Guide: Best Way to Book JetBlue Mint

Guide: Best Way to Book JetBlue Mint

Mint is one of the only direct luxury options available to Las Vegas so it’s fair to say I’ve looked into this quite a few times. What’s the Best Way to Book Jetblue Mint Flights? It may not be using Jetblue Trueblue points (unless you have a huge balance). I know this seems completely counter intuitive but bear with me while I explain. In general, Trueblue award ticket prices are directly correlated to the cash price of the same flight- this is known as “Dynamic award pricing”. While the cost of points for awards and cash prices are very closely tied, there are a few exceptions including Trueblue award sales and Mint Award flights.

Check out my Jetblue Mint Review

Let’s look at an example. The cash prices for JFK-LAX seem to jump around from $599 to $1499, making the lower $599 price feel like a serious bargain (which I think it is as compared to other business products serving the same route.) I’m not sure when but Jetblue changed Mint pricing over the last few years making it very difficult to get great value from points for booking Mint award tickets. On Mint the value per point stays pretty close to 1.1 cents, while booking economy (aka Blue fare) tickets can easily yield a value of 1.4 to 1.6 cents per point.

• If you look at the first flight in the screenshots, Flight 23. The Mint Cash Price is $599 and the Award Price is 58,400.
• As you can see cash prices for each flight are about 1% of the number of TrueBlue points required to book.
• The math looks like this ($599-$5.60) / 58,400 = .0101 (basically 1 cent each.)
• Now let’s look at the same flight for a blue fare. If you do the same calculation you’ll see that your points are worth 1.4 cents each for the same flight.

I’ve looked at several different cities and flights and this is the trend in almost all cases.

Review of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas Casino and Resort

Best Ways to Book Jetblue Mint Using Points

Book with Credit Card Points Through Travel Portal

You can use flexible points like Chase Ultimate Rewards or Citi Thank You Points to book through a credit card travel portal. Even if the points are only worth 1 cent when redeeming them for travel you’ll still come out ahead on most Mint flights because you’ll earn miles on the booking and spend only a few extra points. Of course if you have a premium card like Chase Sapphire Preferred or Citi Thank You Premier that offers enhanced value on portal bookings, it’s an even better option.

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Cash Back or Statement Credits

Redeem points for cash back or statements credits and book your flight on Jetblue.com where you’ll earn an extra 3 points per dollar.

Pay with Points if you have an Amex Business Gold or Business Platinum Card

Those who have a Business platinum card or Business Gold Card are in luck because if you pay with points for any flight on your chosen airline or any premium cabin seat on any airline, you will get 35% (and 25% respectively) of those points credited back to your account and still earn Trueblue points and elite qualifying credit.

Related: How I Maximized $900 in American Airlines Amex Platinum Airline Credits

Final Thoughts

As long as you can make use of your points in the near future for Blue fare awards (or have a family member who you pool them with) or if you fly Jetblue with some regularity, you can easily maximize your points through booking Blue awards on routes that don’t offer Mint or by booking during Trueblue sales. Regardless, Trueblue points may still be the answer for anyone who has a lot of them and/or doesn’t want to use up other cash, points or rewards.