In case you didn’t know, American Express will no longer issue the co-branded jetBlue credit cards. We predicted this at the end of 2014 and were the first to report that Barclaycard will be replacing American Express as the co-branded partner (this is still yet to be confirmed, but Barclaycard was hiring for a marketing manage for a jetBlue product and we have other information that confirms this).
When you apply for the American Express jetBlue credit card, you will now see a warning that states (emphasis mine):
IMPORTANT! American Express’ agreement with this co-brand partner expires on December 31, 2015. This means that if you apply and receive a card, it may be converted to a different card product around the end of 2015. The timing and terms of the new card product are not yet available. Please consider this as you proceed with your application.
The main news is that this partnership will end on December 31st. What’s also interesting is that American Express also states that this card might be converted to a different product near the end of 2015. The only problem is that American Express doesn’t state whether this will be one of their cards, or the jetBlue card issued by the new card issuing bank. We had a look at what might happen to existing jetBlue card holders in a previous post, here is what we concluded:
The American Express JetBlue card will be converted to the new Barclaycard product. This reasoning follows what I outlined above, but we also have an additional piece of data. Barclaycard had a job posting on Linkedin, the job title was “JetBlue Customer Marketing Barclaycard“. One of the things they would be responsible for is “Create activation strategy for new and converted accounts“. This is a pretty clear indication that Barclaycard will have access to existing American Express cardholders.
I’m still pretty confident in this prediction, but we will see what happens. Unfortunately it looks like we will need to have to wait until the end of 2015/early 2016 before we get to see the new product that will be offered by the new card issuer.
I have about 80K Jet Blue miles. The card offer of 20K isn’t much but if my Wife and I both get the card, it might make sense. I think you can combine miles w/ a family member? My strategy would be to cancel the cards before the end of 2015. We’d have 120K miles and we could apply for the new Barclays card when that is released. We would then have the potential of at least 160K miles. I like the fact that if a seat is available w/ Jet Blue, you can book it w/ miles. What do you think, William?
@DavidNJ: that’s what I thought too…..take advantage of Amex’s once in a lifetime bonus rule and cancel the card before second year annual fee hits to give a room for a card with more perks or sign up bonus.
Is there a reason you haven’t been redeeming the 80k miles you already have? If you get good value out of it, going for it is a good idea. Personally I’d rather focus on other bonuses and hope that Barclaycard has a good product and sign up bonus out of the gate.
The reason I haven’t redeemed the Jet Blue miles is the Southwest companion pass. I always travel w/ my Wife. I accumulated about 170K SW miles in 2014 through two credit card bonuses, Sears, 1800flowers, etc.. My travels have only been domestic and Aruba two times. I just haven’t had the opportunity to use Jet Blue. I do have my eye on their “Mint” product and Barbados. Got the Jet Blue miles with a MR transfer w/ a 20% bonus in December, 2014, just before I closed my Amex gold. I picked up the Amex gold w/ a 50K bonus in December, 2013. I would have kept the card if they didn’t can the 15K bonus w/ 30K spend.
@ Will,
currently have 3 Amex cards. Is that true that the max Amex cards that one could have is limited to 4? With Amex’s policy once in a lifetime sign up bonus eligibility and the end of partnership between Jetblue and Amex, it’s a good idea to apply and get this card while we can before it discontinued on Dec 31, 2015, isn’t it?
The dilemma that I am facing now is since I only can apply 1 Amex card before I cancel my other Amex cards, I am torn between Amex Platinum 100k points after $10k offer (by phone, found out about this from your blog post, thank you!)….or this Jetblue Amex card.
What do you recommend? Appreciate any thought/advice.
It’s true that you can have four credit cards with American Express. The American Express platinum card is a charge card, so you could have that in addition to four other credit cards with American Express. I talk more about the number of credit cards you can have with each card issuer here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/how-many-credit-cards-can-you-have-with-each-credit-card-issuer/
In terms of getting the jetBlue card, that depends on how much you value jetblue points. I personally don’t think the bonus is great, but it’s up to you. I answered this question in a little bit more depth here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/should-you-sign-up-for-american-express-costco-jetblue-credit-cards-before-the-relationship-ends/
Hope that helps, John!
It helps! Thank you so much Will for your response and help! You are very nice and responsive blogger that I know, I will try to support you too as much as I can!
My pleasure, always a good day when I can help out a reader.
Funny, I just asked the EXACT same question on /churning! How exactly did you go about getting the 100K point bonus via phone? Did you just call and say you saw there was a 100K bonus and ask them to match? Any help is greatly appreciated as, based on the Doc’s response, I think I am going to apply for the Platinum & JetBlue, keep JetBlue until Sept/Oct and then cancel before the product change is made. That way I can apply for the Barclays JetBlue card at the beginning of next year.