I don’t know for sure whether America truly runs on Dunkin’, but on Monday, I can say with certainty that I will be (mileage) running on Dunkin’.
When my alarm goes off around 2:15am on Monday morning, I will surely need that first cup of coffee quickly as I jump out of bed and head off for a one-day mileage run to grab Jetblue Mosaic 1 status. I plan to leverage that status as we go after 1.4 million JetBlue miles and 25 years of elite status next month.
Forging ahead with 25 for 25
I wrote last week about how my family could use about 582,000 Membership Rewards points to earn a collective 1.4 million JetBlue TrueBlue points and 25 years of Mosaic 1 status for me and my wife and our two sons. In that post, I said that we could do it but probably wouldn’t.
After kicking things around for a few days, my wife surprisingly came around on the idea of going after the 25 for 25 promotion. Realistically, I expect that we won’t book solely with Membership Rewards points to complete the challenge but that we will rather mix using points and using cash, particularly since we have several cards with card-linked offers for $50 back on $200 or more at JetBlue. However, we intend to do most of it with Membership Rewards points.
The vast majority of our qualifying flights will take place in August (but we are working on tweaking my initial plan a bit further). However, I will start with a solo JetBlue flight next Monday morning.
Why I am solo mileage running for Mosaic 1 status ahead of time
With my wife and family on board to mileage run during the month of August, I decided to take a stab at making that journey a little bit easier: On Monday, July 7th, I will fly the JetBlue Dunkin’® plane to get 3 months of Mosaic 1 status.
As a reminder, JetBlue has a special plane painted with a Dunkin’ livery. Almost every Monday until September 1st, flying the Dunkin’ plane can get you 3 months of elite status. Every Tuesday by 5pm, JetBlue announces the following Monday’s Dunkin’ routes on their website. Every customer flying a revenue fare on the advertised flight numbers who has opted in to marketing emails and has also joined Dunkin’ Rewards prior to takeoff will qualify for both 3 months of JetBlue Mosaic 1 status and 3 months of Dunkin’ Boosted status (you get the Dunkin’ status by filling out a form sent to your email). You can read more about this promotion in this post: Fly the JetBlue/Dunkin’ plane to earn TrueBlue Mosaic 1 status + Dunkin’ Boosted status.
Greg pointed out this promotion on our podcast last week. As I began to consider it, I realized that I had to try to make this promotion work. After all, if we could get Mosaic 1 before the bulk of our 25 for 25 flying, we could enjoy the benefits of Mosaic 1 status during the trip! As a reminder, Mosaic 1 benefits include:
- 2 free checked bags
- Free same-day switches
- Dedicated check-in
- Free EvenMore® at check-in, pending availability
- See more benefits here
I originally assumed we would need to fly a Dunkin’ flight together in order to take advantage of Mosaic benefits, but then I realized that one of us having Mosaic status would be almost as good as all of us having it: It is my understanding that the perks listed above also apply to companions traveling on the same reservation. While free Even More seating at check-in is not explicitly listed as a benefit that applies to companions traveling on the same reservation, I found data points like some in this thread indicating that it does. When JetBlue and American Airlines had a partnership, the free Even More seating benefit that came with my AA status applied to others on my reservation, so I imagine that we’ll all be able to select better seats if they are available at check-in.
Assuming I am correct about that, I quickly realized that mileage running this promotion by myself made sense: JetBlue indicates that those flying the qualifying Dunkin’ flights will receive Mosaic 1 status within 2 weeks of their qualifying flight. I realized that if I took the Dunkin’ flight now, not only would I enjoy Mosaic 1 benefits, but checked baggage and (hopefully) extra legroom seating benefits would apply to my whole family by the time we begin flying heavily in August (assuming all of us are booked under the same reservation, and we typically will be). While I am sure we wouldn’t find Even More (extra legroom) seats available every time, we would likely get the opportunity for a more comfortable seat a few times. More importantly, we would get free checked bags and a shorter check-in line at the airport. Since we always check a bag, access to free bags and a shorter line to check in will be huge.
