Usually when you hear the words “frequent flyer program changing”, more often than not, it is bad news for members of that frequent flyer program. For example, in the past two years Delta, United and Hilton all announced changes to their respective loyalty programs and those changes were absolutely awful for members. However, I’m happy to report the changes made to JetBlue’s TrueBlue program are small but positive enhancements to their loyalty program.

JetBlue announced that redemptions for award flights now will start at 3,500 points for a oneway flight instead of 5,000 as it was previously. If you recall at JetBlue, the amount of points required for a flight is distinctly linked to the price of the flight. Generally, the average value per point on a redemption is 1.3 cents to 1.7 cents (Wandering Aramean has some good data on this) and with this lower floor to redeem, you should be able to achieve at 1.5 cents per point in value on award flights, especially on international flights.

JetBlue lists a few possible redemptions at 3,500 points (all one way) on their website including New York to Bermuda, New York to Jacksonville, Washington DC to Nassau, Bahamas among others. This isn’t the biggest change in the world at JetBlue but it is certainly great news for members.