One of the categories of expenses I’m always trying to maximize is our non-bonused spending. It’s easy to find a credit card that gives a bonus for gas stations, supermarkets and restaurants. But it’s much more difficult to find one that’ll provide a bonus for our kennel expenses, lawn service (which is year-round in Florida) and car repair expenses.
I’ll put these charges on a new card if I’m trying to meet a spending requirement or I’ll use a card where I’m trying to hit a spending threshold, like the $15K of spend for a free night with the World of Hyatt Visa. At a minimum, I’ll use a card that earns either 2% cash back or the Freedom Unlimited which earns 1.5X Ultimate Rewards per dollar (that I can transfer to Hyatt.)
However, I’m always on the lookout for an offer that will provide a greater return on non-bonused spending and I just received an offer for both of our JetBlue Plus cards from Barclays.
Assuming I use the card for only non-bonused spending, I’ll earn 1 point per dollar. If I spend $500 per month, I’ll get an additional 1,500 points for the three months plus 1,000 bonus points.
For spending $1,500 I’ll earn.
- 1500 base points
- 1500 bonus points (500 points x 3 months)
- 1000 kicker bonus points
This means I’ll get 4,000 JetBlue True points for spending $1,500.
For our recent travels, I’ve redeemed JetBlue points for approximately 1.4 CPP. That values 4,000 points at $56.
$56 for $1,500 in spending is a 3.7% return.
Is that a good value or not? It depends on what returns you’re getting with your other cards. If you’re getting 2% with a cashback card or 1 point per dollar with a Hyatt card, maybe not. But if you can get 1.5X Ultimate Rewards with Freedom Unlimited and transfer points to Hyatt to get 2.8 CPP on a free night, it’s better to go that path for a 4.3% return.
If you’re not like me and don’t care about things like this and you fly with JetBlue on a regular basis, then sign up for the offer if you’re targeted and enjoy the extra points.
It might not be the best offer ever but a 3.7% return for no work is a fair deal.
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