100k sign-up bonus, free employee cards: JetBlue Business Card review

JetBlue Business Card overview

The JetBlue Business Card delivers a tremendous sign-up bonus of 100,000 points, a great return on JetBlue purchases and a 5,000-point anniversary bonus that helps justify the card’s $99 annual fee. Small business owners can add additional cards for employees at no extra cost. And with a free checked baggage allowance, 10% rebate on award redemptions and 50% savings on eligible inflight purchases, this makes the JetBlue Business Card highly valuable for the airline's loyal flyers, even for infrequent travelers. Card Rating*: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

*Card Rating is based on the opinion of TPG’s editors and is not influenced by the card issuer.

If you’re a JetBlue enthusiast and are in the market for a business credit card, the cobranded JetBlue Business Card issued by Barclays is offering a best-ever 100,000 TrueBlue points welcome offer after meeting minimum spend requirements. The card comes with a $99 annual fee but includes many valuable benefits that easily help offset the annual cost. The information for the JetBlue Business Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

JetBlue doesn’t use an award chart; rather the points price of a ticket is tied to the cash price. According to TPG’s latest valuations, JetBlue points are worth 1.3 cents each. However, if you redeem JetBlue points for Mint class you’ll typically get a value closer to 1 cent per point. So as long as you’re not redeeming points for Mint seats, the bonus is worth a whopping $1,300 in JetBlue flights.

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Who is this card for?

This card is an excellent choice for anyone who flies JetBlue regularly, along with their families, as the airline earned the designation of ‘best airline for families in 2019’ according to our TPG team. In addition to a generous sign-up bonus, cardholders can earn an anniversary points bonus, free checked bags, a 50% discount on inflight purchases, and a rebate on award bookings, with plenty of supplemental benefits to make this card a keeper. If you’re a loyal JetBlue flyer but don’t fly enough to earn elite status, the card delivers a fast track to JetBlue’s top-tier Mosaic status by spending $50,000 a year on the card.

Sign-up bonus: As much as $1,300 in value

A significant bump from the cards’ previous sign-up, new cardholders can earn up to 100,000 bonus points, broken into two tiers:

• Earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases and paying the $99 annual fee in full, both within the first 90 days.
• Earn an additional 50,000 bonus points after spending a total of $6,000 on purchases within the first 12 months.

That means you’ll get a total of 12 months to hit your bonus after making $6,000 in purchases within that time frame. TrueBlue points are worth 1.3 cents, therefore based on TPG’s most recent valuations, the welcome bonus alone is worth $1,300. Without considering all the additional useful benefits that accompany the card, the welcome offer alone is well worth the $99 annual fee.

The 100,000 TrueBlue welcome bonus is plentiful, easily covering the cost of a round-trip flight from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Los Angeles (LAX) for a family of four in January 2021.

Main benefits and perks

Even if your future travel plans only include a few JetBlue flights per year, you should be able to take full advantage of some valuable perks from the JetBlue Business Card. These include:

• Free first checked bag — Get a first checked bag for you and up to three companions on the same reservation when you use your card to book JetBlue-operated flights.
• 10% rebate on award flights — Get 10% of your points back every time you redeem to use toward your next redemption.
• 5,000-point anniversary bonus — Get 5,000 points on every account anniversary. These points are worth about $65. Essentially, that brings the annual fee to about $30.
• 50% inflight savings — 50% savings on eligible inflight purchases.
• Fast-track Mosaic status — Enjoy Mosaic benefits after spending $50,000 or more on purchases each calendar year with your card.
• Annual JetBlue Vacations statement credit — Get a $100 statement credit every year with your purchase of a JetBlue Vacations package of $100 or more with your card.
• Group A boarding on JetBlue-operated flights.
• No foreign transaction fees.

