JetBlue’s Airline Ticket Auction – Success

September 19, 2008 | Posted in: Airfare News,Airline News

According to this week’s Economist, JetBlue’s recent eBay auction – the one I posted about the other day — was a success. “On average, buyers paid 40% less for tickets sold at auction than they would have done at jetblue.com.” – The Economist So JetBlue scores – after all, in this slow period, some of those tickets probably wouldn’t have sold at all. But wait – the Economist said, “on average” – which means that some people may have paid more or close to what the current prices are — however I am not sure how they got the actual price as it could change during the day in the “yield” model and with price changes throughout the day every day. It is amazing how the auction model brings out the best and worst in people. JetBlue, meanwhile, must be basking in all the publicity. Which I appear to have added on to with this thread and my weekly ABCNews.com column.

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3 Responses to “JetBlue’s Airline Ticket Auction – Success”

1. Derek says:

   September 19, 2008 at 2:05 pm

   OK Rick, I’m no math major, but I think you need to re-check your claim. Nobody needs to have paid more on eBay than jetblue.com for The Economist’s statement to be true. For example, half the people could be paying 20% less and the other half 60% less, and you would come up with an average of 40% less (I think, feel free to check my numbers).
2. sim says:

   September 19, 2008 at 2:11 pm

   which means that some people actually paid more than if they had bought the tickets on the airlines website

   No, it doesn’t. If people paid on average 40% less, it might be that half paid 60% less and half “only” 20% less.
3. Rick Seaney says:

   September 19, 2008 at 3:06 pm

   Agreed gentlemen, I was a bit hasty in the judgement and have changed the post. Was in a hurry to get started on our father/daughter camping trip tonight. Apologies from the travel geek with a degree in math.