JetBlue has become the first major airline to accept Venmo as payment.
The company issued a press release on Monday (January 21) announcing that travelers can use Venmo to pay for their flights. Currently, Venmo payments — which use money from either your Venmo balance or bank account — can only be made when buying flights on JetBlue’s website.
Next month, U.S. customers can use Venmo when booking flights on JetBlue’s mobile app. JetBlue is also the first airline to accept Venmo payments for flight bookings.
“We’re continually looking for ways to make it easier to book a JetBlue flight on our website and mobile app,” Carol Clements, chief digital and technology officer at JetBlue, said in a statement. “Adding Venmo offers a seamless payment option for customers who enjoy the ease and convenience of the Venmo platform.”
John Anderson — the senior vice president and general manager of consumer at PayPal, which owns Venmo — also applauded the payment app’s merger with the airline.
“Travel is not just about the destination, but the people you go with and how you share the experience,” he said in a statement shared in the press release. “The added ability to pay with Venmo for flights on JetBlue and manage travel costs during the trip through [Venmo] Groups helps solve the pain points of shared expenses from the time of booking to returning home.”
Venmo Groups is an in-app feature that allows users to track, split, and manage continuing payments with a certain group of people. According to PayPal, “Venmo Groups automatically calculates the individual amounts due based on the overall spend of each person in the group, reducing the need for spreadsheets, multiple apps or mental math to settle up.”
JetBlue is following the trend of businesses who’ve collaborated with Venmo recently. In 2020, CVS announced that customers could make touch-free payments using their PayPal or Venmo QR codes at checkout.
The airline’s merger with Venmo comes days after JetBlue was hit with a $2 million penalty for chronically late flights along the East Coast, and half the money will go to passengers who were delayed.
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