JetBlue and United Launch Blue Sky
🔃 Update (Jul 29, 2025) – JetBlue and United today announced they have completed the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) review of their Blue Sky collaboration and are able to proceed to implementation. You can read the press release here.
➡️ Original article (May 29, 2025) – JetBlue and United today announced a new partnership named Blue Sky. The unique collaboration promises to give customers of both airlines even more options to find flights that fit their plans as well as new opportunities to earn and use MileagePlus® miles and TrueBlue points across both airlines. That includes United’s return to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Some aspects of the partnership, which the carriers announced Thursday morning, will begin as early as the fall, although the airlines did not provide exact timing.
The new partnership doesn’t go as far as the former alliance in the Northeast between JetBlue and American Airlines, which was struck down by a federal court two years ago. Last year, a judge blocked JetBlue’s plan to buy struggling budget carrier Spirit. So JetBlue is giving it another go with United.
Blue Sky
Blue Sky is based on the following components:
- Customers can earn and use points from United’s MileagePlus program and JetBlue’s TrueBlue program across both airlines.
- Each airline will offer flights on one another’s website and app to make booking across the two airlines’ complementary networks simple and easy. Blue Sky includes an interline agreement, not a codeshare, meaning each airline will continue to publish and market flights independently under its own brand and flight numbers.
- The benefits of each airline’s loyalty program – priority boarding, complimentary access to preferred and extra legroom seats and same-day standby/switch – will be available when customers travel on the other airline’s aircraft.
- As part of the airlines’ agreement, JetBlue will provide United access to slots at JFK International Airport for up to seven daily round-trip flights out of JFK Terminal 6 to begin as early as 2027. And, as part of a net-neutral exchange, JetBlue and United will exchange eight flight timings at Newark.
- United will move its website and mobile app’s ability to sell hotels, rental cars, cruises and travel insurance, on both a stand-alone and package basis, to new technology and services provided by JetBlue’s Paisly platform.
Reciprocal Benefits
Timing for reciprocal benefits for customers will be announced later this year. Whether customers are flying on United or JetBlue in the future, they will receive benefits in line with what they receive today, including:
- Priority treatment for check-in, boarding, security and baggage
- Access to preferred and extra leg room seats
- Free first checked bag
- Same-day changes and switches
This infographic summarizes some of the benefits customers will enjoy over time. JetBlue and United will share more details about the timing of these features later this year:
More Options
JetBlue offers 90 daily flights between the Northeast and the Caribbean this summer – with regular nonstop direct flights to popular islands like Aruba, Barbados, and Jamaica. The airline operates approximately 180 daily flights out of JFK and 130 daily flights out of Boston’s Logan International Airport (BOS), including to sought-after Florida markets like Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
JetBlue’s focus cities also include Fort Lauderdale, where it operates more international flights than any other airline; San Juan, where it is the largest airline; Orlando, and Los Angeles. Additionally, JetBlue flies to 15 destinations that United does not serve including Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.; Cartagena, Colombia; Kingston, Jamaica; and Ponce, Puerto Rico.
United is the world’s largest airline and its vast network gives TrueBlue members hundreds of additional domestic and international options to use their points – 165 across the U.S., eight in Canada, two in the Caribbean, 31 in Latin America, 27 in Europe, five in Africa, two in the Middle East, 15 in Asia, and 14 in the South Pacific.
