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Historically, most people outside of the US didn’t really have much use for JetBlue. It was an airline focused mainly on the northeast of the United States and aside from a few routes to Mexico and the Caribbean from the East Coast, it didn’t have an international presence.
Today, the airline’s routes are still mostly centered around the northeast of the US, but because it now also operates flights across the Atlantic, it has found a broader audience.
Unfortunately (and even though that it once had a partnership with American Airlines), it has never been possible to credit JetBlue’s transatlantic flights to a major US airline loyalty program, so anyone flying across the pond who doesn’t want to be locked into JetBlue’s TrueBlue program has had to look elsewhere.
Etihad Guest and Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program are solid programs to which JetBlue flights can be credited, but those are both relatively niche options and, I suspect, not the most interesting of options to most passengers who cross the Atlantic with any great frequency.
There is, however, one other option, and it’s an option that offers flyers considerably more flexibility than either the Etihad Guest or KrisFlyer programs. That option is the Qatar Airways Privilege Club.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club
The Qatar Airways Privilege Club uses Avios as its currency and that’s good because Avios is one of the most flexible airline currencies around.
As well as Qatar Airways, four other major airlines use Avios as their currency of choice …
- Aer Lingus
- British Airways
- Iberia
- Finnair
… and Avios held in the Qatar Airways Privilege Club can be moved to the loyalty programs of each of those airlines (either directly or indirectly) allowing flyers to make the most of the better options that each program offers.
Also, as most of these airlines are part of the OneWorld alliance, Avios can be used on and earned through flights taken with several other popular airlines (e.g. Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, and Qantas).
What this means is that despite a few recent devaluations, Avios remains a currency that can be very useful to hold.
Credit JetBlue flights to Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways awards Avios based on the cabin in which you travel and the distance flown, and as long as you don’t book a ‘Blue Basic’ economy class fare (fare code ‘L’), you’ll find that you’ll earn a healthy number of Avios on the JetBlue’s transatlantic routes*.
In fact, given that all fares except Basic Economy fares earn at least as many Avios in the Qatar Airways Privilege Club as miles flown …
… you’ll find that even the shortest JetBlue Economy Class transatlantic flight will earn ~3,000 Avios for one-way travel.
Here are a couple of examples:
With the distance between New York JFK and London measuring 3,451 miles …
… and with the distance between New York JFK and Paris measuring 3,635 miles…
… anyone booking a JetBlue round-trip transatlantic Business Class fare on these routes will pick up between 8,627 and 9,087 Avios.
Economy Class passengers booking any fare class other than “L” will earn between 6,902 and 7,270 Avios, while passengers booking the very cheapest transatlantic Economy Class fare (L class) will earn between 1,725 and 1,817.
Clearly, the Avios you’ll earn from a one-way flight won’t be enough to book you a subsequent free flight, but what you’ll earn from a round-trip booking (if you avoid Basic Economy) will be more than enough to book a number of short-haul routes within Europe, and while that’s definitely nothing to get excited about, the Avios you earn through JetBlue’s transatlantic flights are likely to be more useful to you than any other currency you can earn through the airline.
*With the cost of a ticket not a factor in calculating the number of Avios a traveler can earn, a great cheap fare will earn as many Avios as a vastly overpriced fare in the same cabin.
Be aware
It should be noted that JetBlue’s partnership with Qatar Airways isn’t all good news.
JetBlue flights don’t earn Qatar Privilege Club status credits, and you can’t earn Avios on JetBlue flights to/from Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
For most people for whom this article is relevant, however, these limitations probably won’t make much difference.
If you’re flying with JetBlue within the United States, the chances are that you’re the sort of traveler who uses JetBlue’s TrueBlue program anyway, so this isn’t an article for you.
If you’re flying with JetBlue across the Atlantic, you’re not going to earn worthwhile status credits with any airline other than JetBlue, so as we’ve already established that this isn’t an article about where people chasing JetBlue status should credit their flights, the absence of Qatar Airways elite status credits shouldn’t be a deal breaker.
Bottom line
The number of Avios on offer from JetBlue’s transatlantic flights isn’t exactly spectacular and that the fact that Privilege Club elite credits are not on offer may be a little disappointing, but if you’re not a regular JetBlue flyer and a fan of the TrueBlue program, this is probably your best option.
For a lot of people not based in the US northeast, crediting flights to TrueBlue, Etihad Guest, or Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer will only create a small points balance that may not get redeemed for years or that may not get redeemed at all (KrisFlyer may expire them before they can be used), so the Avios option will be attractive.
Keep in mind that Avios earned through the Qatar Airways Privilege Club can be transferred to all the other airlines that use Avios as their currency and can also be used to book flights on all other OneWorld airlines.
This means that there are a variety of ways in which Avios earned from JetBlue’s transatlantic flights can be used effectively and economically, and when it comes down to it, flexibility is king in the miles & points world.
