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One of my favorite aspects about American Express are their transfer bonuses to partners. It’s simple…you log into your AMEX account, transfer your Membership Rewards (MR) points to a partner that is currently having a transfer bonus and you have more points than your initial transfer.
Amex is on fire lately! A few weeks ago, they posted a transfer bonus for Virgin, and a few days ago they posted a transfer bonus for Qantas. Now, they have promotion for JetBlue.
So let’s take a look at the current promotion…
THE DETAILS
American Express has launched a 40% transfer bonus between MR and JetBlue’s True Blue program, however, be careful and read this caveat (below).
Note: It is safe to log into your account and see the offer but do not click on the actual offer. Lately, American Express has made offers disappear after they’ve been viewed and you have logged out. If you’re interested in transferring your Amex points over to JetBlue, I recommend completing a transfer as soon as you see the promotion.
ARE YOU TARGETED?
To see if you have an offer, follow these easy steps:
1. Log in to your account at AmericanExpress.com
2. Click on Explore Rewards
3. Click on Transfer Points, then click View All to see all transfer partners
4. Find JetBlue, and look for the “Offer” notation at the top right
When I log-in to my account and head over to the MR points transfer section, the promotion doesn’t appear to have an end date.
Personally, I clicked on the offer because I have other plans with my current points, logged out, logged back in, and the offer was still showing. However, that may not be the case for everyone.
IS THIS A GOOD DEAL?
Normally, 250 MR points convert to 200 JetBlue points but, as you can see, it now converts to 280 JetBlue points. I believe this is the biggest bonus I’ve seen from for transfers between AMEX and JetBlue, however, that doesn’t mean that it’s a great deal.
THE MATH
Boston is a focus city for JetBlue so I randomly selected a day for a transcontinantal flight from Boston to Los Angeles and these were the results for cash rates…
…and these are the award rates for the same non-stop flights…
Doing a bit of math, you recognize that economy class flight offer between 1.19 cents and 1.44 cents of value for True Blue points while Mint (this is what JetBlue calls their Business Class) bookings offer approximately 1.0 cent of value for each True Blue point. I checked a few other routes and similar values were calculated on those routes too.
Personally, I value Amex MR points at, a conservative, 1.5 cents each. This simply means that as long as you’re booking Mint fares, you can get a decent deal in certain circumstances.
FINAL STAMP
JetBlue point redemptions are tied to the cash value of the ticket so if you’re looking to exchange your points to save some cash then this transfer would definitely fit the bill.
Does it offer great value and qualify as an “amazing redemtption?” Not hardly. It’s ok…AND only in certain circumstances (e.g. not a mint fare).
Personally, this offer is underwhelming and I’d prefer to use my Amex points for transfers for more “aspirational redemptions (e.g. Premium cabin on Singapore Airlines) or one of my other favorites, short-haul redemptions with British Airways.
Ultimately, everyone has different travel goals and you should determine the best direction for you.
Have you been targeted for a JetBlue transfer bonus? Do you have plans to transfer points?
1TattedPassport 