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American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 25% bonus when you transfer points to JetBlue TrueBlue through 10/1/18. That makes the transfer ratio an effective 1:1 (though you must transfer in 250 point increments). That could be a good deal depending on how you value TrueBlue points.
The Deal
- 25% transfer bonus when moving points from American Express Membership Rewards to JetBlue TrueBlue (with the bonus, transfer 250 Membership Rewards to 250 TrueBlue points)
Key Terms
- Expires 10/1/18
- For each conversion of points into the Frequent Flyer program of a U.S. airline, a fee of $0.0006 per point, with a maximum fee of $99, will be charged to your Card account
Quick Thoughts
You’ll get somewhere between about a penny and a half to a bit more than 2 cents in value per TrueBlue point depending on the fare you are redeeming against, so this is neither a great nor terrible use of Membership Rewards points. A revenue-based program like TrueBlue can be useful when fares are quite cheap, since your flight may require significantly fewer points than the traditional zone-based pricing instituted by most other carriers. Furthermore, if you’re traveling with a large family, you’ll have the ability to book everyone on the same flight. For those reasons, TrueBlue appeals quite a bit to some.
Keep in mind that Amex charges a small fee to transfer points to US-based airline programs (you do not pay this fee when transferring to foreign carriers).
Personally, I’ll probably pass on this one unless we see a really good Mint fare sale, in which case maybe this will turn out to be a pretty good deal. As always you should only consider transferring if you have a fairly immediate use for the points.
As always, we have added this to our Current point transfer bonuses resource page.
H/T: Running With Miles
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But with the 25% bonus on MR transfers to Jet Blue, I was assuming the calculations change and the effective value of JB points increases due to the bonus. But I don’t know how to do the proper calculation with the bonus.
If one was going to book on Jet Blue for certain, would it be better to pay cash (I can currently get 5% back on Citi Dividend card) or transfer MR points assuming a half decent stock of MR?
Completely different games! In one case you redeem MR at a very reasonable value, higher than the 1.25cpp through Schwab. In the other case you get a 5% CB but also have to pay the other 95% cash! Definitely go for the MR unless you’re one of those wishing for blog-worthy 5+cpp premium cabin redemptions. Cash is king, cpps are overrated.
MR points are valued at 1.7 cents. JetBlue points at 1.3 cents.
How is this move getting reasonable value?
JetBlue points aren’t a fixed value. They’re somewhat variable. You can get more than $0.02 in some scenarios.