Dollars vs. FF tickets
Jun. 11th, 2007 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katestineThis is me geeking aloud bc I *heart* pricing. You have been warned.
So you might've noticed that I fly JetBlue a lot. Earlier this year, I racked up two one-way frequent flier tickets AND got credits related to my bad travel karma. The trick is, I'm having a hard time deciding what the value of a ff tix is.
See, on most airlines, a ff roundtrip ticket in the US is worth about $250, based on the credit card schemes and the points required to accumulate them, so if the plane ticket costs substantially more than that, I start checking about using miles. By the same calculation, JetBlue roundtrip tix are worth about $200, presumably bc they have a more limited set of flights. So, if I'm looking at a $150 ticket (each way), I should use the ff ticket. Except that the ff ticket is usable by anyone I like whereas the credit is only usable by me, which is occasionally a useful distinction. I think that Gresham's Law suggests I use the credits, esp since it's nice to have the ff tix as a backstop if in my last minute planning, the price jumps.
I suppose someday I could start planning my trips more than a few weeks in advance. naw.
Also, I got to use the words "distinction" and "precision" today, which makes me very happy.
Edit: Strictly speaking, there's a further discount factor on JetBlue's tickets in that they expire in a year (instead of the more typical rolling 3-years of other airlines). However, I travel to their destinations sufficiently frequently that this shouldn't be a concern - I've penciled in two more trips, possibly 4, before the end of the year. Egads, just typing that makes me dread the packing/unpacking.
So you might've noticed that I fly JetBlue a lot. Earlier this year, I racked up two one-way frequent flier tickets AND got credits related to my bad travel karma. The trick is, I'm having a hard time deciding what the value of a ff tix is.
See, on most airlines, a ff roundtrip ticket in the US is worth about $250, based on the credit card schemes and the points required to accumulate them, so if the plane ticket costs substantially more than that, I start checking about using miles. By the same calculation, JetBlue roundtrip tix are worth about $200, presumably bc they have a more limited set of flights. So, if I'm looking at a $150 ticket (each way), I should use the ff ticket. Except that the ff ticket is usable by anyone I like whereas the credit is only usable by me, which is occasionally a useful distinction. I think that Gresham's Law suggests I use the credits, esp since it's nice to have the ff tix as a backstop if in my last minute planning, the price jumps.
I suppose someday I could start planning my trips more than a few weeks in advance. naw.
Also, I got to use the words "distinction" and "precision" today, which makes me very happy.
Edit: Strictly speaking, there's a further discount factor on JetBlue's tickets in that they expire in a year (instead of the more typical rolling 3-years of other airlines). However, I travel to their destinations sufficiently frequently that this shouldn't be a concern - I've penciled in two more trips, possibly 4, before the end of the year. Egads, just typing that makes me dread the packing/unpacking.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-12 03:06 am (UTC)With these last minute JetBlue tickets, interestingly, it costs about as much to go to Florida as to, say, Denver, which muddies the question for me.
And I once got a friend taking an airline pricing class as part of her masters at GW to send me the slides for the more important lessons of the semester. I double heart your pricing, yo!
That's so sweet. There was an IAP class on the topic that was just fantastic.