Comments on: JetBlue relaunches its TrueBlue loyalty program, misses a great opportunity http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2009/08/03/jetblue-relaunches-its-trueblue-loyalty-program-misses-a-great-opportunity/ Living the first class life -- at coach prices Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:21:15 +0000 hourly 1 By: Wandering Aramean http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2009/08/03/jetblue-relaunches-its-trueblue-loyalty-program-misses-a-great-opportunity/#comment-28839 Wandering Aramean Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:09:19 +0000 http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/?p=3569#comment-28839 I think you're missing the forest for the trees in your analysis. Yes, they are missing the Lufthansa partnership in the initial announcement. And, no, they do not expect to have it live at the end of September when TB2 goes into effect. But it is on the road map and is expected to be there in Q1 '10. Beyond that, they have gone WAY outside the box in terms of the other nuance that is built in to the program for bonus thresholds. They have bonus miles kicking in at $500 spend increments, allowing the very frequent travelers (or just the high spending ones) to earn something in the range of 14 points/dollar spent, not the 6 that they'd normally get. That's a 133% bonus for their "elite" passengers, better than most any other program out there. They've also got bonuses for transcon travel that can add to the fun. If you take 5 r/t transcon flights you get 10,000 bonus points. Add that on to the other bonus numbers and it actually starts to add up in a hurry. And then that combines with what appears to be a pretty solid redemption scheme (no blackouts, sliding scale starting at 5,000 points o/w depending on the cost of the seat being redeemed, etc.) and the program doesn't really suck at all. A lot of its value will depend on these details being fleshed out further, but after talking with the guy who is the architect of the program and one of his analysts who crunched the numbers I have to say that I am cautiously optimistic that it will be successful. It definitely is better than their old program, which is nice to see. You can read more of the detailed analysis here: http://www.wanderingaramean.com/2009/07/trueblue2-details-this-time-without-all.html I think you’re missing the forest for the trees in your analysis. Yes, they are missing the Lufthansa partnership in the initial announcement. And, no, they do not expect to have it live at the end of September when TB2 goes into effect. But it is on the road map and is expected to be there in Q1 ’10.

Beyond that, they have gone WAY outside the box in terms of the other nuance that is built in to the program for bonus thresholds. They have bonus miles kicking in at $500 spend increments, allowing the very frequent travelers (or just the high spending ones) to earn something in the range of 14 points/dollar spent, not the 6 that they’d normally get. That’s a 133% bonus for their “elite” passengers, better than most any other program out there. They’ve also got bonuses for transcon travel that can add to the fun. If you take 5 r/t transcon flights you get 10,000 bonus points. Add that on to the other bonus numbers and it actually starts to add up in a hurry.

And then that combines with what appears to be a pretty solid redemption scheme (no blackouts, sliding scale starting at 5,000 points o/w depending on the cost of the seat being redeemed, etc.) and the program doesn’t really suck at all.

A lot of its value will depend on these details being fleshed out further, but after talking with the guy who is the architect of the program and one of his analysts who crunched the numbers I have to say that I am cautiously optimistic that it will be successful. It definitely is better than their old program, which is nice to see.

You can read more of the detailed analysis here: http://www.wanderingaramean.com/2009/07/trueblue2-details-this-time-without-all.html

]]> By: S A http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2009/08/03/jetblue-relaunches-its-trueblue-loyalty-program-misses-a-great-opportunity/#comment-28836 S A Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:48:57 +0000 http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/?p=3569#comment-28836 True, they could have made this an interesting program, but instead it's just as irrelevant as their program was the first time they launched it. Whatever. True, they could have made this an interesting program, but instead it’s just as irrelevant as their program was the first time they launched it.

Whatever.

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