As reported by Today in the Sky, Jetblue is having a promotion for travel from September 7th through November 15th. In honor of its new service to Houston, Jetblue is dropping one-way fares to the previous day’s price of a barrel of crude oil for the next week. Today’s fare is $73 for flights from Houston’s Hobby Airport to JFK and connecting to other airports on the Jetblue Network.
You have to appreciate Jetblue for its recent innovative marketing attempts. Last week, Jetblue announced a promotional partnership with Nickelodeon. In a press release, they announced a promotional involving the 10th Anniversary of Nick Jr’s “Blue’s Clues”. From late August through September, “Jet Back to School with Jetblue”, will allow people to go onto www.firstbook.com/blue and vote for the Jetblue city they’d like to receive the target 100,000 preschool books. Jetblue passengers will be able to make a monetary donation through a preflight email.
Jetblue made consistent profits for its first few years before posting its first losses. Now once again reporting a profit, and with a slew of new routes this season, Jetblue is showing its ability to adapt and be innovative.
In a final intriguing move, eyefortravel.com reports that Jetblue has signed five-year full content agreements with Sabre Travel Network and Galileo
International. Through these agreements, Jetblue will now display fares and inventory through these travel systems to travel agents and websites such as Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, etc.
Jetblue had initially listed in travel agency systems when founded in 2000, but left Worldspan in November 2001, Galileo in April of 2002, and Sabre in December of 2004. Global Distribution Systems(GDS) such as Sabre and Galileo account for a larger percentage of bookings than direct for many carriers. They have always been the preferred booking method for corporations and corporate travel.