Jumping on an unexpected Monday trip
Having decided to pursue this strategy, I put some thought into which Monday or Mondays would make sense for me to Mileage Run. I am not available to fly on July 14th. July 28th is one of two Mondays when scheduled maintenance means there will be no Dunkin’ flights (the other Monday without a Dunkin’ flight is August 4th). That meant that I could take a Dunkin’ flight either this Monday (July 7th) or on Monday, July 21st. Since JetBlue says that status will be reflected within 2 weeks and we will likely begin our family flying in the first days of August, flying this coming Monday, July 7th was the only way I could guarantee having Mosaic status before we start our August flying. It is possible that we will sneak in some JetBlue flights this month before status kicks in, but the bulk of our travel for 25 for 25 will start in the first days of August.
I was therefore refreshing the promotion page all day yesterday until JetBlue finally released the qualifying routes for this coming Monday, July 7th:
- MCO – LGA dep. 7:19 am EST (B6 0598)
- LGA – MCO dep. 10:50 am EST (B6 0499)
- MCO – DCA dep. 2:35 pm EST (B6 2324)
- DCA – PBI dep. 6:00 pm EST (B6 0023)
Keep in mind that terms dictate that you must fly a revenue fare in order to get 3 months of elite status:
Each participant who purchases and flies on a non-stop flight scheduled on ‘Brewing Altitude’, our newly designed Dunkin’ special livery plane, operated on any of the following Mondays, May 19, May 26, June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23, June, 30, July 7, July 14, July 21, August 11, August 18, August 25 or September 1, 2025 (each an “Eligible Flight”), will be eligible to receive the Reward (defined below). Due to scheduled aircraft maintenance, July 28 and August 4 2025, will not be eligible for this promotion (dates subject to change). JetBlue will publish the routes of the Eligible Flights by 5:00 PM ET on the Tuesday before the Monday of each Eligible Flight at the JetBlue x Dunkin’ Monday Pick-Me-Up promo page. Only customers who both purchase a revenue booking and personally complete travel on a published Eligible Flight are eligible to receive Reward. Participants who cancel a booking or who no-show (do not check in for and/or fly) the Eligible Flight are ineligible for the Reward. Reward is non-transferable.
In other words, while award tickets count for the JetBlue 25 for 25 promotion (even those booked with partner miles provided that you get your JetBlue number attached!), the Dunkin’ promotion requires a revenue fare.
As I write this post, the cheapest of Monday’s Dunkin’ flights is the flight from Washington (DCA) to Palm Beach (PBI) flight at $194.48.
However, getting to and from that flight didn’t make sense: both award and revenue tickets from my home airport (Albany-ALB) to DCA on Monday morning were expensive at more than $300 one-way (or 36K miles) and I would additionally need a hotel in Palm Beach, returning to Albany on Tuesday. The cheapest flights back to Albany (which weren’t cheap) would arrive late Tuesday night, which would effectively mean two days away from home (Monday and Tuesday) rather than one. This option wasn’t appealing after all.
I eliminated the Orlando (MCO) to New York LaGuardia (LGA) flight on Monday morning because it would mean needing to position to Orlando on Sunday. I didn’t have time to do that this Sunday.
I could have positioned to Orlando on Monday morning to catch the flight from Orlando to Washington (DCA), but those Monday morning flights from Albany were again very expensive and the cheapest awards from DCA to Albany at the end of the day would have me getting to Albany just before midnight. With an hour-long drive home from the airport, that felt too late.
I therefore zeroed in on the flight from LaGuardia to Orlando. At about $329, it was the most expensive of the Dunkin’ flights. However, it leaves New York City at a reasonable hour and gets to Orlando early enough to do a same-day turn and get back to Albany that evening.
Unfortunately, getting to LaGuardia will mean leaving my home at a pretty unreasonable hour.
There is a nonstop Delta flight from Albany (ALB) to New York-LaGuardia (LGA) first thing in the morning that is sometimes available to Air France-FLM Flying Blue for 5K miles and about $16 or to Virgin Atlantic for 7.5K miles and $5.60. Unfortunately, with this being the Monday after a holiday weekend, no dice on that. The price through Delta is currently more than $300 or more than 30,000 miles. No thanks.
