Consumer complaint received 2026-06-18 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: VT

Complaint narrative:
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Complaint Company : Barclays Bank Delaware Issue : Failure to honor advertised credit card promotional offer I am filing a complaint regarding Barclays ' refusal to honor a {$400.00} statement credit promotion associated with a JetBlue credit card issued by Barclays. I applied for the JetBlue credit card after being presented with an offer that included ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX points after meeting a spending requirement and ( XXXX ) a {$400.00} statement credit after a first JetBlue.com purchase within the first 90 days. The promotional materials available to me online once I got the card stated : " Earn a {$400.00} statement credit after your first jetblue.com purchase '' and, when I clicked on " learn more '' the message read " You will earn a {$400.00} statement credit after your first jetblue.com XXXX XXXX within the first 90 days after account open date. '' The promotional language did not state that the purchase had to be airfare, a flight, or a JetBlue-operated flight. Nor did it state that hotel reservations initiated through JetBlue.com would be excluded. In reliance on this promotion, I went to JetBlue.com and selected the Hotels option directly from the JetBlue Homepage of on its website. This directed me to XXXX XXXX, a JetBlue-branded travel booking service. XXXX is JetBlue 's loyalty program, and the XXXX XXXX site prominently uses JetBlue branding, including a 2026 Jetblue Copyright at the bottom of the page. At no point was I told that I was leaving JetBlue 's site. I booked a hotel reservation through that process. When the {$400.00} statement credit did not appear, I conta cted Barclay 's. TheBarclays agent informed me that the transaction did not qualify because it was processed under a merchant designation associated with XXXX XXXX rather than " jetblue.com. '' In other words, Barclays denied the credit based on internal transaction coding that is invisible to consumers.He suggested I call Jetblue because Barclay 's did not have the power to change the coding and so couldn't give me the benefit. The Jetblue agent directed me to XXXX XXXX. During XXXX separate conversations, representatives from XXXX XXXX advised me that bookings made through XXXX XXXX were the same as bookings made through JetBlue. They were quite sure that an offer for bookings through Jetblue.com would apply to XXXX XXXX. In fact, in my first email from XXXX XXXX, the representative ( incorrectly ) said that the purchase would have been coded as jetblue.com so I would need to go to Barclays ' for help. This is how confusing this is. At no point did those representatives indicate that hotel reservations were excluded from Barclay 's promotion. After the second XXXX XXXX representative escalated the case, I heard back from XXXX XXXX that they had learned that this promotion only applied to flight purchases. I don't know where she found this text. Perhaps it was in the small print of the original brochure but it is nowhere online where Barclays was urging me to take advantage of my promotion before it ran out. I believe this is unfair and misleading. I followed the promotional instructions exactly as presented online. I made a purchase through JetBlue.com by navigating from JetBlue 's website to the travel service that JetBlue itself directs customers to use. Neither Barclays nor JetBlue disclosed that a consumer could initiate a purchase on JetBlue.com and still be denied the promotion because of backend merchant coding. Even now, Barclays ' online benefit tracker continues to describe the requirement as a " jetblue.com purchase '' rather than a flight purchase or airfare purchase. My requested resolution is straightforward : that Barclays honor the advertised promotion and provide the promised {$400.00} statement credit. I am attaching screenshots of the promotional language and supporting documentation.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation