Two New (Small) Benefits Added To The JetBlue Amex

Feb. 04, 2013

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3 min read

Two New (Small) Benefits Added To The JetBlue Amex

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American Express has announced two new benefits to its JetBlue Card starting today, January 31, 2013.

The current offer on the credit card is:

Get 20,000 TrueBlue points after you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months of Cardmembership.
Get a $0 introductory annual fee for first year of Cardmembership, then $40.
Jet for less. One-way Award Flights start at 5,000 points and $2.50 taxes/fees. Roundtrip Award Flights start at 10,000 points and $5.00 taxes/fees.
Earn 2 TrueBlue points per dollar of eligible purchases charged directly with JetBlue in addition to the 6 points from JetBlue for purchasing Getaways packages and for booking flights on jetblue.com
Earn 1 TrueBlue point per dollar for other eligible purchases.

Amex has added two new benefits to its JetBlue card.

Now American Express has added the following two cardholder benefits as well:

1. A statement credit for 50% off select inflight purchases such as movies, meals and cocktails with your Card.
2. A $50 statement credit each year you purchase a JetBlue Getaways vacation package with your Card. Each statement credit will appear 6-8 weeks after the eligible transaction is posted to your card account.

Apart from the fact that I have avoided flying JetBlue because their planes are all economy class and I would have trouble fitting into the seats (even the "Even More Space" seats), to be honest, I don't find this card to be compelling, and these benefits strike me as lackluster as well.

If you recall from my ranking of the top American Express travel credit cards, this one came in dead last. That's because the sign-up bonus is pretty small and JetBlue points are only worth about a cent apiece, so you're only getting about $200 worth from the sign-up bonus and that's not including the annual fee of $40 which kicks in the second year. In addition, there are few perks (you get a free checked bag as a normal flyer anyway), no transfer partners and the 2 points per $1 in spending strikes me as measly since you already earn 6 points per $1 just by booking a ticket online.

If you're looking to get an Amex, I'd more strongly recommend the Premier Rewards Gold since the bonus is at least 25,000 points at the moment and you can potentially score much higher bonuses in the 50,000-75,000 point range during limited-time offers like the one a couple weeks ago. Plus Amex points are transferrable to a number of airline and hotel partners, making them much more versatile than JetBlue points.

Still, if you're a JetBlue flyer and/or have this card already, at least that $50 statement credit can more than make up for the $40 annual fee, but you do have to purchase a JetBlue Getaways vacation rather than just a normal airline ticket, so bear that in mind. I'm glad to see Amex doing something at least to try to pep up this card, but it's going to take a lot more than this to get me interested, personally.

Featured image by Amex has added two new benefits to its JetBlue card.

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.