Instead, my plan is either to:
- Take a Greyhound bus at 4:20am that gets to New York Port Authority at 7:20am for about $43. Then take public transit to LaGuardia (about 45 minutes) to arrive well ahead of the 10:50am departure of the Dunkin’ flight.
- Take Amtrak from Albany to New York-Penn Station at 5:25am arriving at 7:45am for $68. Then take public transit to LaGuardia (about 45 minutes) to arrive ahead of the 10:50am departure of the Dunkin’ flight.
Either option should get me to New York in time for my flight. While the logical answer here looks like Amtrak since it means an extra hour of sleep, I have had very bad luck with Amtrak trains arriving on time — or rather, not arriving on time. The extra hour of sleep won’t feel worthwhile if the train doesn’t get me to New York in time for my flight.
The good news is that I should be able to access the Amex Centurion Lounge at LGA using my Platinum card to grab breakfast before my flight (Update: Thanks to Brandon in the comments for pointing out that there is a Sapphire Lounge at LGA — even better!). Then I’ll fly from New York LGA to Orlando (MCO), arriving at 1:40pm.
From there, I have three options to get home:
- American Airlines from MCO-CLT-ALB, departing at 3:30pm and arriving at 10:58pm for 14,000 American Airlines miles and $5.60. The advantage of this itinerary is a 3-hour layover in Charlotte, which also has a Centurion Lounge. Free dinner keeps costs down!
- American Airlines from MCO-CLT-ALB departing at 5:17pm and arriving at 10:58pm for 12,000 Qantas points and $5.60 or 12,500 Alaska miles and $18.10. This would save a few miles and still give me 1hr and 45min in Charlotte to eat.
- Southwest Airlines from MCO-BWI-ALB departing at 3:55pm and arriving at 9:15pm for 15,000 points and $5.60. This uses a few more miles, although they are miles with limited upside for outsized value (in this situation, they are worth more than 1.5c against the airfare for this flight, which is good for Rapid Rewards). Southwest is the program in which I have the least future faith. This itinerary also arrives an hour and a half earlier than the American Airlines itineraries. Considering that my drive home from the airport is more than an hour long, arriving at ALB an hour and a half earlier is appealing. I could also potentially book an even cheaper Wanna Get Away Plus fare with the intention to same-day change to this itinerary to save a few more miles.
In the end, my expected out of pocket cost will include:
- $7 or $18 for airport parking at Albany (ALB) airport (economy or parking garage)
- $30-$40 for an Uber from ALB to Albany bus terminal (I’ll park at the airport to expedite the end of the night)
- $43 for Greyhound from Albany to New York-Port Authority
- $2.90 for public transportation from Port Authority to LGA Airport
- $329 for my JetBlue flight from New York-LaGuardia (LGA) to Orlando (MCO)
- ~14,000 miles and $5.60 for my flight back to Albany (this could be as low as 11,500 miles if the Southwest same-day change occurs).
- Any food I need during the day (which might be minimal thanks to lounge access)
I will end up with a long day that starts with the bus at 4:20am and ends back at Albany airport between 9pm-11pm. But I will also end up with JetBlue Mosaic 1 status that should make our 25 for 25 flights more comfortable!
I booked JetBlue through Capital One Travel
Relatedly, I thought it was worth mentioning that I booked my JetBlue flight through Capital One Travel. The flight was the same price through Capital One that it would have been through JetBlue.com and there were only Blue fares and higher left for the flight, so I was confident that it was booking into the proper fare class to also count for 25 for 25.
Booking through Capital One Travel was appealing because:
- We still had a full $300 Capital One Travel credit from my wife’s Capital One Venture X Credit Card for this year which would cover most of the cost.
- We also had an additional $9+ in credit from a flight price drop. Capital One Travel automatically provides a credit when a flight you have booked decreases in price, so I had been pleasantly surprised when I logged in one day and saw the additional credit from an old flight.
In the end, my out of pocket cost for the JetBlue flight from New York to Orlando was less than $20 thanks to my $309 in credits.
My wife had me saved as a traveler in her Capital One Travel profile. In order to add my JetBlue number to the booking, she simply hit “Edit” next to my name.
On the next page, it was possible to associated my frequent flyer number with my traveler profile.
