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Northwest Airlines / eBay / Airlines / Vintage Travel / DTW / → All Tags

eBay Buyers are Going Crazy for Old Northwest Airlines Memorabilia

Remember Northwest Airlines? Of course you do, as they haven’t been gone too long. Although to some it must seem like they’ve been gone forever, as plenty of old Northwest Airlines stuff is starting to draw quite the crowd from airline collectors.

Delta's museum is looking for some donations of old airline memorabilia, and of course it would be great if you wanted to give away some stuff for free. However, if you’re hoping to raise some funds for your next trip on the new Northwest—we’re talking about Delta—then you might as well turn to eBay. There’s all kinds of junk up for sale on the auction website, and the red-and-gray NWA bits are starting to fetch a pretty penny.

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Travel Auctions / Air France / A380 / Airline News / Airlines / eBay / → All Tags

Time's Ticking To Bid On The Air France A380 Auction

Time to check the balance in your PayPal account, because there’s only a few days left until bidding ends for the inaugural flight of the A380 on Air France. Prices for the economy seats start at just $380—clever—every day and slowly begin to creep up. However, as of this morning, we were able to see a couple seats that were still $380-ish and several more between $400 and $500. Fares like that are decent deal for a transatlantic crossing on an old plane, but flying across the Atlantic on a jumbo-jumbo makes it almost a steal. Too bad the bids will likely keep on rolling on.

Bidders can choose between the Paris to New York launch on November 20 and the New York to Paris journey on November 21. All proceeds from the auctions will be donated to humanitarian organizations supported by the Air France Foundation. We’re not totally sure if that means you can use your trip as a tax deduction, but we’d definitely check with an authority a little more reliable than TurboTax.

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Bid Early Bid Often / EBay / John Mayer / Jennifer Aniston / Cruises / → All Tags

Cruising With John Mayer, Only On EBay

Allow us to present the sailing of the century: A four-day, three-night "experience" for four aboard the "Mayercraft Carrier 2" with serial celebrity bedder John Mayer departing San Pedro, California on March 27, 2009.

But while the MC2 is in reality simply the Carnival Splendor, you won't be able to book this epic journey--that also includes pre- and post-sail stays at the swanky Casa del Mar in Santa Monica and first-class air travel--on the cruise line's website. Instead, you'll have to bid for it on eBay.

The current asking price is $25,000, which is way cheaper than some inauguration rentals we've seen. Plus, you actually get to meet Mayer, take home an autographed guitar and maybe even figure out once and for all if he and Jennifer Aniston really are back together.

Related Stories:
· VIP Experience w/ John Mayer [eBay]
· Sneaking Around With The Ex Travel: Jen and John Discovered in Boston [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Faded Youth Blog]

JetBlue / Airfare Sales / Airfare Deals / eBay / → All Tags

JetBlue's EBay Auction Winners and Losers

JetBlue's marketing stunt-slash-fare sale wrapped this Sunday, and The Economist breaks down who got a deal and who got hosed. Short answer: JetBlue's the big winner!

Says the magazine:

By offering tickets (with fixed routes and dates) on eBay, JetBlue hoped to attract leisure travellers who had not considered going away this autumn, or did not know that JetBlue flew on certain routes. The company also auctioned package holidays with secret destinations, betting that the aura of mystery would bring in bids. (It did.)

While those package deals were ripoffs, they helped cover the losses incurred by selling certain flights below the going rate at jetblue.com. More importantly, though, the carrier got tons of attention and publicity--including a story in The Economist and this post.

Related Stories:
· Flights Under the Hammer [The Economist]
· JetBlue Showing Up Sarah Palin with New EBay Sale [Jaunted]

JetBlue / Airfare Sales / Airfare Deals / eBay / → All Tags

Spoiler Travel: Where Will JetBlue's Mystery Trips Take You?

Included in JetBlue's big eBay promo/fare sale/stunt thingy are four "Mystery" flight-and-hotel packages. Bidding on each has already topped four figures, even though some people may not know where they'll be headed. So, as a sort of Jaunted PSA, we put on our deerstalker and deduced where each package would take the winners:

Package 1: It's a domestic vacation, sure, but which of "JetBlue's fun leisure destinations" does it involve? Well, Flight 31 leaves JFK at 10:55 am, arriving in Orlando at 1:37 pm on September 18. The trip back syncs up too. You can buy a package with a similar hotel and flights for two on JetBlue.com for less than $750; we won't be bidding on this one!

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JetBlue / Airfare Sales / Airfare Deals / eBay / Twitter / → All Tags

JetBlue Showing Up Sarah Palin with New EBay Sale

So Sarah Palin tried to sell one single solitary private jet on eBay? Big deal: JetBlue is putting more than 300 flights and six vacation packages up for auction--and the airline announced the news on Twitter.

You can shop the carrier's eBay store by departure city, where flights from the NYC area to Florida are currently a great deal. Flights from Southern California to New York are also going for way less than what you'd pay by booking directly at JetBlue.com. Four of the six vacation packages are billed as "mystery" deals, but with a little sleuthing, you can figure out where you'll be spending your vacay, since JetBlue lists depature and arrival times for your flights.

Of course, there are some caveats: First, these prices are bound to go up, as some auctions don't end until September 14. You'll also have to factor in taxes and fees on top of your bid; to its credit, JetBlue is up front about that. Finally, these tickets aren't good any time you like: You're buying seats on specific flights, so if the dates don't work, why bother?

Related Stories:
· JetBlue's Official eBay Store [eBay]
· JetBlue coverage [Jaunted]

Toilets / Bathrooms / eBay / → All Tags

Better Hold It Travel: Seattle Unloads Public Toilets

As teenagers, we were threatened with the conversion of the house phone to a pay phone complete with booth if we spent one more danged minute catching up on the latest high school gossip. Now you can do the same to your toilets if you win one of five eBay auctions for public toilets as Seattle yanks its facilities.

In 2004, the city installed five Hering-Bau WCmatic machines, offering unisex johns for free to tourists and locals--and the homeless, prostitutes and vandals. The New York Times even got a source to admit to smoking crack inside one.

After pouring $5 million into the project over four years, City Hall is hoping to make back some of its money in the auctions, which end August 1. The eBay ads suggest that a pre-owned automatic toilet can save you a lot of money, since they normally retail for $500,000.

They'd make a great base for an urban prank--anyone spare us some change?

Related Stories:
· Seattle's Automated Toilets Go Way of the Box and Chain [NYT]
· Why Public Toilets Should Pay You [Slate]
· Toilets coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: fireeyedboy]

Travel Advertising / eBay / Virgin America / Flight Attendants / → All Tags

Impress Your Airline Geek Buddies with This Virgin America Poster

Virgin America has some mood-lit bus shelters around San Francisco to hype the airline's classy on-board lighting. But the sexy posters plastered inside are apparently too cool to just admire while waiting on the corner.

eBay user biggpudge23 managed to snag one of the 4' by 6' posters and has it up on the auction site. (It's one of the new ads featuring real-life flight attendants glamming it up in the cabin. See it here.) No one's bid on it yet, so the asking price of $10 still stands.

Is the fact that we think that's a great deal further proof that we're complete airline dorks? Yes. Yes it is.

Related Stories:
· VA Poster Auction [eBay]
· Flight Attendants coverage [Jaunted]
· Virgin America coverage [Jaunted]