When you cancel a non-basic economy JetBlue flight, the amount spent on the flight is credited to your JetBlue Travel Bank.
Until now, those funds have been valid for 1 year from the date of the cancellation.
Effective today for new tickets, those funds will now expire 1 year from when you originally booked your flight for voluntary cancellations. That means if you book a flight today for next January, those funds will expire a year from today no matter when you cancel your ticket. You can still book travel for anytime on the schedule, even if it occurs after expiration.
If you purchased your ticket before today, you can still receive a credit valid for a year from the time of cancellation.
It’s a big devaluation, but JetBlue’s policy is better than AA, Delta, and United, as you can still use the funds for anyone, instead of being locked into the original passenger. Though United will sometimes allow travel credit to be converted into an electronic travel certificate which is valid for anyone to use for a year from the issue date.
Of course Southwest funds never expire and Alaska still allows funds to be used by anyone for a year from the cancellation date.
This change comes after JetBlue removed the ability to use Travel Bank funds on award taxes online without warning, though it can be done over the phone if you’re persistent and have enough credit to cover the taxes in full.
What do you think of JetBlue’s latest no warning policy change?
HT: Zach Griff
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18 Comments On "JetBlue Devalues Travel Bank Credits Without Warning"
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Why do you need warning, They didn’t change your existing TB its only for future TB?
It’s nice when companies warn about negative changes in advance, to allow for planning.
Such as if someone wanted to use the AMEX Platinum credit for JetBlue and has been holding off. It wouldn’t have hurt JetBlue to let people know a couple weeks in advance, if anything it would have brought it more revenue in that time period.
JetBlue removed the ability to use Travel Bank funds on award taxes online, but when I booked an award last week which I ended up canceling they didn’t refund the taxes and issued a travel bank credit, isn’t it supposed to work both ways???
If only.
How do I see when my TB expires? Also can I book a new flight with the TB, cancel it and extend the life of the TB?
Login to your JetBlue account and it’s on the drop-down menu.
I doubt that will work.
Jetblue is garbage
Can’t you just rebook and then recancel?
I’d assume it will retain the original expiration date, but let us know if you try.
Doesn’t work for years already. Used to, once upon a time.
What would happen if you cancel the rebooked flight after the original expiration date?
Lose it.
If I change my JetBlue flight on their website to an AA operated flight, will I get the free checked bag benefit from my Barclays aviator red? I’m inclined to think it would since it’s a flight operated by AA. Any DPs?
Maybe they are just in a bad mood over being sued to stop their merger with spirit.
I’m still steaming over the lousy $5.60 credit that I haven’t been able to use twice since getting it. I wasted over an hour on the phone to try and get them to use it on my taxes for award travel ticket, but no luck.
Every time I log on to my jetblue account I see that $5.60 credit just sitting there and laughing at me, knowing I can’t get rid of him.
You’re willing to spend an hour just to possibly benefit $5.60?
Perhaps you’d like to clean my house for Pesach. I’ll pay you $10 an hour.
I just booked almost $7,000 in tickets for my family. Everyone has $30 TB credits but they only allow ONE credit per reservation. Meaning, in order to use the TB for my seven tickets that I’ve been waiting all year to use, I’d need to make 7 SEPARATE reservations, which is asinine when traveling with family. Waited on hold for an hour only to be told that “it’s Jetblue policy” and can’t be overturned. So stupid. But she “graciously” offered to extend the expiration by 2 weeks. Yay.
Any changes to a JetBlue credit received from a damaged baggage?