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JetBlue and United Airlines will enter into an exclusive partnership where flyers on both airlines will be able to earn and redeem miles regardless of the airline they’re flying. This arrangement is not a merger or a codeshare, but brings the airlines closer together.
Reuters broke the story this evening that United is the airline that was mentioned during JetBlue’s Q1 2025 earnings call today. Marty St. George, JetBlue’s President, said today:
I need to make sure I reserve my comments based on what we have said publicly. And what we have said is we are looking at and we’re talking to multiple airlines about domestic partnerships. I think we’re getting very close to making announcement, expect to make the announcement this quarter. And as far as the benefits that we expect to offer to our customers, now the most important thing is number one, a significantly higher network opportunity for earn and burn of TrueBlue points, which we think greatly improves utility of TrueBlue.
Today, if you are a customer in the Northeast and you love JetBlue for leisure, but, you know, twice a year, you have to go to Omaha or Boise, these are places that you can’t earn through Blue points on now. And when this partnership goes forward, you will be able to. And the second thing is I’m really excited for just the overall broadening of the network opportunities, you know, not just connectivity, but also just sort of better opportunities for our customers to fly more places with more frequency.”
No mention of elite benefits has been made and really no details have been revealed other than there will be the opportunity to earn and redeem miles across carriers. This partnership will not face the regulatory or legal scrutiny of a merger or an arrangement similar to what American and JetBlue had with its Northeast Alliance.
What the future holds here is anyone’s guess. Will JetBlue join Star Alliance? Is this phase one of a much tighter relationship or an eventual merger? There has to be more to this than just the two offering reciprocal mileage earning as there is no revenue share or money changing hands here. I have to believe that this is the start of something that will blossom into a larger tie-up. According to JetBlue the official announcement is just a few weeks away.
Anthony’s Take: It’s long been speculated that United and JetBlue will enter some sort of arrangement and now it’s one step closer. It seems like there is a lot more to come and I can’t wait to hear all the details.
(Featured Image Credit: United and JetBlue.)
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2 comments
As a United fan I can understand your excitement. For myself as neither loving nor hating United I’m considerably more disturbed. The two domestic airlines that JetBlue absolutely did not need to be involved with are the two that are already too strong in the New York market so handing more market power over what’s largely already a duopoly is simply awful for the flying public as a whole.
As you’ve said, let’s wait to hear the rest but this bodes particularly ill so far. Considering United’s chortling it seems that whatever happens next is exceedingly good for them which worries me as a customer.
Anti competitive