The good news is that even if I had missed that, I believe that I could have brought up the flight in my JetBlue app with the confirmation number and then added my TrueBlue number in the JetBlue app (I did that last year when we booked JetBlue Mint from Boston to Dublin using Qatar Avios).
Sure enough, the flight shows up in my JetBlue app with my TrueBlue number attached and it should be good to go!
Bottom line
This whole promotion reminds me very much of the days of JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet, an incredible promotion that JetBlue ran around its 10th and 11th anniversaries that provided an entire month of travel on JetBlue for $500 or $600. Funny enough, my wife and I did that for the 11th anniversary back in 2011, long before we knew about miles and points!
This time around, I will be mileage running for temporary JetBlue status on Monday so that my family and I can enjoy perks as my family mileage runs around the US in the hopes of earning 25 years of JetBlue elite status. Truth be told, I prefer Krispy Kreme donuts and Starbucks coffee, but if you see me in the airport on Monday, I will definitely be running on Dunkin’.
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My son and I did the MCO – DCA Dunkin plane this past Monday… and we are both Mosaic 1 status already!
Why not rent a car and drive in to LaGuardia? Seems like it would be the fastest and most reliable method and likely wouldn’t cost that much more than either transport option.
Definitely a little faster as LaGuardia is 3 hours without traffic. It’s not quite as easy as it sounds though — I’d have to have someone else drive me to Albany on Sunday to pick up a rental car (there is no nearby rental office that is open on Sundays), so that’s a 2hr round trip for two of us to pick up the car….and then I have to be awake/alert enough to drive safely at 4:30 or 5am (while I could theoretically leave at 6am and make it, traffic as you hit rush hour makes that more of a gamble than I’d like). You’re right — it’s definitely fastest and most reliable, but I’m not great at driving tired and if I’m going to be awake for those 3 hours, I’d prefer to be able to be working (writing posts), which I can do from the bus or train.
I’m not definitely ruling this out yet, but that’s why it wasn’t a top-two option to start. If this were a 4pm flight from LaGuardia, that’s what I’d be doing for sure.
If your local rental place is open on Saturday, it might be worth pricing out the 2 day rental.
For us, positioning is required to Chicago or Nashville or Cincinnati, and if our return is to a different airport, renting a car is almost always easier and faster than almost any other option, but we are located in a big city with rental cars available on Saturdays and Sundays.
Yeah, we usually do one-way rentals to the NYC airports when we travel internationally (most recently to/from JFK just a couple of weeks ago), though that’s usually daytime driving and with my whole family in the car. Like I said, the early hour is really the issue for me. If you’ve never fallen asleep at the wheel and woken up as you went off the oncoming side of the road into a ditch, take it from me — it can make you apprehensive about long drives during hours when your body wants to be sleeping :-). It’s less of a cost thing to me and more of a knowing my limits thing.
(and to be clear, I know I still have to drive an hour at an awful time of day. Not excited about that, either, but it’s more doable than 3hrs alone in the car at that time of day)
Oh absolutely! Better safe than sorry! I am an early riser so 5 AM wouldn’t be a problem for me, but if you are used to being asleep then, that’s a no go.
That was what I originally thought as well, but aren’t award flights actually considered revenue fares, with non-rev being employee/family tickets and such? It’s a pity that they aren’t as explicit here as they were in the 25/25 promo about award flights.
would using travel bank credit count as a revenue fare for the dunkin promotion? additionally would blue basic count or only blue and above like the 25 for 25 promotion?
Good luck. I think you’re missing perhaps the best aspect of your elite status and how it may greatly facilitate you’re reaching your flairport goals with mosaic status. you have the ability to change flights on the same day and you could try to seek a connecting flight between your original airport and your final destination to give you credit for Two airports on your outbound or inbound instead of one. As connecting flights are often significantly more expensive than nonstop on jetBlue
Greg and Nick, we know that JetBlue’s financial situation is not great. On one hand, one could question the value of tier status for 25 years if it heads for bankruptcy. On the other hand, if JetBlue were to merge with United, would that 25 years of tier status carry over to United tier status? Then, Greg wouldn’t need Marriott Titanium for the United tier status perks he likes. Hmmm.
