JetBlue Talking To “Multiple Airlines” About New Partnership

A JetBlue executive has just made some interesting comments about the carrier pursuing partnerships. I don’t think there’s anything earth shattering here, but it’s still interesting to hear it directly from someone at the airline.

JetBlue aggressively pursuing airline partnerships

During a Barclays industry conference, JetBlue President Marty St. George revealed that the company is talking with “multiple airlines” about a potential partnership. As he explained, “if we find a deal that’s accretive, we’ll absolutely do it.”

A large motivation for such a partnership is also the positive impact it would have on the loyalty program, increasing the ability for TrueBlue members to earn and redeem points on more airlines. In recent times, JetBlue executives have definitely realized that the company has quite a bit of upside with its loyalty program. As St. George explained, “given that we really don’t have full global earn and burn, I think to be able to add that to our network would be very, very helpful.”

JetBlue doesn’t belong to any major alliance, but perhaps the carrier’s most significant partnership has been with American, where the two companies launched a Northeast Alliance back in 2021. The idea was that JetBlue would provide feed for American’s international network out of New York, strengthening both airlines.

A judge ultimately ended up blocking the arrangement, arguing it was anticompetitive. That’s not to say that a slightly scaled back version of the partnership couldn’t work, but rather the issue was how deep the partnership was, with the airlines coordinating slots, etc.

JetBlue also has some foreign airline partners, with arrangements ranging from reciprocal loyalty collaborations (like with Qatar Airways and TAP Air Portugal), to a simple interline agreement (with a countless number of airlines).

What partnerships would make sense for JetBlue?

Of course it’s possible that JetBlue continues to work on partnerships with foreign airlines. However, those are only going to be so valuable, and won’t really be a game changer for the airline, or for the frequent flyer program. The fact that St. George talked about wanting “full global earn and burn” suggests to me that he’s hoping to partner with a US airline.

It’s a given that a Delta partnership just wouldn’t make sense. The two airlines compete directly in both Boston and New York, so they’re not really complements.

I can see merit to resuming a partnership with American. That shouldn’t cause any regulatory issues, as long as it’s not as close as last time, where the airlines did a lot more behind the scenes coordinating than most consumers realized.

A simple codeshare partnership with frequent flyer reciprocity could go a long way for both airlines, helping JetBlue fill seats and boost its loyalty program, while helping American fill seats out of New York and elsewhere.

A JetBlue partnership with United is an interesting concept, but I struggle to see how it would work in practice. We know that United desperately wants to return to New York (JFK), but a simple partnership wouldn’t help the airline do that, and anything beyond that would have to clear some sort of antitrust hurdle.

For that matter, JetBlue’s core strength is New York and Boston, so it’s not like the airline wants to scale back its network there, and let in a competitor, even if there’s a partnership.

One would also think that there would be merit to JetBlue joining one of the major global alliances. Could we maybe see JetBlue join either oneworld or Star Alliance?

It seems like oneworld would make sense, in the same way that Alaska also belongs to the alliance, and it’s mutually beneficial. Meanwhile I could see logic to Star Alliance as well, though I still can’t quite figure out how United could get something out of this in a way that wouldn’t cause regulatory issues. I mean, if nothing else, lots of Star Alliance airlines fly to New York (JFK), and JetBlue has a lot of room to add value there.

Anyway, obviously JetBlue is hoping for something major on the partnership front. I think it’ll happen sooner or later, but only time will tell what it looks like.

Bottom line

JetBlue President Marty St. George once again went on the record to state that the airline is talking to multiple airlines about a possible partnership, and the goal is to be able to offer full global earn and burn with the frequent flyer program.

This is all a great goal, and I do think something will eventually be worked out. JetBlue is one of the biggest competitors to Delta in both New York and Boston, and surely there’s a way JetBlue could work with either American or United for the common good of the airlines, plus to give consumers more choice.

With JetBlue talking to multiple airlines about partnerships, how do you see this playing out?