JetBlue has just become the first airline to let passengers Venmo them to pay for plane tickets, but while the new payment method offers a convenient and easy way to buy flights, the question is, would you really want to?
For the timebeing, JetBlue is only offering Venmo payments on its website (how very Millenial, keeping big ticket purchases on a big screen device) but the airline hopes to rollout Venmo payments to its Gen Z approved smart phone app in the coming months.
As well as using your Venmo balance, you’ll also be able to use the Paypal-owned payment system to book plane tickets via linked bank accounts, debit cards, or credit cards, although, we’ll discuss in a moment whether this is actually worth doing.
But first, let’s discuss one of the main advantages of using Venmo to book your plane tickets. If you’re traveling with a group of friends, it can be a real pain chasing everyone for payment and making sure all the costs are split equally.
That’s where Venmo’s Groups feature comes in handy, placing the cost of plane tickets alongside all the other expenses racked up during a trip with friends or family, and not lumping one person with the responsibility of tracking expenses for everyone.
But how about negatives? The main one here is the lack of buyer protection when it comes to Venmo. Yes, the peer-to-peer payment service is owned by Paypal but don’t forget that it doesn’t offer the the buyer protection gauruntees that Paypal does.
Ideally, to properly protect yourself from fraud and give yourself peace of mind in case things go wrong, you want to be using a credit card for any kind of expensive purchase.
And while, Venmo will let you use a linked credit card to complete your payment, going via Venmo will normally invalidate the chargeback protections that major credit cards offer. In other words, don’t use a middle man like Venmo or even Paypal when you’re purchasing something with your credit card.
And of course, don’t forget that many credit cards offer additional perks, especially if you use an airline specific rewards credit card which will let you earn frequent flyer points – something you won’t get with Venmo.
In fact, if you’re traveling in a group, the ability to earn frequent flyer points via a big credit card purchase made on behalf of the whole group, is a good incentive to take on the responsibility of managing the expenses for the trip.
So, yeah, Venmo’s a nice new option to purchase plane tickets with JetBlue but one we’ll be avoiding.
