Thursday, August 13, 2009

All you can fly for a month!

Summer is coming to an end. Most airlines are experiencing heavy declines in passenger numbers. Slashing prices is one way to attract bottoms into those seats, but competitors are doing the same. It's a downward spiral...except for the airline with the rock-bottom unit costs.

Time to try something innovative; something new; something that will get headlines and the Internet (like me) to write about it. Well, JetBlue has done just that. For $599 one can fly anywhere they want in the contiguous US for one month. Now that's a great deal...if you have the time. A real quick check shows that if I want to fly from Long Beach, CA to Boston, MA on a random day, one-way, in September I'd have to pay around $100-$250. If I'm going to do that trip a few times that month maybe it'd be a good deal to purchase the All You Can Jet deal.

I think a few people will buy this pass and not fly for the purchase amount. Today, many people have the money to travel, but not the time. However, a deal for $599 sounds great so people buy it, thinking they can save money, but then it turns out that they don't have the time. JetBlue can risk a backlash if there are simply no seats available for those who have purchased a pass. However, the whole point with this is get people on board and get them flying. July 2009 had a load factor of 86.1% which is nearly full. That usually indicates that off-peak flying has empty seats, but during peak times there are good loads (remember, this says nothing about ticket prices). So, this is a great way to garner attention about JetBlue, get people flying and talking about the product, and a great, fun, short-lived innovation in the industry. Of course, it may dilute yields some, but that's the trade off.

2 comments:

Smith said...

I think, you have a business & idea generater mind. yet you could have been done more.

Anonymous said...

Interesting story as for me. I'd like to read something more about this topic. Thanx for sharing that data.
Sexy Lady
UK escort