Aside from the JetBlue-specific perks, there are several business perks worth noting:

• Legal business name embossed on cards
• Additional cards for employees at no extra cost
• Set controls on employee cards for credit lines, single purchase limits, and cash access
• Receive consolidated statements with all expenses and employees can access individual statement online
• $0 Fraud Liability protection means you're not responsible for charges you did not authorize

How to earn points

Beyond the impressive 100,000-point sign-up bonus upon meeting minimum spend requirements, the best way to earn TrueBlue points is by spending on JetBlue cobranded cards. The JetBlue Business Card earns a generous 6x points per dollar on eligible JetBlue purchases, 2x points at restaurants and on office supplies, and 1x point per dollar on all other purchases. Based on our valuations, that is equal to a 7.8% return on JetBlue spending, 2.6% on dining and groceries, and 1.3% on everything else.

You can also earn TrueBlue points in numerous ways, including transferring points from transfer programs such as Amex, Chase and Citi, using the JetBlue Shopping portal, spending with JetBlue’s travel partners, and other forms of earning TrueBlue points.

A personal favorite feature of mine in the TrueBlue program is the ability for families to pool reward points into a single-family account. This customer-friendly feature allows you to designate one person as the head of the household and the points earned from multiple TrueBlue accounts can be consolidated into one head of household account in order to book reward flights for the entire family.

How to redeem points

With the TrueBlue loyalty program, the cost of your award redemption is tied to the cash price of the ticket. Therefore, the more expensive your flight is, the more points you’ll need. Your TrueBlue points never expire as long as you keep your free TrueBlue account open. There are also no blackout dates for JetBlue flights, both on cash or award tickets.

JetBlue is known for offering frequent flash sales with flights starting at $26 one way, which can easily be booked for under 1,000 points. There’s no need to comb through award availability or worry about finding sweet spot redemptions, just find the flight and redeem your points.

The airline offers two standard award tiers (Blue and Blue Extra) with a third tier (Mint) only for routes operating JetBlue's Mint premium product.

One thing to note, Jetblue's cheapest fares, Blue Basic, are not available for redemption with points. Therefore, the standard 'Blue' TrueBlue award yields an advance seat selection, flight changes for a nominal fee, general boarding (instead of last), and the additional perks granted as a JetBlue Business cardholder.

You can also redeem TrueBlue points on Hawaiian Airlines thanks to a mutual partnership, but you’ll have to call JetBlue reservations as it cannot be booked online. TrueBlue has a more standard, region-based award chart for these Hawaiian Airlines tickets instead of its revenue-based system. One-way flights in coach to Hawaii start at 22,000 points from the West Coast and 30,000 points from the East Coast. A one-way business class ticket to Hawaii will set you back 45,000 points from the West Coast and 70,000 points from the East Coast.

How Does the JetBlue Business Card Stack Up?

The most obvious competitor would be the personal JetBlue Plus Card. However, the personal and business versions are nearly identical now given the newly refreshed business card omitted office supply stores as a bonus category. If you’re a JetBlue flyer, you’re not going to earn more points on your JetBlue purchases than with the cobranded JetBlue Business Card.

However, if you’re interested in more bonus categories and prefer to redeem miles for travel with Oneworld airlines to nearly 1,000 destinations worldwide, the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® comes with a comparable $99 annual fee, which is waived for the first 12 months. The card also offers more bonus categories, earning 2x miles per dollar spent on purchases at certain telecommunications merchants, cable and satellite providers, car rental companies, and gas stations.

If you prefer a companion certificate perk over airline elite status, then the $30,000 spend threshold in a cardmember year (upon renewal and account remaining open at least 45 days after account anniversary) on the CitiBusiness AAdvantage card unlocks a companion certificate that may deliver more value to you than achieving TrueBlue Mosaic status after $50,000 spend per year.

The information for the CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Ultimately, there are plenty of cobranded airline cards on the market and competition remains healthy among desirable travel rewards business cards such as the American Express® Business Gold Card and Ink Business Preferred Credit Card. Nonetheless, loyal JetBlue fliers that own a business, and covet a big sign-up bonus offer, may want to strongly consider the JetBlue Business Card.

Bottom line

In exchange for the moderate $99 annual fee, the JetBlue Business Card's huge 100,000-point sign-up bonus alone makes it worth consideration, especially for those who fly JetBlue on occasion. Apart from the 6x points earned on JetBlue purchases, free checked baggage, a 50% savings off inflight purchases, and a 10% rebate on award redemptions, the card accomplishes even greater worthiness with a 5,000-point anniversary bonus each year.