JetBlue and United Announce Blue Sky: Unique Consumer Collaboration That Links Loyalty Programs
MileagePlus customers can earn and use miles on
Benefits of each airline's loyalty program like priority boarding, complimentary access to preferred and extra legroom seats, and same-day standby/switch will be available across both airlines
Airlines will also offer flights on one another's website and app to make booking simple and easy
United will move some of its holiday and travel services to
Blue Sky includes the following components, with some starting as early as this fall, subject to regulatory review:
- United's MileagePlus customers can earn and use miles on most
JetBlue flights.JetBlue offers 90 daily flights between the Northeast and theCaribbean this summer – with regular nonstop direct flights to popular islands likeAruba ,Barbados , andJamaica .JetBlue's TrueBlue members can earn and use points for flights on United's extensive domestic and international network, the largest across theAtlantic and Pacific that includes popular destinations likeCape Town and Tahiti. - Each airline will offer flights on one another's website and app to make booking across the two airlines' complementary networks simple and easy. Blue Sky includes an interline agreement, not a codeshare, meaning each airline will continue to publish and market flights independently under its own brand and flight numbers.
- The benefits of each airline's loyalty program - priority boarding, complimentary access to preferred and extra legroom seats and same-day standby/switch - will be available when customers travel on the other airline's aircraft.
- As part of the airlines' agreement, JetBlue will provide United access to slots at JFK International Airport for up to seven daily round-trip flights out of
JFK Terminal 6 to begin as early as 2027. And, as part of a net-neutral exchange,JetBlue and United will exchange eight flight timings atNewark . - United will move its website and mobile app's ability to sell hotels, rental cars, cruises and travel insurance, on both a stand-alone and package basis, to new technology and services provided by JetBlue's Paisly platform.
"This collaboration with United is a bold step forward for the industry — one that brings together two customer-focused airlines to deliver more choices for travelers and value across our networks," said
"Blue Sky reflects our airlines' shared focus on innovation and the customer experience," said United CEO
Two Award-Winning Loyalty Programs
As part of Blue Sky, members of each airline's loyalty program will find similar benefits over time - as well as reciprocal revenue-based miles and points accrual and reciprocal miles and points redemption - when they use and earn miles or points on the partner airline.
Timing for reciprocal benefits for customers will be announced later this year. Whether customers are flying on United or
- Priority treatment for check-in, boarding, security and baggage
- Access to preferred and extra leg room seats
- Free first checked bag
- Same-day changes and switches
This infographic summarizes some of the benefits customers will enjoy over time*.
TrueBlue,
- Free to join, free to earn points and with points that never expire – for all customers;
-
JetBlue allows loyalty members to pool their points into a joint account, bringing family and friends closer with this feature; - No blackout dates for award seats – JetBlue offers last-seat availability with points, even for its Mint premium experience;
- The ability for customers to unlock benefits after just a few flights with Perks You Pick®
MileagePlus was recently rated the world's best airline loyalty program and includes the following features:
- Free to join, for all customers;
- Miles never expire;
- No blackout dates for award seats – if there's a seat open you can buy it with miles;
- Just about anything you can pay for with cash at United, you can buy with miles (seats, wifi, snacks, etc.);
- United allows members to pool their miles with family and friends into a joint account;
- And membership includes free access to United's new Starlink internet service - in 2024, United signed the industry's largest agreement of its kind with
SpaceX to bring Starlink to its fleet. The onboard internet service features the same high-speed, low-latency internet service in the air that people enjoy on the ground.
MileagePlus members took more than 42 million reward flights between 2020 and 2024; and over the last year, close to 40,000 United seats per day were filled by MileagePlus customers using their miles – that's the same as filling about 128 Boeing 777 aircraft. During last year's November and December holidays alone, almost two million MileagePlus customers flew on award tickets.
United Customers Benefit From More Options in
JetBlue Loyalty Members Gain Access to a
United is the world's largest airline and its vast network gives TrueBlue members hundreds of additional domestic and international options to use their points - 165 across the
Additional Blue Sky Benefits
- In a move that will make planning and booking travel and holiday packages easier for United's customers and MileagePlus members, United and
JetBlue also announced today that United will move its website and mobile app's ability to sell hotels, rental cars, cruises and travel insurance toJetBlue's Paisly platform.
Today, United customers are sent to different services known asUnited Hotels , United Cars,United Cruises and United Packages® to book hotels, rental cars, cruises and holiday packages. This move will streamline these services and put them all on united.com and the airline's mobile app, powered by the Paisly tech stack, and leveraging Paisly's proven, human-first model and advanced technology to its leisure travel customers.
Unlike most airline ancillary travel platforms that rely heavily on automation and third-party services, Paisly has invested in developing every part of its service in-house. From hotel contracting and holiday curation to marketing and customer care, Paisly operates a fully integrated white-glove service model with increasing personalized offers and messaging, including customer care, and loyalty earning and redemption. Its standout feature, the "Helpful Humans" – a dedicated, highly trained customer service team – sets it apart in an industry known for impersonal, transactional experiences. - Additionally, business travelers and their employers will see benefits from the collaboration as well. While United and JetBlue will continue to manage their commercial relationship independently, both airlines may extend the terms of parts of their corporate programs to the flights operated by the other airline. This includes the discounts each airline has independently negotiated.
- Finally, JetBlue is expected to be the first partner airline to deploy and syndicate the technology Kinective MediaSM by
has built to connect airline customers to personalized, real-time advertising, content, experiences and offers from leading advertising brands. The Kinective Media technology platform, launched inUnited Airlines June 2024 , is a global first traveler media network that uses insights from travel behaviors to enable marketers to deliver relevant messaging to audiences across various touchpoints in the journey, and beyond. Kinective Media's focus is on premium brand relationships across key verticals such as retail, luxury goods, financial services, automotive, media & entertainment and travel, and the collaboration will bring those capabilities to highly engaged audiences acrossJetBlue's digital channels.
*Benefits subject to change.
United's Forward-Looking Statements and Other Important Information
This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements that are not statements of historical facts are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on historical performance and current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about our future financial results, goals, plans, commitments, strategies and objectives and involve inherent risks, assumptions and uncertainties, known or unknown, including internal or external factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, that are difficult to predict, may be beyond our control and could cause our future financial results, goals, plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the statements. These risks, assumptions, uncertainties and other factors include, among others, the parties' ability to satisfy certain closing conditions, that the proposed transaction will close on the terms or within the time frame described in this document and any delay or inability of
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