JetBlue 20% Refund on Award Redemptions Through July 25
JetBlue is running a promotion through this Friday (11:59 pm Eastern time on July 25, to be exact), effectively offering a 20% discount for all award redemptions for travel between September 2 and October 31, 2014. This offer is not a true discount, since you will initially be charged the full price, and the 20% will be credited back to you in 4-6 weeks.
This offer is available for travel either in economy, or in JetBlue's new Mint Business Class between JFK and LAX. Award flights in Mint start as low as 35,000 points (or sometimes slightly lower), which means you could book a transcontinental business class flight for under 28,000 points this fall.
I checked flights between LAX and JFK for several dates in September and October, and found seats in Mint starting at 34,800 points. With the current promotion, you'd get a refund of 6,960 points, so your total outlay would be just 27,840 points. I normally value JetBlue points in a range of 1-1.3 cents apiece, or up to 1.7 cents apiece when redeeming for seats in Mint, which start at $599. However, in this case you'd be getting well over 2.1 cents apiece, which is excellent value. With this promotion, you should also be able to get more than 1.6 cents each out of JetBlue redemptions in economy.
If you have JetBlue award travel planned for September or October that you haven't booked yet, this promotion is a no-brainer. Make sure to book by the end of Friday Eastern time to take advantage of the 20% refund.
See also:
Maximizing JetBlue Redemptions on New Mint Business Class
[card card-name='Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card' card-id='22125056' type='javascript' bullet-id='1']