JetBlue Virgin Elevate Match Is Amazing
Yesterday I wrote about what amounts to one of the better deals of the year. In fact, I think my original post, which was written when I was still waking up for the day, wasn’t enthusiastic enough. The greatness of the deal simply hadn’t sunk in yet. Now it has.
In case you missed it, JetBlue will more than match your balance of Virgin America Elevate points. Why is this good? Because 50,001 Elevate points become 75,000 TrueBlue points. Yes, you get to keep your 50,001 Elevate points too. The one down side is you do need to fly a roundtrip JetBlue flight, but that is cheap enough for most. I urge you to visit my original post for terms.
Transferring Points Works Too
If you don’t have any Virgin America Elevate points then don’t worry. That is because you can transfer points in from another program. Specifically:
- 100K ThankYou or Membership Rewards = 50K Virgin Elevate
- 40K Starwood Starpoints = 50K Virgin Elevate
ThankYou, Membership Rewards or Starpoints?
If you have enough of each of these currencies (which I do), then you must look at the overall value of the transfer. For ThankYou and Membership Rewards, you are getting 125K fairly valuable points for 100K fairly valuable points. Probably still a good deal, but not as good.
The real killer part of this deal is SPG Starpoints. For only 40K Starpoints you end up with 125K combined TrueBlue and Elevate points. JetBlue points are generally worth 1.7 cents each and Virgin points are generally worth 2.2 cents each, so the overall value of those 125K are $2,375. That is a value of about 6 cents per Starpoint!
Timeframe for SPG Transfers to Virgin America
Yesterday I looked at my SPG points balance and ultimately decided to transfer over 40K points. It took about 15 hours for the points to post. I then emailed JetBlue and have yet to hear back, but given that it is the weekend and given the popularity of this deal, I expect it to take awhile. The good news is that transfers are taking less than a day so you should be able to get in before the deal’s expiration date.
Conclusion
This is a deal that just keeps looking better every time I think about it. Now that I have had a day to look at it, I am contemplating spending another 40K Starpoints to do get my wife’s account matched as well. While I like to keep a stash of Starpoints, I fear the value we will get for them when converted to Marriott Rewards will be terrible and to be honest 6 cents per points is amazing!
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Shawn, other than the points.com, how do i transfer points?
When they say by 7/4, does that mean I can send a screenshot on 7/4 and still be eligible? Or do I need to send a screenshot on 7/3?
My understanding is that you need to send it in by today.
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So I have been contemplating this all day and have yet to pull the trigger on transferring SPG points and booking a $200 ticket to Cali or Anchorage.. I am in Portland so JetBlue and Virgin flight redemptions are a bit limited. Though the miles are really tempting, when I look at the point redemption options, it seems like JetBlue and VA cost quite a bit point wise so I am really wondering if it is worth it. Has anyone else looked at this?
I’m in WA so I’m banking on the speculative talk about Virgin Elevate points possibly doubling into Alaska Airlines Miles as SEATAC is the Alaska Hub. The JetBlue points are just an added bonus and could be used for all sorts of awesome Caribbean vacations and/or flights on one of their many partners.
As for the SPG points transfer – I transferred over my points yesterday morning 6/28 at 10am and they were in my Virgin Elevate account when I woke up this morning! I didn’t have quite enough to get to 50,001 so I also had to transfer over about 22k ThankYou points and finally topped it off with 200 MR points. Both the ThankYou points and MR points posted within a few hours. This is an awesome deal! Now, if only the flights I have my eye on stay at their current price until I can book them, that would be even better. My last question would be if we can book JetBlue flights with ultimate rewards points and if they will count towards the requirement of the promo?
Have you received confirmation on your match? I think JetBlue is slowing down or may be having cold feet to continue matching.
Still waiting.
You are good!