- JetBlue TrueBlue started charging carrier-imposed surcharges on United award redemptions, mainly for international flights; domestic awards are unaffected. - Example costs: Newark (EWR) to London (LHR) 40,000 points now $265.60; San Francisco (SFO) to Hong Kong (HKG) 55,000 points now $205.60, i.e., $200-$260 one-way surcharges. - This could set a precedent as United tightens control over partner pricing; potential implications for other partner awards and overall loyalty strategy.

JetBlue TrueBlue Adds Surcharges On United Awards, Setting Bad Precedent In light of increased oil prices, we’ve seen airlines increase checked bag fees, and we’ve also seen them increase carrier imposed surcharges on many tickets. However, here’s a precedent that I especially don’t love, and I can’t help but wonder what the bigger implications are, in light of United’s overall loyalty strategy. JetBlue adds fuel surcharges on United awards JetBlue and United have the Blue Sky partnership, as it’s called, and that’s progressively being rolled out over time. In late 2025, we saw the two airlines introduce reciprocal points redemptions. While I wouldn’t say that redemptions ever represented a great deal, we’ve just seen a significantly negative change — JetBlue TrueBlue has just added carrier imposed surcharges for travel on United. This doesn’t apply on domestic flights (which don’t generally have carrier imposed surcharges), so it’s mainly international flights that are impacted. For example, a one-way economy award from Newark (EWR) to London (LHR) costs 40,000 points, but will now cost you $265.60, rather than the $5.60 you would’ve paid before. Meanwhile a one-way economy award from San Francisco (SFO) to Hong Kong (HKG) costs 55,000 points, but will now cost you $205.60, rather than the $5.60 you would’ve paid before. So as you can see, long haul awards now have carri...