costs. However, I might change my approach for some of my remaining destinations, as some roundtrips from Fort Lauderdale are even cheaper than one-ways so I’m probably going to book some and do the extra flight to get back to Florida just to save money overall.
I’ve actually quite enjoyed their economy class
JetBlue markets itself as having “the most legroom in coach” and indeed it’s better than on all other North American airlines (very low bar, but still).
The flight experiences have all been great, with friendly crews. Bonus points for always gladly giving me more Biscoff cookies when I ask politely.
My one complaint is the atrocious JFK Terminal 5, with absolutely no options in terms of VIP airport lounges. Terrible.
I’ve taken 4 flights there since it’s their biggest hub, and that certainly ruins the experience. I honestly can’t believe that so many people still miss out on getting paid to get free lounge access and travel in such a horrible fashion without lounges! 😅
Still, I’ve gotten to experience amazing lounges, including arguably the best in North America.
The Chase Sapphire Lounge in Boston (part of Priority Pass only, not DragonPass) was phenomenal. It even had the best take on breakfast poutine I’ve ever had (in Boston!!!) and free massage chairs and rest pods.
I’ll share more about these soon, too.
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Summary
I’m now at 17 destinations out of 25, as my plans have changed in order to now do the whole challenge rather than just the 20 destinations to get the points alone without getting the elite status. So far, it’s been very smooth (I luckily hadn’t planned any flights during the wave of disruptions caused by the US government shutdown), and I hope my remaining flights go as well.
What would you like to know about my update for the JetBlue flight challenge? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: JetBlue plane (photo credit: Andrew D’Amours/Flytrippers)
