JetBlue is auctioning trip packages on eBay

NEW YORK (AP) — 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, Fort Lauderdale and Southern California.

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

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