yasir1212

JetBlue to auction flights on eBay

Discount airline will offer flights to more than 20 destinations with bids starting between five and ten cents.

September 7, 2008: 4:57 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- JetBlue Airways Corp. is auctioning off more than 300 roundtrip flights and six vacation packages this week on eBay, with opening bids set between 5 and 10 cents.

The flights are to more than 20 destinations, including four "mystery" JetBlue Getaways Vacation packages to undisclosed locations.

The three-, five- and seven-day auctions include one- and two-person roundtrip, weekend flights in September from cities including Boston, Chicago, New York, Orlando, Salt Lake City, Fort Lauderdale and Southern California.

Harlan Platt, a finance professor at Northeastern University who follows the airline industry, thinks the auctions will provide some valuable "word-of-mouth" advertising for the discount carrier.

"I think it's a great idea. In this day and age, people are inundated with ads as they are sitting on airplanes, or at airports," he said. "A subtle advertisement such as this could be very effective."

Platt said the auctions will likely produce final bids between 85 percent and 90 percent of the flight or package's total value.

"It's all about the cost of getting someone to notice you," he said. "And this (method) provides a lot of bang for the buck."

Each auction will have a specific range of dates in which customers can travel. The travel dates, times and flight numbers will be posted when the customers bid.

The vacation packages include airfare and a four-night hotel stay for two at Marriott hotels in locations including Las Vegas and Nassau, Bahamas. The four mystery packages include two locations where passports are needed and two that don't require passports.

Taxes and fees are additional and will vary according to the particular route, but they will be disclosed in each listing, according to JetBlue (JBLU) spokeswoman Alison Eshelman. Bidders will need to have a PayPal account.

Flights leave on Thursdays or Fridays and return on Sundays or Mondays. All travel must be completed by October 6.

Customers can access the auctions through JetBlue | JetBlue lands on eBay.

Source: JetBlue to auction flights on eBay - Sep. 7, 2008

assghanistan

i wonder how many people will neglect to see that they still owe up to $200 and some odd in taxes on top of their final bid...

goxc

Sounds like an interesting idea, very innovative.

Turtlesfly

well this is pure marketing research . . . they're trying to find out what the market will bear for various tickets no doubt.

Hansel Sanchez

I doubt they're doing any type of research, this is a PR maneuver. Kudos to them for thinking outside the box.

Think about the audience! How much traffic does ebay get a day?

__________________
*Disclosure: The above statement is my personal opinion, and does not represent the views of the Flight Ops Department, the Human Factors Department, or ExpressJet Airlines, Inc.

"And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you're older
And shorter of breath and one day closer to death"