Buy Your Way to Mosaic Status for 2017
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
With the end of the year upon us and status (re)qualification on our minds, JetBlue is offering you the chance to buy Mosaic status. Through December 31, 2016, you can buy the base flight points needed in order to qualify for Mosaic status through the end of 2017. And while it might seem like an easy way to get to Mosaic, it might not necessarily be the best deal for you — especially if you have a long way to go.
In order to qualify for Mosaic status, you need either 15,000 base flight points or 30 segments and 12,000 base flight points. You can log in to your TrueBlue account to see how many segments and base flight points you've earned this calendar year. However, if you still have a ways to go, this looks to be a terrible deal. Let's look at how the cost per point breaks down based on the number of base flight points needed:
- 250 base flight points = $0.18 per point
- 500 base flight points = $0.22 per point
- 550-5,000 base flight points = $0.25 per point
- 5,500-10,000 base flight points = $0.27 per point
- 11,000-15,000 base flight points = $0.37 per point
If you have no base flight points and are hoping to buy your way to Mosaic status in its entirety by purchasing 15,000 points, you'll pay a whopping $5,550 — the terms and conditions state that a 7.5% tax is required on top of that amount, but it didn't appear on the checkout page. As a point of comparison, we value Mosaic status at $1,495 — and that's only if you're able to maximize the perks. The likelihood of maximizing the Mosaic perks if you've obtained zero base flight points for the entirety of 2016 is pretty small — unless, of course, you're planning on changing your travel patterns altogether for 2017.
Where this opportunity to buy Mosaic could represent a decent value is if you're just a few hundred (or even thousand) points shy of earning status. Say, for example, you're 250 base flight points short — you could buy up to Mosaic status for $45.
Keep in mind that there are other ways to get Mosaic status throughout the year. Earlier this year, JetBlue offered Mosaic status through a status match or challenge — usually a less expensive way to attain status. If you do want to take advantage of this offer, however, you can do so on the Points.com site. Also note that you won't earn additional points on your JetBlue Plus Card or JetBlue Card for this purchase, as it's not processed directly through JetBlue.
