Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
2024 might be the year of the dragon, but it’s also become the year of the expensive bag-on. American Airlines, United, Delta and Alaska have all increased the cost of checking a bag this year, with JetBlue now making further changes to checked baggage pricing.
JetBlue will now have an even more complicated pricing structure for checked baggage going forward, with the cost depending on if you’re traveling on peak or off-peak dates and if you pay for the bags more than 24 hours ahead of your trip or not.
JetBlue Checked Baggage Pricing
You can see the latest pricing details here.
While Hyatt has off-peak, standard and peak pricing for award stays, JetBlue has thankfully forgone a ‘standard’ category for baggage pricing, instead restricting itself to off-peak and peak pricing. If you pay for your bags 24 hours or more before your flight, here’s what it’ll cost for travel within the US, Latin America, Caribbean and Canada:
As you can see, during off-peak pricing you’ll pay $35 for your first checked bag unless booking a fare which includes that. For peak dates, you’ll pay $40 for that bag. A second checked bag will cost $50 and $60 for off-peak and peak respectively.
If you don’t know whether you’ll need to check a bag until the (relatively) last minute, it’ll cost you more. That’s because if you wait until there’s fewer than 24 hours to go before your trip you’ll have a $10 surcharge.
That means your first checked bag could cost anything from $35-$50 each way, while your second checked bag will cost $50-$70 depending on whether it’s peak/off-peak and whether you pay for your bags more than 24 hours ahead of time or not.
What Are JetBlue Peak Travel Dates?
You might be wondering what dates JetBlue classifies as being peak. A bullet point on their website states the following:
Peak-season pricing applies to checked bags during high-traffic periods, including Presidents’ Week, Thanksgiving and Winter holidays, and peak spring and summer travel seasons. See the table below for applicable fees and dates.
More specifically, here are the exact dates that are classed as peak:
For bookings on or after Mar 22, 2024, peak-season pricing for checked bags applies to those traveling on the following dates: 4/11-4/29/24, 6/20-9/3/24, 11/21-12/2/24, 12/19/24-1/6/25, 2/13-2/24/25, 4/3-4/28/25. All other travel dates would be off-peak pricing.
Doing some quick math, that’s 164 days that are peak through April 28, 2025. That’s more than 40% of days which will be at peak pricing which is a much higher percentage than I’d have originally anticipated.
For someone who regularly – or even occasionally – flies with JetBlue and needs to check a bag, these pricing updates make a couple of JetBlue credits cards even more appealing as they come with a free first checked bag. Note that only the JetBlue Plus and Business credit cards offer a free checked bag; the no annual fee JetBlue card doesn’t offer a free checked bag.
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
80K Miles ⓘ Non-Affiliate 80K miles after $1K in spend in 90 days and payment of annual fee. $99 Annual Fee Note that the landing page prompts you to enter a mobile phone number to continue the application, but you can click "no thanks" to continue the application on your desktop device. FM Mini Review: Frequent JetBlue travelers should seriously consider this card for its terrific perks. The combination of the 10% rebate on awards and the annual 5,000 point bonus make this card a keeper. Earning rate: 2X restaurants and grocery ✦ 6X JetBlue ✦ 1X everywhere else Card Info: Mastercard World Elite issued by Barclays. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Earn 1 tile for every $1,000 in purchases. Noteworthy perks: ✦ Free checked bag ✦ 5000 bonus points every anniversary ✦ 10% point rebate on awards ✦ $100 statement credit w/ purchase of travel package ✦ 50% savings on in-flight purchases |
Up to 60K Miles ⓘ Non-Affiliate Up to 60K miles: 50K bonus miles after spending $4K in first 90 days + additional 10K miles after a purchase is made on an employee card in the first 90 days$99 Annual Fee FM Mini Review: This card is almost identical to the JetBlue Plus card except that this one offers Group A boarding and earns 2X at office supply stores rather than grocery stores. Both cards are great choices for JetBlue flyers. Earning rate: ✦ 2X restaurants and office supply stores ✦ 6X JetBlue ✦ 1X everywhere else Card Info: Mastercard issued by Barclays. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Earn 1 tile for every $1,000 in purchases. Noteworthy perks: ✦ Free checked bag ✦ Group A boarding ✦ 5000 bonus points every anniversary ✦ 10% point rebate on awards ✦ $100 statement credit w/ purchase of travel package ✦ 50% savings on in-flight purchases |
10K miles ⓘ Non-Affiliate 10K points after $1K spend in 90 days. No Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Not bad for a fee-free airline card. Earning rate: ✦ 2X restaurants and grocery ✦ 3X JetBlue ✦ 1X everywhere else✦ Card Info: Mastercard World issued by Barclays. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Earn 1 tile for every $1,000 in purchases. Noteworthy perks: 50% savings on eligible inflight purchases including cocktails, food and movies. |
h/t OMAAT
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I saw peak and off peak pricing for checked bags and I thought this was an April Fool’s Day joke…