JetBlue Travel Credits are Anti-Consumer

JetBlue's travel credits are anti-consumer due to their restrictive and devaluing nature compared to a cash refund. These limitations lock customers into future business with the airline, effectively removing their purchasing power while allowing JetBlue to hold onto cash for services it did not provide.

Background

When refunding a ticket, JetBlue does not refund with the same currency that was used to purchase the ticket. Instead, JetBlue issues a travel credit which limits what a person can spend their refunded money on keeping it within the JetBlue ecosystem. By issuing travel credits instead of cash refunds, JetBlue coerces future business from customers who may have preferred to take their money to a different airline or travel another way.

Rather than being a true refund, the credit functions as an interest-free loan from the customer to JetBlue or a "donation" with strings attached. This is particularly nefarious as JetBlue's travel credits expire if not spent in a set time period. The gift-card nature of the credit incentivizes an awkward balancing act: either spend more than the credit's value to make up the difference with cash, or risk "breakage" - the industry term for when a customer fails to use the entire value before its expiration date. This encourages overspending to avoid wasting a small balance or, conversely, leaves customers with a nearly-spent balance that is too small to book a new flight and ultimately expires. This dynamic turns the unused portion of a customer's payment into pure, unearned revenue for JetBlue, a practice that shifts all the risk onto the consumer while the airline holds onto cash for services it never rendered.

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