JetBlue adds partnership with China Airlines (redeem points)

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Late last week, JetBlue True Blue added a new foreign airline partner: China Airlines. You can redeem TrueBlue points on the JetBlue website or in the JetBlue app for China Airlines flights (update: China Airlines is a redeem-only partner; you can’t earn JetBlue points on China Airlines flights at this time). For the time being, this seems to be most useful for flights between Taipei and regions of the world other than North America.

a room with a few seats and a lamp
Unfortunately I didn’t get terrific cabin pics as the lighting was pretty dim, but China Airlines business class offered a nice reverse herringbone layout. I would certainly be happy to use JetBlue TrueBlue points to book China Airlines if I could find availability that met my needs.

Redeem JetBlue TrueBlue points for travel on China Airlines

China Airlines is based in Taipei, Taiwan. Oddly, the only routes on which I can find availability between the United States and Taipei are on the route from New York JFK to Taipei. That route prices at 39,000 miles one way in economy class, which is a fair deal.

That will be more appealing for JetBlue Premier cardholders, who will soon get a 15% rebate on award redemptions, even on partner airlines. Note that we don’t yet have an official launch date for that benefit.

All that said, although China Airlines serves several other US gateways, I can only find award pricing for United Airlines flights between those gateways and Taipei, which matches what Award Wallet found as well. On the other hand, I found decent availability to other areas from Taipei, so if you’re piecing together a larger trip, this is a good one to keep in mind. For instance, economy flights between Taipei and Shanghai can be as cheap as 8,000 points one way in economy class or 17,500 miles one way in business class.

As you can see above, award pricing is variable. While one of those non-stop flights is 8,000 points one way in economy class, the other one is 12,000 points one way in economy class. You’ll find the same thing on the route to and from New York, with award redemptions sometimes costing significantly more.

Keep in mind that China Airlines serves a number of destinations that might be of interest if you’re piecing together a trip to Asia/Oceania. For instance, you can find economy class from Taipei to Brisbane for 27,000 miles one way. China Airlines serves quite a number of destinations in Japan, and they have a few flights each week to Palau. That said, I had trouble finding availability on some routes, even on popular ones like Taipei to and from Tokyo. I’m not sure how useful this will be yet, but hopefully it will provide some useful opportunities for award redemption. China Airlines has a reasonably nice business class that I flew a few years ago between Auckland and Brisbane, so it would be great to have this as an option with JetBlue points.

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Christian

Another travel blogger wrote that there’s zero business class award availability through JetBlue. Between my height, my size, and my age I’m intensely disinclined to squeeze into a coach seat for 14 hours these days which makes the utter lack of business availability a deal breaker.

Dan C.

JetBlue sent an email out today that new benefits on the Premier card go into effect tomorrow (May 5, 2026).

B6flyer

JetBlue lists them as a redeem only partner