JetBlue lets you pay with points, dollars, or a mix of both
JetBlue awards travel is calculated at a fixed conversion rate of 1.2 cents per point. You're not going to find amazing deals for awards travel that are any different from deals available with dollars. This is different from some airlines like American which can have awards tickets with a very low number of miles relative to the dollar price of the ticket.
When you pay with points on JetBlue, you get a slider on the checkout page where you can choose from a range of points. This is helpful if you don't have the total number of points required for the whole ticket or you are saving up points for another trip. But paying with points and dollars makes your points worth 25% less even if you pay mostly in points.
This may seem like a small difference when paying mostly in dollars, but you can see in the example below that when you pay almost all in points, you get a terrible value on the dollars you pay relative to the points you save.
You will always maximize the value of your points by not combining points and dollars. This table below is an example from one specific flight, but the formula is always the same. Note that there will always be a $5.60 fee when you pay only with points because of taxes that cannot be paid with points.
| Points | +Dollars | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 82,200 | +$5.60 | For a $987 ticket, 82,200 points works out to 1.2 cents per point. That is always the conversion on awards tickets paid only with points. |
| 81,900 | +$250.00 | This is the worst deal ever. You pay $244.40 more to use 300 fewer points. That works out to you paying 81.5 cents per point. That's 68x the amount you should pay per point! You should get at least 20,000 points value from $244. |
| 69,800 | +$358.40 | You are getting 0.9 cents per point instead of 1.2 would you get if you paid completely with points. |
| 50,200 | +$535.00 | As you pay with fewer points, the overall value looks less bad, but it's still 25% lower value per point. |
| 30,000 | +$716.20 | 25% lower value per point. Save your points for an entire ticket. |
| 20,100 | +$806.20 | 25% lower value per point. Save your points for an entire ticket. |
| 10,000 | +$897.10 | 25% lower value per point. Save your points for an entire ticket. |
| 500 | +$982.60 | Do you really need to use up 500 points save $4.40? |
| 0 | $987 | Pay with dollars if you have them. Save up your points until you can pay for an entire ticket with points. |
