When Hawaiian Airlines announced service between New York City and Honolulu one of the more interesting aspects of the deal was frequent flyer reciprocity with JetBlue. Earning and redemption were both noted, but details were not available at that time. Some of those details have finally become clear today. Both carriers have announced earning rates for flights operated by the other carrier. The numbers are a bit complicated, but they are available.
Earning Points
For passengers looking to earn HawaiianMiles on JetBlue-operated flights, there are two earning tiers, depending on the underlying fare basis of the flight:
For passengers looking to earn TrueBlue points on Hawaiian-operated flights it is even more complicated, owing to multiple classes of service and different route regions:
Earning maxes out at 75% for these flights and the most discounted fares earn a paltry 25%. Those are two facets to the deal which are somewhat disappointing. Still, better than nothing for customers flying on both carriers and looking to consolidate their points.
Redeeming Points
On the redemption side things are a bit more fuzzy. Because TrueBlue is a more revenue-based rather than distance-based program their redemption rates are defined somewhat different from the other programs. Hawaiian is adopting this same approach for their members looking to redeem on JetBlue metal, with variable award rates based on the dollar value of the JetBlue flight(s):
For folks with TrueBlue points looking to redeem on Hawaiian metal, the situation is rather unclear as of right now. I cannot find anything on the JetBlue site indicating specific redemption costs. I’m working on getting that information; updates as they are available.
My seat on the inaugural JFK-HNL will only earn at the 25% rate in TrueBlue. Or I can start up a HawaiianMiles account. Or I can earn 100% credit to American Airlines‘s AAdvantage program. The really crazy part is that I’m honestly not sure if 4900 AA points is worth more to me right now than 1245 TrueBlue points.
Related Posts:
- A few first in the JetBlue/Hawaiian partnership
- JetBlue, Hawaiian team up for JFK service
- Hawaiian launching service to New York City
- JetBlue & American Airlines announce earning reciprocity
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I have been waiting for this news, had been hoping for cheap redemptions with HawaiianMiles on JetBlue’s Central America routes, but at the typical prices for those tickets, this is not likely to be of much use to me. The 1:2 transfer to Hilton option seems like conceding defeat, but I may end up liquidating my HawaiianMiles that way.
Thanks for this handy post, Seth. I think I’ll go with the 4900 AA miles this time around.
What has always intrigued me about the Hawaiian partner chart is the Virgin Atlantic reward – 140K miles in Upper Class from the U.S. to anywhere Virgin flies. Great way to do a combo London/Australia or London/Capetown trip. Much more valuable to me than 280K HHonors points. I have never seen anyone report on doing it on Flyertalk though.
Does the VS award permit a stopover? All the way to Oz isn’t so bad at 140K in Upper Class, but I’m not sure you could also get London in there, at least not for very long. That is a good award, though I’ve also found the VS product rather tired the past couple times I did it. That said, I haven’t been on the new UC yet.
Seth – good point. I had assumed you could do a stopover in London before traveling on, but it doesn’t mention stopovers in the program T&C’s. And again, I haven’t seen any talk of this redemption on FT so I don’t know if they’d allow a stopover or not. No open jaw for sure – partner flights have to be RT.
Not familiar with JetBlue program but why do you say those points are more valuable than AA miles? Or do you mean specifically to you? I personally love using AA miles for premium one world awards so just curious.
I have 100,000 TrueBlue points.. I was hoping I could transfer them to Hawaiian Air miles. I am confused, can I do this? Thanks.
Karen,
My understanding is that you will, in the future, be able to redeem your TB points for an Hawaiian flight, but that the redemption rates have yet to be announced.
I note that you cannot book BOS-HNL on the JetBlue website using TB points as of now.
I haven’t heard anything about transferring the points to from TB to Hawaiian.
It absolutely will NOT be possible to move points between the two programs. What you will be able to do is redeem TrueBlue points for flights on Hawaiian Airlines or vice versa.
It doesn’t actually seem like they’ve got interline award itineraries yet either. I don’t know if those will show up at all or not. I’d be not, at least for now.
Thanks Seth and JCK75…
Sorry if I am sounding dumb with this stuff. So at some point if I want to take the one nonstop on Hawaiian airlines from JFK to HNL I will be able to use my jetblue points to do that… OR.. will I only be able to use my jetblue points on the their segment from JFK to LAX? Am I making any sense? Thanks.
You can use JetBlue points on the JFK-HNL nonstop flight.
Right now, the JetBlue website says that you need to call the JetBlue 800 number to do so. No one seems to know how many points are required for that flight.
JCK75
Hi.. thanks for getting back to me.. That is great news for me about the points and I guess I will just wait and see how many points it will take. I am not going until next year anyway. Thanks again.
I just spoke with JetBlue about using TrueBlue points on a flight to Hawaii. The redemption exchange rate is approximately the same as it is for regular JetBlue flights. The site I link below compares a variety of dollar/point values and calculates that a TrueBlue point is worth around 1.2 cents on average. The flight to Honolulu that I was pricing was around $610, so the rewards price JetBlue quoted me — 54000 points — is as expected, around 1.1 cents per point.
http://www.plasticiq.com/blog/what-is-the-value-of-jetblues-trueblue-points/