5 Cent Flights: Jet Blue eBay Auction Redefines Cheap Airfare

Jet Blue Airways has announced that it will auction 300 round trip flights and 6 vacation getaway packages that include hotel and airfare on eBay for as low as 5 cents starting today. Bargain airfare hunters look to carriers like Jet Blue as a normal part of their travel planning. Low-cost airline Jet Blue, founded in 1999, by former Southwest Airlines executives, has been named the number one domestic airline 6 times by Conde Nast Traveler's readers. Jet Blue flies to 53 destinations in 6 countries.

The Jet Blue eBay auction sounds too good to be true. Airfare for as low as 5 cents? But it is for real. In the time it took me to research this article, all the flights disappeared from the screen. I wondered whether the auction was taken down since the auction periods were supposed to range from 3-7 days. One minute the screen showed dozens of Jet Blue auction flights on sale in the eBay store and the next minute- poof, "0 items found in [destination]" no matter what destination I clicked.

Suddenly, a new round of Jet Blue eBay auction cheap flights just appeared. 5 cent prices as advertised! Wow, this could be a great way to score a cheap flight to somewhere, I thought. Except when you click on them, it turns out they are not available. Bad move, Jet Blue. Adverstising flights that are no longer available will not build your customer base or add to your existing customer loyalty.

I called Jet Blue and spoke to a representative named Wendy who checked for me and reported back that the Jet Blue eBay auction is alive and well. All flights and packages are currently still on auction and Jet Blue did not have any information about the auction being inaccessible to would-be bidders. Jet Blue suggested that its eBay auction store site might be overloaded. She did confirm that there was no second round of flights offered, so that screen of 5 cent flights I saw after seeing the higher bids was some sort of glitch.

What did I see before the Jet Blue eBay auction flights disappeared from my computer screen?

The no reserve Jet Blue eBay auction would have been a fantastic bargain for anyone scrounging for a cheap flight if the general public would stop bidding up the prices. The added fees were relatively small- tax and a 9/11 fee of up to $5 per flight segment per person. There were flights for 2 still at prices well below market for Boston, Chicago and Southern California. But 5 and 10 cents? The way-too-early bidding by apparently inexperienced hunters for cheap airfare rendered that prospect impossible. The cheapest flight available was $15 but it was a rarity. Prices from $60 to $200 were more common.

Experienced auction followers know that early bidding raises the price of an item unnecessarily and hold off until close to the auction close time. In a popular auction open to the general public, early and frequent bidding has a tendency to eliminate the prospect of scoring unbelievable bargain whose possibility looms in a low, no-reserve offer.

Those looking for a cheap international vacation flight could buy a mystery package to an undisclosed Caribbean destination in the Jet Blue eBay auction. Those were selling in the $1,000 range when I checked in.

Jet Blue predicted that the flights it auctions on eBay will sell at prices ranging from 80 to 90 percent of normal airfare. Cheap airfare bargain hunters will want to follow this site closely but unless someone can convince the general public to sit back and wait a few days before doing further bidding, I predict that there won't be a bargain in sight by the time the Jet Blue eBay auctions close. These Jet Blue eBay auction flights may well sell above market price, if early bidding is any indication.

Sources: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hdSBacIFT-gnSv-yBJGv8mNJBjYgD932843O0; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JetBlue_Airways; http://stores.ebay.com/JetBlueAirways; http://investor.jetblue.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=131045&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=1194419&highlight=