JetBlue has started selling some flights and vacation packages through eBay, allowing customers to set the price rather than using the normal booking channel. While this is theoretically good for the customer in that it lets people actually pay a fair price (or at least their desired price) for the trips, it seems that a sucker is born every minute. See even the “secret” destination flights include the departure times, so the destinations aren’t all that secret. And the packages that are available can be purchased for less money directly from the JetBlue website than they can on the auctions at this point, at least for the Aruba trips that is available. And we’re not talking about a couple dollars here. The price difference between the direct purchase and the eBay option is over $1000 right now.
There are some who will say that this is just the airline taking advantage of their customers, but I have to disagree. If someone goes in to buy something and can’t figure out that it is a really bad deal, or at least comparison price things out, they get what they deserve. P.T. Barnum was right and, while I feel a bit badly for the people buying these for not understanding what they are getting themselves into, I have no problems watching fools part with their money. I just wish I got more of it.
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