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Set your price on JetBlue flights

In print: Tuesday, September 9, 2008

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NEW YORK — JetBlue Airways Corp. is auctioning off more than 300 round-trip flights and six vacation packages this week on eBay, with opening bids set between 5 and 10 cents.

The flights are to more than 20 destinations, including four "mystery" JetBlue Getaways Vacation packages to undisclosed locations.

The three-, five- and seven-day auctions include one- and two-person round-trip, weekend flights in September from cities including Boston, Chicago, New York, Orlando, Salt Lake City and Fort Lauderdale. Trips out of Tampa International weren't included in the auction.

Early Monday evening, the highest bid for two round-trip tickets from Orlando to San Juan was $200, and $166 for one round trip from Fort Lauderdale to New York City. Both auctions are open though Sunday.

Harlan Platt, a finance professor at Northeastern University in Boston who follows the airline industry, thinks the auctions will provide some valuable word-of-mouth advertising.

"I think it's a great idea. In this day and age, people are inundated with ads as they are sitting on airplanes, or at airports," he said.

Platt said the auctions will likely produce final bids between 85 percent and 90 percent of the flight or package's total value.

Each auction will have a specific range of dates in which customers can travel. The dates, times and flight numbers will be posted when the customers bid.

The vacation packages include airfare and a four-night hotel stay for two at Marriott hotels in locations including Las Vegas and Nassau, Bahamas. The four mystery packages include two locations where passports are needed and two that don't require passports.

Taxes and fees are additional and will vary according to the route, but they will be disclosed in each listing, according to JetBlue spokeswoman Alison Eshelman. Bidders will need PayPal accounts.

Flights leave Thursdays or Fridays and return Sundays or Mondays. All travel must be completed by Oct. 6.

Customers can access the auctions through www.jetblue.com/ebay.

Times staff writer Steve Huettel contributed to this report.