United Airlines and JetBlue have quietly ushered in one of the biggest shifts in U.S. air travel in years, and it is not a new route or a flashy merger. Instead, it is a fundamental change in how you search for, pay for, and piece together your trips. Through a partnership known as Blue Sky, the two carriers are rolling out cross-airline booking and shared loyalty features that allow you to earn, redeem, and now even buy flights on either airline from a single website or app. For travelers who are used to juggling multiple tabs, loyalty accounts, and fare calendars, this is a structural change in the booking experience that will only deepen over the next 18 months.
What Just Changed With United and JetBlue
As of mid February 2026, United and JetBlue customers can now book eligible flights operated by either airline directly on United’s or JetBlue’s own digital channels, including websites and mobile apps. That means you can sit on United’s site and buy a JetBlue-operated flight, or open JetBlue’s app and purchase a United itinerary, without going through an online travel agency or switching between airline platforms. You can pay with cash or with your usual loyalty currency, whether that is United MileagePlus miles or JetBlue TrueBlue points.
This step is the second major phase of the Blue Sky collaboration, which the two airlines announced in 2025 as a wide-ranging consumer partnership. The first stage focused on loyalty, allowing members of MileagePlus and TrueBlue to earn and redeem across each other’s networks. Now the focus has moved to the booking engine itself. Practically speaking, this brings the experience closer to what travelers expect from large global alliances, but with a twist: the airlines emphasize that this is an interline and loyalty collaboration rather than a traditional codeshare arrangement.
In the short term, the most visible change for travelers is in the search results. When you look up flights using points or cash on either carrier’s platform, you will now see more options populated by both airlines. Over time, the two companies plan to go further, enabling you to build a single itinerary that includes flights from both airlines in one booking. That functionality is not live yet, but it is explicitly on the roadmap for later in 2026.
How Cross-Booking Actually Works
From a traveler’s point of view, cross-booking is designed to feel almost invisible. You search for flights on United.com or in the United app, and alongside United’s own departures, you now see select JetBlue-operated flights that can be purchased on the spot. The same is true in reverse on JetBlue’s site and app, where eligible United flights appear as bookable options. The idea is to combine the depth of United’s global network with JetBlue’s strength in the Americas and transatlantic leisure markets, without forcing you to leave your preferred digital environment.
When you decide to book, you can check out using cash, MileagePlus miles, or TrueBlue points depending on where you are booking and which account you are logged into. For example, a JetBlue loyalist can log into TrueBlue, search on JetBlue’s site, and redeem points for a United flight to an international destination that JetBlue does not serve. A United frequent flyer can do the opposite, using MileagePlus miles for a JetBlue-operated route to a Caribbean or secondary European city that sits outside United’s own map.
Behind the scenes, the airlines are using an interline arrangement rather than a full codeshare. Each carrier retains its own flight numbers and brands its own services. For you, that means your boarding pass will still show the operating airline’s designator, and airport experiences such as check in and boarding will follow that airline’s rules. But the path to purchase is now shared, and the loyalty currency flows across borders between the two programs.
What It Means for Your Loyalty Points and Miles
The Blue Sky partnership began by linking the United MileagePlus and JetBlue TrueBlue loyalty ecosystems, and that foundation is what makes the current booking changes possible. Since late 2025, members of each program have been able to earn and redeem on the partner airline. TrueBlue members can earn points and redeem them on most United-operated flights, including United Express services across the domestic network and far beyond. MileagePlus members can do the same on a wide range of JetBlue flights, from high frequency routes in the Northeast to leisure-heavy services to the Caribbean and Latin America.
Now that cross-airline booking is live on both carriers’ digital channels, those loyalty benefits are baked more directly into the search experience. When you toggle the option to pay with miles or points, the engine will scan both airlines’ networks for eligible reward seats. Rather than visiting two different sites and manually comparing redemption rates, you can see one combined display of what your currency can buy. For travelers sitting on a large MileagePlus or TrueBlue balance, this effectively enlarges your map without diluting your loyalty.
The partnership is also paving the way for more seamless elite recognition. Later this spring, the two airlines plan to introduce reciprocal perks for status members. That will include benefits such as priority boarding, access to preferred and extra legroom seating when available, and more flexible same day changes and standby rules. In practical terms, a United Premier member should start to see some of their usual treatment reflected on JetBlue flights, and a JetBlue Mosaic member should experience similar recognition on United-operated services, even when booked via the partner’s site.
Changes Coming Next: Itineraries, Perks, and Paisly
What has launched so far is only part of the story. Both airlines have confirmed that a next phase of Blue Sky will allow travelers to create a single itinerary that contains flights from both United and JetBlue in one booking path. Today, you might book a JetBlue domestic leg and a United long haul separately, then worry about connection times, baggage handling, and what happens during irregular operations. The goal for later in 2026 is to stitch those segments together so they function as a cohesive journey, at least from a commercial and customer service perspective.
The spring 2026 timeline also matters for elite flyers. Reciprocal benefits are scheduled to roll out in the coming months, and while details like exact boarding group positions or upgrade policies are still being finalized, the carriers have both highlighted priority boarding, preferred and extra legroom seating, and same day changes and standby as early deliverables. For road warriors who split their time between United hubs and JetBlue focus cities, that kind of cross-recognition could influence which loyalty program they prioritize.
