JetBlue flights are now bookable through Hopper and the Capital One Travel Portal, eliminating a pain point for Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card booking through Capital One.
Hopper, a major U.S. online travel agency, announced that it has signed a distribution deal with jetBlue, meaning all jetBlue flights are available for booking on its platform.
After a major overhaul last year, Capital One Travel now uses Hopper to power its travel portal. Doing so gave it a handful of additional bells and whistles you won't see on other, similar portals like the ability to freeze pricing, automatic refunds when prices drop, and much more.
But the lack of jetBlue fares was a frustrating pain point for many, and this new jetBlue announcement means travelers can use Capital One Venture miles directly on jetBlue flights booked through the Capital One Travel Portal.
The new deal with Hopper and jetBlue will provide access to all of jetBlue's fare categories and the ability to make seat selections pre and post-booking.
Here's an example of a jetBlue flight from Boston (BOS) to London (LHR) available in the Capital One Portal. Each fare class is quoted in cash and in Venture Miles. As you can see, jetBlue's Mint Business Class is also available through the portal.
As always, if you book through the Capital One Portal, you earn 5x Venture Miles on every dollar spent. And if you hold the Capital One Venture X, it also makes jetBlue fares eligible for the annual $300 travel credit.
The news is a huge boon for the Capital One Travel Portal. Until now, jetBlue was the only major airline outside of Southwest (which you cannot book anywhere but through Southwest itself) that you couldn't book through Capital One Travel. Some of the low-cost carriers like Spirit, Sun Country, and Frontier have a mixed bag of availability on Hopper, too.
With jetBlue joining the Hopper and Capital One fray, travelers – especially those based in jetBlue's New York and Boston hubs – have another great option for getting low airfare this year or next.
Capital One's travel portal is available to most cardholders. That list includes the following:
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Credit Card,
- The Capital One Spark Miles for Business, Spark Miles Select, Spark Cash Select, Spark Classic, and Spark Cash Plus
- The Capital One Walmart Rewards Card
- Savor, SavorOne, SavorOne Student, SavorOne for Good Credit Journey
- Quicksilver, QuicksilverOne, Quicksilver for Good Credit, Quicksilver Student, Quicksilver Secured
Venture X cardholders receive an annual $300 credit to use on any booking made in the portal, and it kicks in automatically. That takes a huge chunk out of the $395 annual fee – it makes the card a no-brainer if you plan to spend money on travel each year.
Even without the credit, the Capital One Travel Portal has tons of utility for budget-conscious travelers. The portal uses a “price prediction” tool that will automatically refund you if the price of your flight drops after booking. Plus, if that same system tells you that a flight's price is expected to drop, you can set alerts using the “watch this trip” button and be emailed when it's the best time to book.
Capital One also allows users to “Freeze Your Flight”, meaning you can hold the price of a flight for 14 days for a small fee. So if you see a great jetBlue fare you aren't quite ready to book, you can freeze it and book it at that price within two weeks.
Bottom Line
JetBlue flights are now available in Hopper and the Capital One Travel Portal, eliminating one of the downsides of booking airfare through Capital One's booking platform.
Now, Capital One Venture cardholders can book jetBlue flights directly through the portal or use their Venture miles to cover the cost of their flight.
I have used Capital One’s Travel Portal to book Basic and Blue level flights. You cannot add bags during the booking but I figured I could add them through JetBlue afterwards. What isn’t made clear is that JetBlue will not allow self-management of bookings made through Capital One. In order to add bags or make seat changes, there is a $50 per person fee for JetBlue to take over the booking. There is an additional fee if you are making changes over the phone. These fees on top of the bag and seat fees make booking through Capital One Travel Portal barely worth it, even if you are using points.