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You DO earn Avios flying between the UK and USA on JetBlue – take a look

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There are already lots of ways of earning Avios when flying directly from the UK to the US.

The two obvious routes are with British Airways and American Airlines, who operate a joint venture on US routes.

Few people know that you can also earn Avios when flying United Airlines, as long as you credit your flight to an Aer Lingus AerClub Avios account. You can transfer the Avios across to British Airways afterwards. This article explains how to earn Avios from United Airlines.

We can now confirm that there is a 4th option which is working fine – JetBlue.

JetBlue fights earning Avios

In March 2022, Qatar Airways adopted Avios as its loyalty currency – read more here.

You can link your British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Privilege Club accounts by following the instructions we outlined here.

Qatar Airways had unique airline partners which now earn Avios

Because Qatar Privilege Club has partnerships outside of the oneworld alliance, it means that there are new airlines which can now earn you Avios.

This article discusses the airlines which are Qatar Airways partners and which now earn Avios. These are:

  • Bangkok Airways
  • JetBlue
  • Middle East Airlines
  • RwandAir

JetBlue is a Qatar Airways partner

Whilst JetBlue is a Qatar Airways partner, I wasn’t sure if the new transatlantic flights from London Heathrow and London Gatwick to New York and Boston were included.

After all, American Airlines has a JetBlue partnership too, but you can’t earn miles in American from transatlantic services.

Reader Anto recently flew JetBlue in Business Class from Gatwick to New York and credited the flight to his Qatar Privilege Club account.

These are the Avios he earned:

Yes, Anto earned 8,642 Avios for a return JetBlue flight from London to New York. He didn’t earn status points in Qatar Privilege Club, but 8,000+ Avios was a decent return.

If you are looking for a direct Avios-earning flight from the UK to the USA and want to give JetBlue a try, you can now book with confidence.

HFP-Barclaycard-Avios-Card

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 2023)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

Comments (19)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Phil G says:
    8 Aug8 August 07:04

    We have flown Jetblue many times within the USA and have a good product. Cant be worse than BA can they ?

    • dahokolomoki says:
      8 Aug8 August 08:31

      Is Jetblue within the US the same standard in Business compared to their transatlantic routes?

      • lumma says:
        8 Aug8 August 08:51

        I think the shorter routes are all economy, but the transcontinental routes are very good

  • dahokolomoki says:
    8 Aug8 August 08:31

    This is exciting as I’ve been tempted to fly Jetblue Mint, and their much superior business class product to BA/AA. But balked at not being able to earn avios.

    At least now I can, although TPs will be lost.

    • Robert Brooks says:
      8 Aug8 August 08:52

      I have been looking at JetBlue for London-Boston in May, and it’s over £4,000 return in Mint. Damn crazy prices.

      • Andrew. says:
        8 Aug8 August 09:11

        In mid May? JetBlue prices are very peaky in economy too. About £1200 return when the other regular airlines still have availability at under £400.

        All it takes is one group or school group to block book 100 seats on a smaller airline to skew the prices though.

        • Robert Brooks says:
          8 Aug8 August 09:31

          Yeah Mid May onwards, prices seem to almost double across the board. I haven’t looked at competition yet to see if it’s a common trend, although what would pass as “cheap” these days is definitely subjective I think! 😀

      • dahokolomoki says:
        8 Aug8 August 12:48

        In July, BA/AA was looking to charge £9k for business. So £4k sounds a bargain!

    • dougzz99 says:
      8 Aug8 August 10:29

      Isn’t odd to regard Jetblue as much superior, but then fly BA/AA for a few Avios?

  • Matthew says:
    8 Aug8 August 08:42

    I recently did two internal jetBlue fights in the US and credited them to Qatar but as yet I’ve had nothing. Should this also work? Any ideas who I need to contact to chase this up?

  • Lewis says:
    8 Aug8 August 12:43

    Oh, quite nice to be able to use Avios for Bangkok Airways flights (which are extortionate right now, especially to Koh Samui where they hold a complete monopoly).

  • Jonathan says:
    8 Aug8 August 13:56

    Flew Jet Blue internally in US a couple of weeks ago. Had to change flight and came upon their ‘Travel Bank’ system. Original flight can be refunded, no problem – but the money goes into a ‘Travel Bank’ which they keep. Booked new flight which was cheaper, so money still in Travel Bank. Can’t access it unless paying for a flight, can’t use for checked in bag fees or seat upgrades. Valid for one year.

    • merlin90 says:
      8 Aug8 August 15:54

      This is pretty standard now for US airlines (on non-flexible/refundable fares). American, for example, will let you cancel pretty much any flight for a full refund which then sits in your account as AA credit, rather than being refunded to you as cash. For this reason, if I have a US flight I keep tabs on the cost so that if it goes down, I rebook and pocket the difference in airline credit.

      This isn’t really a problem if you’re a regular flyer on the airline in question but is undoubtedly a bit annoying when you’re based ordinarily in a different country with few, if any, opportunities to use that credit within the next 12 months.

      • BuildBackBetter says:
        8 Aug8 August 20:54

        Can you use that for code share flights marketed by AA?

      • Jonathan says:
        9 Aug9 August 12:38

        Yes I might have to write that off unless another flight is needed. The difficulty with the ‘Travel Bank’ system is that it can only be used for the flight. I have read an article on another site which raises the same point. It would be useful to use it for checked in bags and seat upgrades but you can’t. If you have rebooked a flight and have credit, the natural response is to add extra so that credit is used up – as in bags and seat choice – but you then have to pay for that and the credit stays the same.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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