JetBlue Business Card Review

Full Review of JetBlue Business Card

Pros Explained

• Excellent Rewards on JetBlue Purchases: This card provides 6 points per dollar spent with JetBlue. With each point worth an average of 1.43 cents when used for flights, according to Investopedia's valuation, those rewards represent over 8 cents in value per dollar spent when used for further JetBlue transactions. That makes the JetBlue Business among the more lucrative cards when its rewards are redeemed for travel on its co-branded airline. 
• 5,000 Anniversary Bonus Points: After each account anniversary, you’ll earn 5,000 bonus points worth $65 according to our valuation. This benefit alone helps justify a significant portion of the card's $99 annual fee as long as you use the miles you earn.
• Generous Bonuses With Low Spending Requirements: This card offers two introductory points bonuses that are fairly easy to earn. The first is a 50,000-points reward for spending $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days. You earn the second bonus, of a further 10,000 points, if you add an employee card within 30 days of account opening and the card's owner makes a purchase on the card within the first 90 days. These bonuses, together worth an estimated $858 by our valuations, require smaller spending (of just $1,000, plus a single employee purchase) and earn greater rewards than the offers of many competing cards. Those others typically require spending of $3,000 or $5,000 to earn bonuses worth $200 to $500.

Cons Explained

• $99 Annual Fee: While relatively modest, the cost of the JetBlue Business is arguably the closest to a drawback for the card. There are other cards that offer similar or higher earning rates for spending other than flights on their co-branded airline, and some of them don’t charge an annual fee.

The JetBlue Business card is best suited to JetBlue fliers who are comfortable in redeeming all their rewards for either flights on the airline or air-hotel packages with JetBlue Vacations. The amount of travel they’d need to do to justify the cost of the card is relatively modest. That’s due both to the card's generous earnings on JetBlue spending and its annual anniversary bonus, the value of which should justify more than half of the $99 annual fee. 

JetBlue Business Card's Bonus

The bonus for the JetBlue Business card comes in two steps. First, you can earn 50,000 points for spending $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of opening your account. Next, you can earn an additional 10,000 bonus points for adding at least one employee card to the account either at the time of application or within the first 30 days of the account open date; the employee must then make a purchase (of any size) on the account within the first 90 days for the account to be credited with the bonus. 

Since JetBlue points are worth an average of 1.43 cents each when used for flights, according to Investopedia's valuation, we estimate these bonuses to be worth $715 and $143, respectively, for a total of $858.

Bonus points typically get deposited into your TrueBlue account about 4 to 6 weeks after your qualifying transactions have posted to your credit card account.

Rewards Earning Details

In addition to the bonus, you earn an ongoing 6 points per dollar spent on purchases made directly with JetBlue Airways. These purchases do not include car rentals or hotel reservations purchased outside of JetBlue Vacations packages, duty-free purchases, or purchases of TrueBlue points. 

You’ll also earn 2 points for every dollar spent at restaurants and office supply stores. All other purchases earn 1 point per dollar spent. Purchases include purchases made on employee cards, as well.

You can earn unlimited points as long as your account is open, active and in good standing. Once TrueBlue points are awarded to your TrueBlue membership account, they do not expire. There are no blackout dates and you can book an award flight as long as there is an available seat and you have enough points to book the flight.

Rewards Redemption Details

You can redeem the points you earn in a number of ways, but the highest value is redeeming points for JetBlue Vacations packages. When booking a package, you get up to 10% off the airfare part of your trip. This results in a value of roughly 1.6 cents per point redeemed for flights in this manner. 

If you prefer to book your JetBlue flights without a vacation package, you would get an average point value of 1.43 cents each, according to our estimates. The points needed for each flight depend on the specific flight, so you’ll have to check prices to make sure you're getting a decent value for your chosen flights. As an added bonus, you also get 10% of your points back when you redeem for and travel on a JetBlue-operated award flight.

Other redemption options include booking flights through Hawaiian Airlines by calling 800-538-2583, magazines, transferring points to another TrueBlue member, or donating points.

How to Maximize Your Rewards

To make the most out of the JetBlue Business card's rewards, make sure to spend the $1,000 on the primary card along with the initial purchase on an employee card required within the first 90 days in order to earn the full 60,000 points of the bonus. 

Next, be sure to put all JetBlue purchases on the card, to take advantage of the lucrative 6 points per dollar spent you’ll earn on these purchases. And favor flights with JetBlue itself rather than its partners, since you’ll get a 10% points bonus by using your rewards to book a JetBlue-operated flight. 

Whenever planning a trip that will require both a flight and hotels, check JetBlue Vacations for suitable packages, since these offer the best redemption option. Not only might you save by booking flights and lodging together, compared with buying them a la carte, but you’ll also receive a further 10% discount on the flight portion of your package.

If you don't have other credit cards that offer more value than 2 TrueBlue points per dollar spent for restaurant and office supply purchases, put these purchases on the card, as well. 

JetBlue Business Card's Outstanding Benefits

• 50% savings on eligible inflight purchases of cocktails and food on JetBlue-operated flights
• 10% back on award flight redemptions with JetBlue
• $100 statement credit with JetBlue Vacations package purchase with your card
• 5,000 bonus points every year after your account anniversary
• Free first checked bag for you and up to 3 companions
• Mosaic (JetBlue’s elite level) annual benefits with $50,000 or more on purchases in each calendar year
• Primary collision/loss damage waiver insurance: For eligible car rentals of up to 30 days

Standard Benefits

• Employee cards at no extra cost
• Extended warranty coverage
• No blackout dates on JetBlue operated flights
• Points pooling
• Purchase assurance

Cardholder Experience

The issuer of this card, Barclays, scored 806 in the 2019 J.D. Power U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study, which was also the average score for national issuers in the survey. No outstanding customer service features are offered on this card, but you can contact Barclays US at 866-928-8598 or by sending a secure message once logged in to your account on their website.

Security Features

For the most part, the security features for this card are fairly standard, but a couple of enhanced security benefits do stand out. First, this card has chip-and-PIN capability to allow you to make purchases at unattended terminals, which can be a useful capability when traveling overseas. 

Additionally, this card can be temporarily locked and unlocked if you’re unsure where your card is. If you lock your card, and subsequently find it, you can unlock it yourself and continue to use it as normal, thus avoiding the hassle of getting a new account number issued.

Fees to Watch Out For

This card imposes an electronic-payment fee of $15 and administrative fees for statement copies and other documents. On the other hand, there are no foreign transaction fees. Otherwise, the fees for this card are relatively standard.

Our Verdict

The JetBlue Business card is an excellent choice for an enterprise with one or more employees who fly on the carrier, if only occasionally. The bar to justify the card is set relatively low, due to the introductory and ongoing anniversary bonuses. And even if cardholders barely fly on the airline after the first year but use the card for expenses in bonus categories to earn enhanced points the decision of whether the annual fee makes sense gets even easier.

The JetBlue Business card is most alluring for JetBlue fliers who put substantial charges on the card. You can earn Mosaic benefits, JetBlue’s highest level of TrueBlue membership, for one year by spending $50,000 or more within a calendar year. 

Naturally, unless the business is buying a lot of JetBlue flights, such five-figure annual spending may require using the card for purchases that are far less rewarding. The card offers 2 points per dollar spent in restaurants and office supplies, which amounts to about a 2.9% return when redeemed for flights, and 1 point per dollar on everything else. Chances are the business may be better off foregoing the status boost to Mosaic level and finding another card that offers better rates on non-JetBlue spending, such as a general small-business card.