JetBlue Auctions Off Flights on eBay
Sep 8th, 2008 | By Jared BlankJetBlue has taken a clever marketing approach during the slower fall travel season and is offering off some flights and packages on eBay (one example is here). One quick caveat: the bids you make do NOT include a number of additional taxes, fees and whatnot that are often built into the total price of the ticket. Make sure that if you bid, you understand what the final price will be when you add in all the additional stuff, or you may find that you overpaid by $50.
These auctions have gotten a surprising amount of media attention (like the AP story ran in my local newspaper, even though JetBlue doesn’t fly to my hometown). Perhaps because of this attention — and perhaps because there always seem to be people who overbid on popular ebay items — the auctions are pretty much worthless for anyone actually looking for “a deal” on air travel. Given the restrictions, and given the additional fees/taxes, you’re very unlikely to find anything worthwhile for sale.
My guess is that if JetBlue continues to command these prices for selling what is essentially excess inventory, they will continue to do it. Perhaps when the public gets bored by the practice (ebay has had problems lately because the novelty of bidding has worn off), there might be a deal.