Booking JetBlue Plus Awards For Less Than the Cost of Blue

June 09, 2016

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3 min read

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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – JetBlue Plus Card

Logic would tell you that a base fare will be cheaper than a higher-level fare when booking air travel, however, that's not always the case. When comparing JetBlue awards, we're seeing that on select routes to Las Vegas (LAS) that the Blue Plus fare — which comes bundled with a free checked bag — requires fewer TrueBlue points than the base level Blue fare.

It's possible that this is some sort of glitch, as the the cash price of the Blue Plus fare is indeed more than the Blue fare on both routes. For example, on a flight from New York (JFK) to LAS, a Blue fare requires 15,200 TrueBlue points, while the Blue Plus fare requires just 13,900. In this case, you're not only saving 1,300 TrueBlue points, but you'd also save at least $25 in checked bag fees.

Booking a Blue Plus fare can save you points in this case.

If you were to use cash to book this flight, you'd pay $219 for a Blue fare and $234 for the Blue Plus fare — which is what you'd expect the case to be.

When looking for revenue fares, Blue Plus is more expensive.

Similarly, when flying looking at flights from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Las Vegas, a Blue fare requires 13,500 TrueBlue points while the Blue Plus fare requires just 9,600. In this case, you'd save 3,900 points and receive one free checked bag.

The Blue Plus fare requires less points than the base Blue fare from FLL to LAS.

Once again, logic wins with the cash prices for these flights — the base Blue fare costs $197 and the Blue Plus costs $212. It's not a huge price difference, but the higher-level fare costs more than the base fare, and includes a checked bag.

The Blue Plus fare is more costly than the Blue fare on this flight from FLL to LAS.

If you're looking to redeem your TrueBlue points for a flight, be sure to double check the fare class that you're selecting, as you might stumble across one of these deals! Remember, a great way to boost your points balance is to sign up for the JetBlue Plus Card from Barclaycard. You can earn earn 30,000 bonus TrueBlue points after spending $1,000 within three months of account opening. Additionally, you'll earn 6 points for every $1 spent on JetBlue, receive one free checked bag on each flight and more.
[card card-name='The JetBlue Plus Card' card-id='220811272' type='javascript' bullet-id='1']

Featured image by JetBlue