Huge: Redeem Qatar Airways Avios On JetBlue

For now we’ll mark this as “developing,” but this has the potential to be exciting…

Qatar Airways adds award redemptions on JetBlue

JetBlue and Qatar Airways have had a close partnership for quite some time, including a codeshare agreement. Up until now, there have been no reciprocal redemption opportunities. Fortunately that appears to have just changed. I received an email from Qatar Airways Privilege Club indicating that redemptions on JetBlue are now possible:

Dream of embarking on a sweet escape? You can make your wish come true by spending Avios with our partner, JetBlue.

Simply book your award flight with JetBlue on qatarairways.com or our mobile app. Then you’ll be all set to reach more destinations with your Avios.

Explore many picturesque locations across the United States of America and the Caribbean. You can also enjoy direct flights with JetBlue from the United States of America to London, Paris and Amsterdam.

This is really exciting, as there aren’t currently any major programs that let you redeem on JetBlue (aside from JetBlue’s own TrueBlue program). Both American AAdvantage and Emirates Skywards have discontinued their partnerships with JetBlue, so redemptions are no longer available.

Also keep in mind that it’s possible to move rewards between all the “flavors” of Avios, so this is an opportunity to redeem British Airways Executive Club Avios on JetBlue as well.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club recently greatly improved the value of redeeming on partner airlines. You can find the redemption chart below.

As you can see, this means you can redeem on JetBlue at the following rates (based on one-way distance):

• JetBlue awards covering a distance of up to 650 miles cost 6,000 Avios in economy
• JetBlue awards covering a distance of 651-1,151 miles cost 9,000 Avios in economy
• JetBlue awards covering a distance of 1,152-2,000 miles cost 11,000 Avios in economy
• JetBlue awards covering a distance of 2,001-3,000 miles cost 13,000 Avios in economy or 38,750 Avios in business class (Mint)
• JetBlue awards covering a distance of 3,001-4,000 miles cost 20,750 Avios in economy or 62,000 Avios in business class (Mint)

If you ask me, the two most exciting opportunities here are to fly Mint on a transcon flight for 38,750 Avios one-way, and to Mint on a transatlantic flight for 62,000 Avios one-way. Keep in mind that there are often bonuses from transferable points currencies to British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club, so you can end up paying a lot less than those amounts.

The process of redeeming Avios on JetBlue

As of now, there are still more questions than answers regarding the logistics of redeeming Avios on JetBlue, though I’m working on figuring the details ASAP.

The first thing to note is the rather roundabout booking process for redeeming Qatar Airways Avios on JetBlue. When you go to Qatar Airways’ Avios redemption page and select JetBlue as an airline, you’ll want to select the route, date, class of service, etc., and then you’ll be shown the number of Avios required.

Qatar Airways doesn’t allow these tickets to instantly be booked online, but rather you need to go through a rather convoluted booking process. With this, you’ll submit all your passport details, and then you’ll make a request for the availability. If the request is approved (meaning there’s award space), then the ticket will automatically be put on hold, so that you can finish the ticketing process.

I recently wrote about how to redeem Qatar Airways Avios on RwandAir, and that’s a similar process, so you can read about that for a sense of what to expect. While the process is a bit convoluted, it’s not as bad as it sounds.

The next question is how much award availability Qatar Airways has access to. In the past when JetBlue flights were bookable with partner points, it was based on availability in the following fare classes:

• JetBlue economy awards were available when there was “P” class availability
• JetBlue Mint awards were available when there was “I” class availability

I’d assume that to be the case here as well.

The last question is regarding carrier imposed surcharges. Generally Qatar Airways Privilege Club passes on whatever surcharges an airline would charge directly. JetBlue doesn’t have fuel surcharges on domestic tickets, while the airline has significant fuel surcharges for transatlantic tickets.

For example, a JetBlue Mint ticket from New York to London has $950 in surcharges one-way, while a JetBlue Mint ticket from London to New York has $550 in surcharges one-way. If that’s actually the case with Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios, then I think the real sweet spot here is redeeming for transcon flights in Mint, given the lack of surcharges there.

Bottom line

It’s now possible to redeem Qatar Airways Avios for travel on JetBlue. The award pricing follows the standard partner award chart, so this is a great opportunity to redeem all “flavors” of Avios on JetBlue. The only catch is that there are likely fuel surcharges on transatlantic awards, and also that the booking process is a bit roundabout.

Still, I’d say this has the potential to be a great opportunity, and I’ll report back when I have more firsthand experience with this. If anyone else redeems this way, please report back, as I’m sure others would appreciate the data points.

What do you make of redeeming Qatar Airways Avios on JetBlue?