JetBlue to 'evolve' TrueBlue frequent flyer program under new loyalty chief
JetBlue announced a new head of its loyalty program on Thursday, promoting an insider to a top spot.
The airline said that Chris Buckner, who joined JetBlue in 2020 as a director managing customer loyalty and partnerships, will be promoted to vice president and tasked with overseeing the entire TrueBlue program.
He replaces Don Uselmann, who was appointed vice president of inflight experience.
Buckner's appointment comes as the airline continues to further link parts of its loyalty program with American Airlines as part of the Northeast Alliance, offering reciprocal earning, redemption and loyalty benefits across the two airlines.
Under the alliance, JetBlue and American codeshare on some routes and offer reciprocal frequent flyer benefits — with a focus on service in New York and Boston. The airlines have reconfigured schedules and networks around the partnership — for instance, American has cut some routes that JetBlue has begun to operate and code-share on, such as the long-standing shuttle service between Boston Logan (BOS) and New York-LaGuardia (LGA).
The airline's announcement suggested that TrueBlue could see big changes under Buckner, but was vague on details, saying only that he would be in charge of continuing to "evolve" the program, and that he'd be tasked with "evolv[ing] JetBlue's cobranded credit card portfolio."
More: Meet the woman now in charge of American's AAdvantage frequent flyer program
Buckner worked elsewhere in the airline industry before coming to JetBlue. According to LinkedIn, he spent over eight years at Delta, starting in revenue management before moving to loyalty and customer experience. Most immediately before joining JetBlue, he worked as a director for RECARO Aircraft Seating.
American Airlines, incidentally, also has a new loyalty head. Longtime executive Julie Rath was appointed to a new role as vice president of customer experience, loyalty and marketing earlier this month.
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The Capital One Venture X Business Card has all the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has to offer and more. It offers an incredible welcome bonus and requires an equally impressive spend to qualify. In addition, the card comes with premium travel perks like annual travel credit. (Partner offer)Pros
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- Business owners are also able to add employee cards for free.
Cons
- The card requires significant spending to earn the welcome offer.
- Another drawback is that the annual travel credit can only be used on bookings made through Capital One Business Travel.
- LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Earn up to 400K bonus miles: 200K miles when you spend $30K in the first 3 months, and an additional 200k miles when you spend $150k in the first 6 months
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, everywhere—with no limits or category restrictions
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- With no preset spending limit, enjoy big purchasing power that adapts so you can spend more and earn more rewards
- Empower your teams to make business purchases while earning rewards on their transactions, with free employee and virtual cards. Plus, automatically sync your transaction data with your accounting software and pay your vendors with ease
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- Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. Enjoy access to 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide, including Capital One Lounge locations and Priority Pass™ lounges, after enrollment
- Enjoy a $100 experience credit and other premium benefits with every hotel and vacation rental booked from the Premier Collection
- This is a pay-in-full card, so your balance is due in full every month