Want to fly JetBlue across the country, down to the Caribbean, or across the pond – especially in a cozy JetBlue Mint suite? There's a brand-new way to book those flights using miles … from an airline based in the Middle East.
That's right, you can now use miles from Qatar Airways to book JetBlue flights to destinations near and far, including those on the airline's growing transatlantic map. After a two-day blitz of booking JetBlue Mint business class at astonishingly cheap rates (like scoring a lie-flat seat across the country or over to Dublin for just 38,750 miles), Frequent Miler reports that these award rates have shot up.
Yet even after some hefty increases, there are still some decent deals booking JetBlue Mint using Qatar Avios:
- Transcontinental flights in JetBlue Mint are bookable for 74,000 Avios each way
- Whether you fly to London-Heathrow (LHR), Amsterdam (AMS), Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG), or Dublin (DUB), those one-way fares across the Atlantic now clock in at 78,000 Avios
- Quick hops down to the Caribbean islands like Aruba (AUA), in lie-flat seats now start at just 26,000 Avios each way
The two airlines have been partners for years but these partner redemptions came online over the weekend – initially at even cheaper rates. But considering how easy it is to get these miles – you can transfer points directly to Qatar from Citi ThankYou Points and American Express Membership Rewards, with a backdoor way to get them from any other transferrable credit card points via British Airways – this is still a big win.
While finding the award availability to actually book these business class suites with Qatar Avios requires some extra legwork, they're bookable online through Qatar now. Even after some substantial increases this week, it's still one of the best ways to book JetBlue flights – especially compared to JetBlue's relatively lackluster TrueBlue points program.
Since JetBlue's award rates are tied to the cash price, you'll often need a mountain of JetBlue points – especially if you want a one-way flight overseas in JetBlue Mint. That's why a one-way flight from Boston (BOS) to Paris will cost you nearly 170,000 TrueBlue points each way. Ouch.
But you can now book that exact same flight for just 78,000 Qatar Avios and $10 in fees! While that's up from the 62,000-mile rate Qatar was charging earlier this week, it's still less than half the cost.
Plus, Qatar isn't passing on nasty surcharges that add hundreds of dollars to the final tab. You'll pay just $10 or so for a one-way to Europe, while return flights from Europe to the U.S. get hit with a reasonable $140 or more in taxes and fees when booking through Qatar – or closer to $300 flying home from London.
This can still be a great deal, especially with excellent availability to actually book JetBlue Mint over to Europe next year, including peak-summer departures. Even at these higher rates, there's no guarantee this option lasts … so don't wait to book!
Qatar's JetBlue Award Chart
When you're using JetBlue's points, award rates rise and fall with the cash price. That gives you limited options to get outsized value from your points … and one-way redemptions to or from Europe cost a small fortune since most airlines charge far more than half the cost of a roundtrip.
But Qatar Airways has a dedicated award chart for booking partner airline flights, spelling out exactly how many miles you'll need to fly from point A to point B. And the rates are incredibly reasonable – if not a downright steal.
It's a distance-based award chart: The longer the flight, the more miles you'll need. Take a look.
Not sure how long your flight is? Plug the route into GCmap.com!
But after an increase, JetBlue award rates no longer match this chart. After a flood of travelers booking JetBlue Mint suites using Qatar Avios, it seems the airline realized it was simply too good of a deal.
That's because JetBlue Mint is as good as it gets flying domestically and increasingly across the pond too. The airline has introduced new JetBlue Mint suites on its transatlantic routes (and a few flying across the country, too) with privacy doors and direct aisle access from each seat. While the JetBlue Mint seats you'll find on many domestic routes are older, the food, drinks, and service you'll get still put most other major U.S. airlines to shame.
Read our full review of flying JetBlue Mint from Boston to Las Vegas!
Here's a quick breakdown of some go-to routes you might want to book with Qatar Avios and just how many miles it'll cost you.
| Route | Economy rate | Business class rate |
|---|---|---|
| New York - Los Angeles | 18,500 | 74,000 |
| Boston - San Francisco | 18,500 | 74,000 |
| Boston - Dublin | 25,000 | 78,000 |
| Boston - London | 25,000 | 78,000 |
| New York - Dublin | 25,000 | 78,000 |
| New York - London | 25,000 | 78,000 |
| New York - Paris | 25,000 | 78,000 |
| Boston - Amsterdam | 25,000 | 78,000 |
| New York - Aruba | 13,000 | 26,000 |
| Boston - San Juan | 13,000 | 26,000 |
| Boston - St. Maarten | 13,000 | 26,000 |
| New York - St. Lucia | 18,500 | 74,000 |
For example, you can fly from New York City (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), or Seattle (SEA) for 74,000 Qatar Avios each way – up from 38,750 Avios earlier this week, a “too-good-to-be-true” deal. But you can often snag a deal using cash (or JetBlue's own points) on these domestic routes, so this isn't our favorite option on the list.
