JetBlue Using eBay in Attempt to Boost Sluggish Sales
Now is most definitely not a good time to run a US (or any) airline. People are traveling less, the economy is basically in the toilet and fuel is incredibly expensive which means that everything else is more expensive. On top of everything else we just entered a historically slow time of the year in terms of air travel as summer draws to a close and kids return to school. We’re not sure how far this tactic will go, but JetBlue is trying to ease the pain a bit by auctioning off a handful of flights on eBay. This doesn’t mark the first time an airline has turned to eBay but in the past, official eBay ticket auctions have been used to raise money for charity. JetBlue apparently isn’t quite concerned with humanitarianism at the moment as the airline has listed over 300 round-trip packages including single tickets, two-ticket packages and even a few mystery auctions that include hotel stays. All auctions were listed last night with varying durations and with opening prices of between 5¢ and 10¢. The auctions are expected to close between 85% and 90% of retail value, which means that travelers will indeed get a nice discount. To those interested, all flights depart on a Thursday or Friday and return on a Sunday or Monday. Travel resulting from the auctioned tickets must be completed by October 6th.
[Via ABC]
They have all been pulled.
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The problem with airlines is that they nickle and dime us they offer tickets across the country for $100 but charge $800 for a flight from Virginia to Philadelphia and a flight that uses the same $800 flight as a single leg and then continues elsewhere only costs $120.
Standardize pricing. If it costs the airline $100 to fly you from New York to Chicago, they should charge $125 and that’s it. That’s a nice 25% profit margin. Give first class a $100 premium over that and that’s a 125% profit margin.
That and stop overbooking. You have say 100 seats on the plane, sell 100 tickets. That way you don’t have to keep giving away upgrades and free flights.
Now I understand they have variances, if they can’t fill a plane. But if they gave us reasonable prices, they would fill the planes.
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I thought it would be fun to find out where the “mystery package” destinations were located. Not too difficult considering they give you the departure city and times! I only took time to check the highest bid package. Looks like a trip valued at around $2,500 from JFK to Aruba is currently bid at $3,350! An $850 or 34% premium.
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They are back now.
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