Over the summer, I wrote a lot about my family’s quest for JetBlue’s 25 for 25 promotion. We have now had reports from a number of readers who have completed 25 destinations and received the full rewards, including in cases where they flew JetBlue awards that were booked via Etihad Guest.
JetBlue 25 for 25 rewards only post after 25 destinations
Based on the way the promotion was written, I had expected that rewards would be posted in intervals after completing each step. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked that way.
As a reminder, the JetBlue 25 for 25 promotion is a promotion continuing through the end of this year, whereby you receive rewards for flying to multiple JetBlue destination airports as follows:
- Fly to 15 airports, get 150,000 bonus JetBlue True Blue points
- Fly to 20 airports, get an additional 200,000 JetBlue True Blue points (for 350,000 total)
- Fly to 25 airports, get JetBlue Mosaic 1 status for 25 years
Promotion terms initially indicated that rewards would be received 2-3 weeks after completion, which led me to believe you would receive rewards after completing each of those three thresholds. JetBlue decided that their interpretation of completion was after the offer is completely over, so members have not been receiving any of the above rewards until completing 25 destinations. Those who only complete 15 or 20 destinations will not receive rewards until after December 31.
That’s a frustrating way to handle it since it means that, if a flight did not count for some reason, you wouldn’t know until you think you have completed 25 destinations but haven’t received the rewards or (worse yet) until after the promotion is already done.
At this point, we have heard from many readers who have completed 25 destinations and have received all of the promised rewards, but none of those rewards have posted until after completing 25 destinations. So, don’t expect to receive the 100K or 200K points after the 15 and 20 destination thresholds, but rather only plan to receive them after reaching 25 or after the promotion ends. The good news is that rewards are posting soon after 25 destinations (within just a few days for several readers).
Good news: Etihad-booked awards are counting
The fact that rewards would not be received until after completing 25 destinations was a particular pain point for many people because, while we had been told that awards booked via partners like Etihad Guest or Qatar Airways Privilege Club for travel on JetBlue would count for the 25 for 25 promotion, many phone agents had been telling people that those awards are in some other ineligible fare class and do not count. We had followed up with JetBlue numerous times to confirm that those awards should count, but some readers have doubted whether that was true in practice based on what customer service representatives have told them.
The good news is that we have now heard from several readers who have completed 25 destinations. Recent reports indicate that the points and status are showing up within just a couple of days after completing the 25th destination. And, in great news, a couple of readers have confirmed that their Etihad-booked JetBlue awards have automatically counted toward the 25, with no need to follow up with JetBlue for credit. Remember that you do need to get your JetBlue TrueBlue number associated with the reservation before travel, but as long as you do that, it seems that those Etihad-booked awards are indeed working for the promotion as we had expected. I would assume the same is true of awards booked via Qatar Privilege Club.
That is very helpful because, in some cases, Etihad offers terrific award deals for JetBlue flights. For instance, some of the very short distance awards, such as those between New York or Boston and Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard, can oftentimes be booked for just 6030 Etihad Guest miles even when cash prices for the same tickets are very high.
That said, there are certainly drawbacks to Etihad Guest. Their award cancellation policy is awful, and the search engine initially shows award pricing in even increments (like 6,000 miles for those short-distance awards), but then switches to an odd number like 6030 on the final checkout page. The search engine itself is incredibly wonky and frustrating to use. That said, some of the deals are phenomenal. Whether or not you want to deal with Etihad Guest is a personal choice, but it’s great to know that if you choose to do so, so long as you get your JetBlue True Blue number attached, you should be in good shape for it to count. See Adventures with Etihad Guest: “Fixing” and cancelling JetBlue awards for more info.
Bottom Line
It’s great to have confirmation from several readers that they have received the full rewards and status pretty quickly after reaching their 25th destination. It is even better news to know that several of those folks have booked awards via Etihad Guest, and those JetBlue tickets have still counted toward the 25 and without any further intervention. We expected that based on what we were told, but many members had received conflicting information from customer service. It’s great to get final confirmation that this has worked!
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If Etihad shows JetBlue availability, you can book it with JAL. Given JAL’s interesting stopover and cumulative distance award chart, this challenge can become a lot cheaper.
Gold star comment.