Emirates Skywards Cuts JetBlue Mint Awards

One useful award redemption option has been discontinued.

You can no longer redeem Emirates miles for JetBlue Mint

As part of the partnership between the two airlines, you can earn and redeem points. One of the best opportunities was to redeem the Skywards miles for travel in the excellent business class of the airline.

• Emirates Skywards is transfer partners with all major transferable points currencies, so these miles are easy to come by
• Emirates Skywards had great award availability in JetBlue Mint, as availability lined up with “I” class inventory
• Award pricing was quite attractive — for example, you could redeem 64,000 Skywards miles for a one-way Mint ticket between New York and London

Even though the website hasn't been updated, this isn't possible anymore, as of June 22, 2022. Mint tickets are not bookable with the Economy Awards.

That isn't a good thing. The ability to redeem miles for travel in business class and first class is useful, but the ability to redeem for JetBlue Mint was the most valuable.

Why would JetBlue Mint redemptions be cut off?

The access to JetBlue Mint redemptions would no longer be granted by the airline. I think it is safe to say that this was Skywards most popular partner redemption.

• It’s possible that Emirates Skywards no longer wanted to spend the money reimbursing JetBlue for these tickets, as the program decided these redemptions were more costly than people redeeming for travel on Emirates
• It’s possible that JetBlue decided that it no longer wanted so many Mint seats being booked through Emirates Skywards, and that the reciprocal frequent flyer redemption agreement was becoming too one-sided, with Skywards members benefiting more

I think it's more likely that JetBlue is behind the change as they probably didn't want so many seats being booked through a partner. Many of its partners have had their first class awards cut off by the company.

There is still access to award tickets for American AAdvantage. However, it's still possible.

• It’s not possible to redeem AAdvantage miles for travel on JetBlue to & from Europe
• Redemption rates through American AAdvantage are higher than through Emirates Skywards
• American & JetBlue have a much closer and more significant partnership than JetBlue & Emirates

Bottom line

It's no longer possible to redeem Skywards miles for travel. I suppose it was not surprising that this was cut off. Economy awards can still be a good deal.

Did you redeem your miles for travel on the airline?

The tip was given to Henry.