With summer travel season just around the corner, millions of Americans are already gearing up to get on the road. Travelers are taking to AI to skip most of the hard part: planning.
United Airlines and JetBlue Airways on Thursday announced a new partnership that gives customers the ability to earn and use loyalty program points and miles across the two airlines.
The carriers touted the partnership, dubbed Blue Sky, as a move that “gives customers of both carriers even more options to find flights that fit their plans as well as new opportunities to earn and use Mileage Plus miles and TrueBlue points across both airlines.”
A United Airlines jet lands at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)
United and JetBlue will make their flights available on each other’s respective booking platforms as part of the Blue Sky collaboration, the airlines said.
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When traveling, customers who belong to United’s loyalty program, MileagePlus, will be able to accrue and use miles on “most” JetBlue flights, with JetBlue’s loyalty program members getting the ability to do the same with their TrueBlue points for flights on United’s “extensive domestic and international network,” according to the carriers.
United and JetBlue said customers will also be able to cash in on the benefits of the loyalty program they belong to when taking flights on the other airline.
A JetBlue Airbus A320 takes off from Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. (AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images / Getty Images)
The airlines said their loyalty program members “will find similar benefits over time — as well as reciprocal revenue-based miles and points accrual and reciprocal miles and points redemption —∏ when they use and earn miles or points on the partner airline.”
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United will also “move its website and mobile app’s ability to sell hotels, rental cars, cruises and travel insurance, one both a stand-alone and package basis, to new technology and services provided by JetBlue’s Paisly platform,” the carriers said.
Through Blue Sky, United will also get to use JetBlue’s slots at John F. Kennedy International Airport for “up to” seven daily round-trip flights starting “as early as 2027,” United and JetBlue said.
That will mark a return to JFK for United. The carrier last offered some flights from the airport between 2021 and 2022.
Exterior view of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Nov. 19, 2023. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
JetBlue and United will also “exchange” eight flight timings at Newark Liberty International Airport, according to the carriers.
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United and JetBlue said customers can expect some parts of Blue Sky to go live “starting as early as this fall, subject to regulatory review.”
They will still “manage and price” their networks independently, they said.
JetBlue saw nearly 40.5 million revenue passengers in 2024, according to its annual report. Meanwhile, United reported about 173.6 million.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UAL | UNITED AIRLINES HOLDINGS INC. | 78.57 | +1.07 | +1.38% |
| JBLU | JETBLUE AIRWAYS CORP. | 5.06 | -0.16 | -3.07% |
