Cathy Pacific Online Ticket Bidding
Ray Van Eng (05/08/96)
Cathay Pacific is using its web site (http://www.cathay-usa.com) to auction
off the entire 387 seats of a Boeing 747 jet flying between Hong Kong and
New York or Los Angeles. A minimum bid for a round trip fare for Economy
class starts at $300, for Business class ($600) and First Class for ($1200).
Bidding will be accepted from May 15 to July 31, 1996 through authorized CyberTravelers in increments of $100. A $1 per seat registration fee is required within 10 days of the bidding. Successful bidders will be notified in August and payment be made within that month.
Travel Weekly magazine is quoted as saying that this type of seat auctions could have tripled the U.S. airline earnings from $2.6 billion to $8.3 billion last year and citing the example that when Cathay Pacific auctioned off 50 slow-season Business Class roundtrip tickets, it brought in $75,000.
Some observers say that auctioning airline tickets on-line could become the wave of the future as airline companies struggle to cut cost in a very competitive business environment and Cathay Pacific is a leader in such business practices.
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