I saw this first thing this morning and kind of was waiting for an official announcement because it didn’t seem, well, finished…. but a couple of hours ago, JetBlue posted an official announcement and so, this is the card and, well, I’m not overwhelmed. I’m not even whelmed… I’m definitely underwhelmed.
In this article
Annual Fee
$499. $150 for authorized user cards.
Sign Up Bonus
Disappointing in two ways:
- it’s 70,000 points for $5,000 spend in 3 months. You also get 5 whole tiles. That gets you 1/10th of the way to the lowest status tier!
- If you already have or have had the common $99 JetBlue Plus card, you are ineligible for the bonus. So by the fine print, someone that had the Plus card and found it not valuable enough and cancelled it is now locked out of what JetBlue thinks is their premium card.
Earn Rate
- 6x points per $1 spent on eligible JetBlue and Paisly purchases including JetBlue Vacations®
- 2x points per $1 spent at restaurants and eligible grocery stores
- 1x points per $1 spent on all other purchases
OK, 6 points per dollar on JetBlue is solid if you are diehard JetBlue BUT THE JETBLUE PLUS WITH THE $99 ANNUAL FEE ALREADY GIVES THAT!!
I pretty much discount out of hand spending on anything like Paisly due to the restrictions we often talk about (i.e. hotel stays not being edible for points or benefits).
So this would be a card you put all your JetBlue spend on and that’s it.
Benefits
A premium card pretty much comes down to the benefits so the earn rate really isn’t my focus. After all, the Amex Platinum card earns 5X on airfare and 1X on everything else but many swoon for the perks and statement credits.
So let’s see..
- JetBlue Lounge Access: Premier Cardmembers and one guest will enjoy complimentary access to JetBlue’s recently announced lounges arriving at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) Terminal 5 in late 2025 and Boston Logan International Airport’s (BOS) Terminal C soon after.
- Priority Pass™ Lounge Access: Access more than 1,500 lounges, Minute Suites, Be Relax Spas and more in over 600 airports in more than 145 countries for the Cardmember and one guest.
- Paisly® Statement Credits : Earn up to $300 in annual statement credits for Paisly travel purchases, with a $50 credit for each qualifying transaction of $250 or more (up to six transactions per calendar year).
- Global Entry & TSA PreCheck®: Receive a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee statement credit up to $120 every four years.
- Group A Boarding: Enjoy priority boarding on JetBlue-operated flights for all cardmembers and up to four eligible travel companions.
- First Checked Bag Free: Premier Cardmembers and up to three companions on the same reservation will receive one free checked bag when JetBlue-operated flights are purchased with the JetBlue Premier Card.
- Anniversary Bonus: Receive 5,000 bonus points each year after your account anniversary and payment of the annual fee.
- Points Redemption Bonus: Get 10% of redeemed points back after traveling on a JetBlue-operated Award Flight.
- Points Payback: Redeem points for a statement credit on purchases of $25 or more.
- In-Flight Discounts: Save 50% on eligible food and drink purchases aboard JetBlue-operated flights.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
Most of these benefits are already featured in the $99 Plus card. Let’s go over what is unique to this card for $400 more a year in annual fees:
- Access to the JetBlue lounges: OK, IF these were already open AND they prove to be fantastic AND you fly JetBlue frequently from NY or BOS, then I would probably consider the annual fee worthwhile for that alone. But with them close to a year away from opening, is this card launch pre-mature? If this is the case, although for a narrow set of flyers, it would be no different than having a Delta Reserve or a United Club or an American Airlines Executive card for the lounge access.
- Priority Pass: Does anyone in their target market not already have a premium card with Priority Pass? And nothing in their language makes me think the card will have Priority Pass dining access (although if they hadn’t given the wording they did I might have thought it would as a Mastercard).
- Global Entry / PreCheck credit: Do any of us not have multiple cards with this benefit?
- Paisly Statement credits: At first I thought this would work like the Venture X and I thought “ugh, another card to use up a portal credit on.” But then it got worse. You get $50 in credit per $250 spent on Paisly – UP TO $300 a year. Are ANY of us doing this?
Bottom Line
I think you can tell my thoughts on this card as it stands now. I see it being a great fit for one narrow band of consumer:
- You fly them a ton from JFK/BOS and will use the heck out of those lounges (and you aren’t already Mosaic 4 which I believe will have access anyway).
I think a huge missed opportunity here was earning tiles for spend. It will earn the same 1 tile per $1,000 in spend as the other cards. Why not 2X as fast for the premium card with the hefty annual fee?
Honestly, it’s a lounge access credit card – for two unopened lounges.
Thoughts?
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