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Unless you’ve been avoiding the internet or the water cooler at work, you’ve probably heard that jetBlue just finished running a “12 Days of Christmas” inspired fare sale, with a new sale each day. For reference, here is the calendar, courtesy of /u/dugup46 over on reddit:

Thankfully, today is the last day because man has the JetBlue 12 Days of Christmas been a giant lump of coal in the proverbial stocking!

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  • Day One 12/5: Take off for $20 One Way, Domestic Routes Only
  • Day Two 12/6: Caribbean, Bermuda, Mexico – Fares from $30 One-Way (Select Destinations)
  • Day Three 12/7: Florida, Vegas, California – Fares from $20 One-Way (Select Destinations)
  • Day Four 12/8: Say ‘Hola, Cuba’ – From $54 One-Way
  • Day Five 12/9: Up to 30% off 12 vacation packages (Air + Hotel) Subj to availability, Restrictions apply
  • Day Six 12/10: R&R in the DR & PR – Fares from $32 One-Way (Select Destinations)
  • Day Seven 12/11: 50% Lyft – New customers only. $15 max discount. Terms apply
  • Day Eight 12/12: $50 INT’L Fares (One-Way, select destinations from the U.S.)
  • Day Nine 12/13: Earn 4x Bonus True Blue Points (Register and book today), Travel by 2/28/17
  • Day Ten 12/14: Up to 75% Bonus True Blue Points (When you buy or give 3,000+ points)
  • Day Eleven 12/15: $25 to New York or Boston (One-way, inbound travel only from select destinations)
  • Day Twelve 12/16: Up to 50% Off A Winter Escape (Air + Hotel)

“That sounds like it was great!” you say to yourself. Well, sort of. The fares were usually restricted to one specific flight on a specific day. For example, let’s look at last Saturday’s offer:  $32 fares to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Look at how restricted these fares from JFK to Punta Cana are:

jfk-pujand San Juan to Orlando:

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and Aguadilla to JFK:

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In fact, the only $20 fares were from Saint Croix to San Juan!

This was my biggest gripe with this sale: unless you have a very generous vacation policy (and it allows you to take time off with short notice), this sale didn’t do much for the average consumer. It’s crazy to me that jetBlue thinks that Joe and Jane Average can just pick up and fly to the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico with 1-5 days of notice!

(READ MORE: The truth of the traveler’s triangle – the relationship betwen time, price and location)

So maybe a lump of coal is too harsh—maybe it was more of an ugly sweater from Aunt Mabel: some people are going to be able to make it work, and some are just going to say thanks and move on. If you found a deal that worked for you, awesome! If not, don’t lose too much sleep over it. If you were able to find a great deal, let us know in the comments!


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