A round-trip ticket to New York? I'll bid a hundred bucks.
JetBlue Airways Corp., the Forest Hills, N.Y.-based discount airline, took a new tack this week, offering more than 300 round-trip flights and six vacation packages on eBay, the online bidding site.
The three-, five- and seven-day auctions include one- and two-person round trips from Oakland, San Jose, Long Beach, Burbank, Boston, Chicago, New York, Orlando, Salt Lake City and Fort Lauderdale. The posted flights leave on Thursdays or Fridays and return on Sundays or Mondays at varying departure dates through October 6.
Opening bids on Monday started as low as 5 cents but quickly rose into the hundreds of dollars.
For example, a JetBlue round-trip ticket from Oakland to Washington, D.C., was posted at $202.50 this afternoon, and the high bid for two tickets from San Jose to New York was up to $310.
JetBlue's offer likely will have limited appeal for local travelers since Sacramento International Airport was not included in the EBay offers.
But people willing to drive to Oakland or San Jose -- the only Northern California airports included in the JetBlue/eBay package -- might be tempted.
The eBay flights up for bid also include a handful of "mystery" JetBlue vacation packages to undisclosed locations, two of them requiring passports. In addition, there are vacation packages with airfare and a four-night hotel stay for two in Las Vegas and Nassau in the Bahamas.
Bidding on one of the mystery packages for two was at $3,350, as of this afternoon.
JetBlue spokeswoman Alison Eshelman said it was too early to judge the promotion's success, but added: "It seems like our customers are enjoying the opportunity to bid on the trips."
Many airlines have struggled this summer with high fuel prices and decreased passenger travel and -- as the busy summer travel season winds down -- some are instituting service cutbacks. Eshelman said the eBay idea evolved from those economic realities.
"The September-October period is a time when tourism in general slows down," she said. "We were trying to think of some kind of promotion for our customers that would not break the bank, but in a fun way."
Will JetBlue auction off a second round of flights?
"We went into this as a limited-time promotion," Eshelman said. "Based on the evaluation and feedback we get, we'll consider if we do it again."
The online ticket auction can be accessed at www.jetblue.com/ebay.
Call The Bee's Mark Glover, (916) 321-1184.
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