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JetBlue recently announced several new alliances and partnerships — including an expanded partnership with Qatar Airways. The airlines already had a codeshare agreement in place, but this relationship is expanding to now include reciprocal mileage earning. Here are the latest developments.
History of JetBlue and Qatar Airways Partnership
April 2021: Codeshare Agreements
The relationship between JetBlue and Qatar Airways actually dates back to 2011, but it wasn't much at that time. In April 2021, the airlines announced codeshare agreements. In this new form, you could book Qatar-operated flights with a B6 (JetBlue) flight number between Doha (DOH) and the following airports:
- Boston (BOS)
- Chicago (ORD)
- Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW)
- Atlanta (ATL)
- Houston (IAH)
- Miami (MIA)
- New York (JFK)
- Philadelphia (PHL)
- Washington, D.C. (IAD)
The codeshare goes beyond markets served by JetBlue (namely, North America). You can book Qatar Airways-operated flights with a B6 flight number between Doha and the following airports not served by JetBlue at all:
- Amman, Jordan (AMM)
- Entebbe, Uganda (EBB)
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KUL)
- Male, Maldives (MLE)
- Muscat, Oman (MCT) &
- Salalah, Oman (SLL)
- Singapore (SIN)
- Victoria, Seychelles (SEZ)
This provides connectivity from North America to the Middle East, Africa, and Asia on flights operated by Qatar Airways but with JetBlue flight numbers. This may not be very advantageous in terms of knowing who to talk to when your flight is delayed, but it definitely provides ease for JetBlue flyers wanting JetBlue flight numbers on their itineraries and JetBlue mileage earnings.
December 2021: Reciprocal Mileage Earning
The next chapter is upon us. JetBlue and Qatar Airways have published details on reciprocal mileage earning. For those unfamiliar with the term, this means that we now know how many miles we can earn in frequent flyer account A when flying on airline B in the partnership.
Here is the earning chart for Qatar Airways Qmiles when flying on JetBlue:
Here is the earning chart for JetBlue miles when flying on Qatar Airways flights:
Both charts list the applicable fare codes and then mileage earning as a percent of distance flown.
TBD in the Future: Partner Award Redemptions
We don't know when the next (and most exciting) chapter will take place. It's still unknown when you will be able to redeem your JetBlue frequent flyer points for Qatar Airways flights or vice versa.
However, once this happens, this will provide even more options for award redemptions in both programs. Savvy travelers who have transferrable currencies will be able to decide which program offers the best redemption value and book accordingly — rather than fully committing to either program.
For redemptions, you can transfer points to JetBlue TrueBlue from the following programs:
- American Express Membership Rewards
- Brex Rewards
- Capital One Venture Miles
- Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Citi ThankYou Points
And these are the transfer partners that transfer to Qatar Airways Privilege Club:
- Citi ThankYou Points
- Marriott Bonvoy points
All transfers to both programs are at 1:1 ratios, except Marriott Bonvoy points. These transfer at a 3:1 ratio to Qatar — plus a bonus of 5,000 miles for each 60,000 Marriott points you send during the transfer.
Read more: Transfer Marriott Bonvoy Points to 40+ Airline Partners and Get up to 25% Bonus Miles
Our Take
JetBlue continues to expand its partnerships, and Qatar Airways is just the latest. JetBlue formed the Northeast Alliance with American Airlines, which you can read about here. On the Qatari side, this is its third airline partner in the U.S., adding to existing partnerships the airline has with American Airlines and Alaska Airlines — who are members of the Oneworld Alliance along with Qatar.
After several months of codeshare availability, we now have published rates for mileage earning on partner flights. Up next: partner award redemptions, but we don't know when that will go live.
Are you excited about this partnership? Does it offer anything to your travel plans?
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Reciprocal mileage is always a good thing and now you get can it using Qatar airways the best businessclass in the sky
Generally speaking, this should be a good thing. Let’s hope. At a minimum it “shouldn’t” be bad.