Another key change sits outside pure air travel but still affects how you book. Under the Blue Sky agreement, United is migrating its MileagePlus Travel platform for hotels, rental cars, packages, cruises, activities, and travel insurance onto JetBlue’s Paisly technology. Paisly started as JetBlue’s own vacation packaging arm and has been relaunched as a broader travel services company. For United customers, that means the look and feel of non flight bookings will gradually shift, and over time, some offers and bundles may begin to resemble what JetBlue customers already see when they package flights with ground elements.
How This Affects Day to Day Trip Planning
For most leisure and business travelers, the impact of the United JetBlue partnership will show up not in splashy announcements but in the everyday moment when you search for flights. Instead of opening multiple browser tabs, running the same dates on each airline individually, and then trying to cross match schedules and prices, you can rely on either carrier’s site to surface at least a portion of the other’s network. That could shave time off planning and reduce the temptation to default to online travel agencies that aggregate multiple airlines but sometimes add their own fees and complications.
The integrated search may also lead you to consider airports and routings you might have ignored before. A United flyer based in the Midwest could see more JetBlue options connecting through East Coast gateways toward the Caribbean, while a JetBlue loyalist in Boston might discover new long haul choices operated by United from other hubs, all while staying within a familiar booking interface. That kind of cross pollination could gradually reshape which airlines you naturally think of for certain trips.
On the payment side, having the ability to use either cash or loyalty currency across both networks adds another layer of flexibility. If cash fares spike on your preferred carrier, you may be able to pivot to a partner flight within the same search flow, unlocking a better redemption value or a lower total out of pocket. Conversely, if both carriers show reasonable cash fares, you can conserve points for a later trip that offers better value, rather than feeling locked into a single airline’s award chart and availability quirks.
Key Caveats and Limitations Travelers Should Know
Despite the headline friendly language about changing how you book flights, there are important limitations you should understand. First, not every single route or fare is automatically included in the cross booking display. Both airlines have described the current rollout as covering eligible itineraries, which leaves room for exceptions based on revenue management, technical constraints, or regulatory considerations. You may still find situations where a flight appears on one airline’s site but not yet on the partner’s search results.
Second, multi airline itineraries built under a single confirmation number are not yet an option. The airlines have been clear that the ability to book a single trip that includes flights from both United and JetBlue is a next stage development, not something you can rely on today. Until that feature arrives, travelers who want to combine carriers on one journey will either need to book separate tickets or wait for the interline booking functionality to go live. Separate tickets can leave you with less protection during delays or cancellations, so it is important not to assume Blue Sky has already solved that problem.
Third, while reciprocal loyalty earning and redemptions are in place, the full menu of elite benefits across airlines has not yet launched. If you hold status with one carrier and fly the other in the next few weeks, you should not automatically expect all your usual perks to appear. The promised recognition for priority boarding, preferred and extra legroom seating, and same day flexibility is targeted for spring 2026. Until then, the main cross airline benefit remains the ability to earn and redeem loyalty currency across both networks, rather than a fully harmonized elite experience.
Why This Partnership Matters in the Bigger Airline Landscape
The United JetBlue collaboration is emerging in a U.S. aviation landscape that has been closely scrutinized by regulators and courts. Traditional mergers and deep joint ventures have faced pushback, and JetBlue in particular has experience with high profile partnerships being dismantled after legal challenges. Against that backdrop, Blue Sky is deliberately structured as a looser consumer collaboration built around loyalty, interline connectivity, and technology sharing rather than a full scale alliance with joint pricing and capacity decisions.
From a competitive standpoint, the partnership allows both airlines to extend their reach without physically operating new flights to every market. United gains digital access to JetBlue’s East Coast, Caribbean, and leisure focused routes, while JetBlue taps into United’s global long haul connectivity across the Atlantic and Pacific. For travelers, that can translate to more options and better coverage, especially in cities where one carrier is strong and the other is more of a niche player.
The arrangement also underscores how important loyalty programs and digital storefronts have become to airline strategy. United’s decision to hand non air travel products over to JetBlue’s Paisly platform is a recognition that back end technology and content curation play a central role in how people plan trips. Similarly, the move to surface cross airline options directly on each carrier’s site is a way to keep customers within their own ecosystems, rather than losing them to third party aggregators at the first search.
How to Make the Most of the New Booking Options
For travelers, the best way to capitalize on this shift is to start with a clear view of your own loyalty priorities. If you are heavily invested in MileagePlus or TrueBlue, log into your primary account when you search and watch how the expanded options shape your choices. Pay attention to redemption rates across both airlines’ flights and consider whether your points or miles stretch further on the partner’s routes than they do on your usual carrier. The widened selection can highlight sweet spots you may not have considered when each program lived in its own silo.
It is also worth monitoring how elite recognition evolves once reciprocal benefits go live this spring. If you are a frequent flyer with one airline but often find yourself in the other’s markets, the way those perks are honored in practice could influence where you credit your flights in the future. Keep an eye on your boarding position, seat selection options, and how agents handle same day changes and standby when you are on a partner operated flight booked through the new cross airline channels.
Finally, maintain a degree of caution during this rollout period. As with any large technical integration, there may be quirks, edge cases, or temporary inconsistencies between what each site shows. Before committing to complex itineraries, review fare rules, connection times, and change policies carefully, especially if you are using a mix of cash and loyalty currency. The Blue Sky partnership is reshaping how you book flights, but it is still evolving. Travelers who understand both the benefits and the current boundaries will be best positioned to enjoy the new flexibility without unpleasant surprises.