Amtrak can often be a roll of the dice, but in this case it should be pretty safe (and a lot more comfortable than the Hound!). In the last month the train in question has never been more than 30 minutes late into Penn (and since the first of the year, worst case on a Monday was 9 minutes late). https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/history.php?train_num=232&station=nyp&date_start=06%2F02%2F2025&date_end=07%2F02%2F2025&df1=1&df2=1&df3=1&df4=1&df5=1&df6=1&df7=1&sort=schAr&sort_dir=DESC&co=gt&limit_mins=&dfon=1
I’m UA Gold and I’m wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the easiest way for me to get to Mosaic?
UA isn’t listed as one of the statuses JetBlue matches (I assume because of their partnership). I’m west coast based and have job commitments such that trying to do a Dunkin flight on a Monday on short notice would be difficult.
It looks like JetBlue doesn’t request the expiration date of your status, so presumably I should be able to match UA to a status with another airline and then match that to JetBlue. I’d prefer not to burn a match on AA, AS, or DL just in case I end up needing to do them in the future. (There’s a decent chance my job may be moving me to near SEA in the next couple years.) I’m not seeing ways to status match to Spirit or Frontier, so it looks like matching to A-list on Southwest might be my best option?
Doesn’t the United-Jetblue partnership give reciprocal benefits (to be rolled out over time)?
Glad to see you’re doing this – best of luck!
FYI,
Thanks so much for reaching out and for your interest in our 25 for 25 Promotion. We love seeing our TrueBlue members getting excited about these opportunities!
I totally get wanting to make sure everything lines up just right to qualify. In this case, partner award bookings don’t qualify for the promotion, even if your TrueBlue number is attached and the flight is operated and marketed by JetBlue with a Blue or higher fare.
We know that’s probably not the answer you were hoping for, and we appreciate you checking in to clarify.
……, thank you for flying JetBlue.
Kind regards,
Latonya
JetBlue | Customer Support
That’s certainly not what JetBlue’s marketing team told us – we asked about this directly – but I will follow up with them again.
Believe it or not. I did book through Etihad because it was cheaper already. Now, Im calling them to cancel with pentaly/fees.
Unless your flight is imminent, I would hold off on paying a fee to cancel. I obviously can’t say with certainty which is correct, but if I had the choice between the word of a random customer service agent and a person on the corporate marketing team, I would lean toward the marketing team being correct far more often. Customer service agents are often incorrect across the board, in part because I imagine they are under pressure to resolve inquiries quickly and thus may make decisions based on what they think is correct, rather than following up with a department that knows the answer for sure (if they even have access to that). That said, nobody is perfect, so I will circle back again with them.
I wish I knew marketing team’s email address. They should have made it clear from the beginning to avoid confusion.
They did make it clear to us. Steven specifically asked about whether a flight booked using Qatar Avios would count. This was the word for word response:
“Yes, bookings made through airline partners, including awards travel, will be eligible provided a TrueBlue number is attached.’
I have followed back up with them sharing the email you received. I’ll report back as soon as I know more.
I think Southwest is the best return option — earlier arrival and comparable or potentially cheaper points cost.
While I think this is an interesting challenge, JetBlue’s hub and spoke network and the rule that only counts arrival airports gives me pause. Add in the airline’s delays and irrops, this challenge is harder than it looks, and should be pursued by only the most dedicated flyers. I reviewed JetBlues route map over the weekend and things look difficult for the last ten airports, but that may just be my route selection. The Ubers, overnight stays, backtracking, etc. the costs add up. And the time commitment.
Getting Mosaic status ahead of time should help out.
While 350k points may be easy to value, has anyone performed a detailed valuation on 25 years of Mosaic 1 (United silver)? I suppose bragging rights are worth something as well.
Good luck Nick on doing the challenge! We will hear some stories for sure.
No need to watch The Amazing Race. Just follow Nick and the amazing FM team.
Wow! The sacrifices you (and the Reyes family) make I’m the name of research for the betterment of the Frequent Miler community.
Thanks for all you do!
Good luck Nick, I hope all your travel plans work out. Excited to read more about the rest of your 25 for 25 planning.