Transatlantic trips in JetBlue Mint suites can be a bargain, though. Whether you fly to London, Paris, Amsterdam, or hop on the upcoming nonstop from Boston (BOS) or New York City (JFK) to Dublin (DUB) next summer, it'll cost you 78,000 Qatar Avios each way. Sadly, Qatar seemingly eliminated the biggest sweet spot of all: flights from Boston to Dublin previously priced out at just 38,750 miles each way.
But JetBlue also flies these Mint-equipped aircraft down to the Caribbean during the winter. Some flights are longer than others, but you can book several routes to destinations like San Juan (SJU), St. Maarten (SXM), and even as far down as Aruba (AUA) for just 26,000 miles each way.
Finding JetBlue Award Availability with Qatar
Of course, you need to find award availability to actually book at these low rates through Qatar. Otherwise, your search will turn up empty.
You're in luck. It should be easy if you're heading across the pond: @findflightsforme on Instagram first spotted some ridiculously widespread award availability on most transatlantic flights, with seats for seven passengers or more through next summer.
We tipped off our Thrifty Traveler Premium members of this amazing (and amazingly) cheap way to get over to Europe later this year or next using points – before award rates shot up! Factor in a 30% transfer bonus from Citi ThankYou points to Qatar, and you can get across the pond in a lie-flat suite for even fewer points.
If you're starting from scratch to find these JetBlue flights you can book with Qatar Airways, you'll need to know how to find fare classes – namely, the specific fare classes that you can actually book through Qatar Airways:
- In economy, JetBlue fare class P is bookable via partner airlines like Qatar
- In JetBlue Mint, you need to find fare class I to book it via Qatar Airways
Tools like ExpertFlyer and ITA Matrix can make that much easier to find – with ITA Matrix, you can even perform a flexible search to see up to a month's worth of availability. That's where I'd start.
Start by searching for a one-way flight, typing in your route and preferred travel dates, then be sure to select the option to “see calendar of lowest fares” and filter for only nonstop flights. But here's the most important part: Click “Advanced controls” and enter “f bc=I” in the Extension codes field to restrict your search only to JetBlue Mint fares – or “f bc=P” if you want to find JetBlue economy seats instead.
From there, filter the results to only show JetBlue flights.
Any result you see that isn't crossed out (not just those at the lowest prices) should be available to book via Qatar, though it might require a bit of trial and error. Take what you've found and get ready to book.
How to Book JetBlue Flights via Qatar
This is the easy part.
Head to QatarAirways.com and log into your Privilege Club account – or set one up for free, if you haven't already. Qatar now gives you an easy option to search for award tickets straight from the home page, so just click that button and start searching.
But if you haven't used Qatar Avios before, there's a possible hangup:Â Unless you have miles in your account, you cannot search for award seats.
The good news is that you don't need to have the entire amount to book an award just to search. Just transfer 1,000 points from Citi or American Express to your Qatar account to meet that requirement, or skip down to learn other ways to get Qatar miles. You can always transfer the rest of the points you need once you've confirmed the flights you want are available.
Qatar's website can be slow and a bit finicky, but it should show you these JetBlue flights if they're available.
Finish up and book online. It's really that simple.
How to Earn Qatar Avios
You don't need to fly Qatar Airways to earn Avios.
For starters, Qatar is an Amex transfer partner and a Citi transfer partner, too. That means you can transfer points from cards like *amex gold*, *amex platinum*, or *citi premier* straight to your Qatar account. Points transfer on a 1:1 basis, so 74,000 points on any of these cards gets you 74,000 Qatar Avios.
But Qatar is also part of the broader Avios family including airlines like British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and soon even Finnair. And that opens up the unique ability to share miles between all these airlines – something you generally can't do with airline miles, period.
That's huge, as you can also combine Qatar and British Airways, which opens even more avenues to get the miles you need. British Airways is a Chase transfer partner, a Capital One transfer partner, and a Bilt transfer partner, too. That means you can transfer points to British Airways from cards like the *chase sapphire preferred*, *venture x*, or *Bilt Mastercard*, then combine them with Qatar.
And it's incredibly easy to link your British Airways and Qatar Airways accounts to share miles between the two airlines.
After registering with Qatar, you'll get a prompt to link your British Airways Executive Club account. Otherwise, you can link your accounts here.
Simply follow the prompts to link the accounts. It will bring you to a sign-in screen to provide your login details with British Airways and you'll receive a few one-time password codes to your phone or email for verification.
Once your accounts are linked, you'll be able to instantly move Avios between British Airways and Qatar – just follow this link and log into your British Airways account to start the process.
Bottom Line
You can now book JetBlue flights using Qatar Airways Avios … and it might be the best way to score a ride in JetBlue Mint.
After dirt-cheap award rates first came online earlier this week, Qatar has raised prices on all JetBlue redemptions. Still, there are some excellent opportunities to score a ride up in JetBlue's nicest seats for fewer points. Considering how easy Qatar miles are to earn, this is a big win.