Barclaycard is offering a new and improved sign up bonus for its JetBlue card. The standard public offer for a long time was 30K and was recently bumped up to 40K. However, now you can earn 60K JetBlue points after $1,000 in spend within the first 90 days of account opening. Here’s a closer look at the offer.
Update: Some offers are no longer available — click here for the latest deals!
The offer
- 60K JetBlue points after $1,000 in spend within the first 90 days of account opening
- 6X on JetBlue purchases
- 2X on grocery stores and restaurants
- 1X on all other purchases
- Free first checked bag
- 5,000 points after first year anniversary
- Get 10% of your points back every time you redeem to use toward your next redemption
- Points don’t expire
- No foreign transaction fees
- TrueBlue Mosaic benefits for one year after you spend $50,000 or more on purchases annually with your card
- 50% savings on eligible inflight purchases including cocktails and food
- $99 annual fee (not waived)
JetBlue points function a lot like Southwest Rapid Rewards. They are set at a fixed value that, while subject to fluctuations, remains close to 1.4 cents per mile. This means that a 60K bonus will net you around $840 (without even factoring the 10% rebate on points). Some even value JetBlue points higher than that so this is definitely a very valuable sign-up bonus.
JetBlue Mint
One of the biggest draws to this card for me is that 60K JetBlue points can get you enough miles to try out JetBlue’s new business class Mint product, which is considered one of the best business class products for transcontinental flights, especially if you can snag the suites on board. The new mint cabin is still only flying on a limited number of routes but they are expanding. You can check out the map below to see current Mint routes and those scheduled for the future.
Mint routes have gotten more expensive over the past year but they can still be manageable. Here are some of the current rates that I’ve found for one way flights:
- JFK to SFO: 65,000 one way + $5.60 in fees
- JFK to LAX: 57,700 one way + $5.60 in fees
- BOS to LAX: 45,300 one way + $5.60 in fees
- FLL to LAX: 53,100 one way + $5.60 in fees
These are some of the cheapest prices I found and while you might be able to find cheaper rates on certain dates, most of the prices were higher than these. So it’s at least possible to score enough JetBlue miles to cover at least one way in Mint transcon. If you need to supplement your miles remember that JetBlue is a transfer partner of American Express and Citi (just not 1:1).
Limited route network for some
The one major drawback to JetBlue is that they don’t have the most expansive flight network. For example, they only fly to Houston from the Northeast (Boston and NYC). So if I wanted to fly their Mint class, I’d need to route through BOS or JFK just to connect. For international flights that’s not an issue but for domestic flights, that’s quite a bit extra of flights and considering that there’s no Mint from Houston to anywhere, that’s a bit of a bummer for people like me trying to get on board with JetBlue.
Final word
Overall, this is a very solid offer. Considering that it’s 20K than the previous offer and 60K makes scoring Mint redemptions much more obtainable, I think this is an offer that people should strongly consider. The biggest drawback is that JetBlue doesn’t have as wide of a flight network as Southwest, so in some parts of the country, you might struggle to find attractive and practical flight routes. Still, for someone who even flies JetBlue semi-frequently this could be a great option.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
