Airlines Deals

Revised Redemption Rates: Use Qatar Airways Avios ( or combine from BA, Iberia, etc ) to book JetBlue award flights now.

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Earlier in the week, we learned that you can now book JetBlue Mint, or economy, across the pond, the country, or wherever JetBlue flies, by redeeming Qatar Airways Avios. The best part? Booking can all be done online, and of course, since you can combine Avios across programs, you could now utilize British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus to book JetBlue Avios by combining those points into Qatar Airways Avios. Sound complex? It’s not – it’s actually super easy, lemme show you how.

The rates that were first available were very attractive and sadly they’ve changed. Honestly, I think they are still pretty darn good since they don’t have the major fees attached and we see transfer bonuses all the time.

shoutout to FindFlights for me for spotting this!

First, you probably have Qatar Airways Avios and don’t even know it

Avios is partnered with every major bank currency, and since you can merge Avios between the member programs ( British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Qatar ) they are super easy to earn.

In fact, as soon as you link your British Airways and Qatar Airway Avios accounts the points you have will show up there. You can learn more about that here.

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You can also merge British Airways and Iberia, etc

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What programs transfer to British Airways, Iberia, etc?

  • Amex
    • BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Qatar
  • Bilt
    • BA, Iberia Aer Lingus
  • Capital One
    • BA
  • Chase
    • BA, Iberia Aer Lingus
  • Citi
    • Qatar

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What does Qatar Airways charge to fly JetBlue?

For all partner flights Qatar Airways utilizes a distance based award chart that is pretty much the same as British Airways. When they first dropped, rates were quite a bit less, and some lucky people were able to take advantage. Qatar quickly changed their pricing. I still think this is a great deal tho…78k + 261 pounds from London to NYC is amazing and will likely be something I take advantage of considering how often BA has transfer bonuses and as soon as you has BA Avios they show up in your Qatar account ( as long as they are linked )

  • Sweet Spots –
    • Mint: ( these were initially 62k )
      • East Coast to Europe = 78k + $10
      • London to East Coast = 78k + £261
    • Econ
      • Domestically starting at 8500 Avios
      • East Coast to Europe at 25k Avios

Finding space on Qatar Airways

I believe the system is being overrun a bit because finding flights wasn’t too much of an issue, but the wheel kept spinning for me vs leading to a booking page. Other sites haven’t reported issues with booking so I’d presume this is just a temporary glitch.

You’ll need to login to have the ability to select ” Book an award flight”

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You can see below the difference in price between BA and JetBlue. I’m unsure why this is happening as they are both the same distance

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Using Expertflyer

Expertflyer is a powerful paid subscription service that allows you to search for specific “fare buckets” including award flights. Here you can see that JetBlue ( B6 ) has 7 seats in econ and 7 seats in business class from JFK to CDG on November 9th. I find that EP loads a bit faster than Qatar, and allows you to confirm the space is indeed available.

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What is JetBlue Mint like internationally?

I have yet to fly the new JetBlue Mint, but I would love to sit in one of the first two seats where you basically have a huge studio to yourself and can even have a buddy some dine with you.

Overall

This is a fantastic new redemption for a JetBlue product that a lot of people love and having the ability to transfer points to BA periodically throughout the year from all the major bank currencies ( often with a bonus ) makes this a compelling new redemption domestically and internationally.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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1 Comment

  • Jamar November 7, 2023

    I believe the pricing disparity with BA is because Qatar is pricing BA flights using the price BA would charge directly. BA does this as well for Qatar and Iberia flights, i.e. charging what Qatar/Iberia would directly. It seems like a “feature” of the airlines that share Avios as a currency.

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