JetBlue credit cards from Barclaycard are now available to new applicants. The new Barclaycard JetBlue cards come in three flavors:
- JetBlue Plus Card: 30,000 points after $1K spend; $99 annual fee
- JetBlue Business Card: 30,000 points after $1K spend; $99 annual fee
- JetBlue Card:
5,00010,000 points after $1K spend; no annual fee
Barclaycard JetBlue Card Benefits
All 3 cards have no foreign transaction fees and offer a 50% savings on in-flight purchases.
The Plus and Business cards add the following benefits:
- Free checked bag
- 5000 bonus points every anniversary
- 10% point rebate on awards
- $100 statement credit w/ purchase of JetBlue Getaways travel package (flight + hotel)
- Earn Mosaic status with $50,000 calendar year spend. Mosaic status good for rest of calendar year and all of next year.
Earning Rate
All three cards offer bonus points for JetBlue purchases (3X for the no-fee card; 6X for the others); and all 3 offer 2X points at restaurants. The personal cards also offer 2X points at grocery stores whereas the business card offers 2X points at office supply stores.
JetBlue |
Restaurants |
Grocery |
Office Supply Stores |
|
JetBlue Plus |
6X |
2X |
2X |
1X |
JetBlue Business |
6X |
2X |
1X |
2X |
JetBlue Card |
3X |
2X |
2X |
1X |
Analysis
The signup bonuses for these cards are good, but not amazing. Where these cards shine is with their benefits…
The Plus and Business cards offer 10% back when redeeming points for flights. If you redeem points for $1000 worth of flights each year, then you’ll have at least broken even with the card’s annual fee. Plus, both cards include an annual 5,000 point bonus. If we conservatively say that JetBlue points are worth 1.3 cents each, then that 5,000 point rebate is worth about $65. And, of course, you could save a lot of money with checked bags as well.
The ability to get Mosaic status through $50,000 spend is interesting too. Mosaic gives you free changes and cancellations; free checked bags; expedited security; early boarding; free drinks; enhanced point earnings; and 15,000 bonus points upon qualifying. If you were to spend $50,000 all in grocery stores (to get 2X point earnings), you should end up with a total of 115,000 points thanks to the Mosaic bonus. That amounts to 2.3X earnings on the $50K spend. At 1.3 cents value, that’s a rebate of approximately 2.99% (not counting the value of Mosaic benefits other than the 15K bonus).
My take: JetBlue flyers should give these cards a serious look.
Note: You can find current offers for these cards on my Best Offers page.