Mexican airline AeroMexico and TheDailyAuction.com began testing a service this week that allows travelers in the United States to bid on tickets for AeroMexico flights to Cancun, Cozumel, Mexico City and Puerto Vallarta.
Auctions will be held daily through the end of the month. The Mexico City-based airline will determine whether the campaign will continue based on consumer response. The company would not specify what type of response is needed to continue.
AeroMexico will debuted banner ads this week on its Web site, www.aeromexico.com, to direct its consumers to www.TheDailyAuction.com for auction fares, which will have varying opening prices and bids accepted in increments of $20, $30 or $50.
“The [TheDailyAuction.com] service differs from competitors because [the site] alerts consumers to specific flight times upfront, instead of providing them with a flight time after they win the bid,” said Mayte Sera Weitzman, U.S. marketing manager at AeroMexico. She added that TheDailyAuction notifies consumers of their bid status within one hour.
The airline's campaign is targeting college students and young professionals interested in leisure travel.
“TheDailyAuction.com targets an older, wealthier business traveler,” Sera Weitzman said. “I believe that they are trying to diversify their demographic by partnering with us.”
For its part, TheDailyAuction is running banner ads on AeroMexico's partner sites, including www.americanexpress.com and www.chase.com, to draw potential travelers to the TheDailyAuction site. AeroMexico also plans to include information about the auction service in its November round of CD-ROM mailings, which are sent to several hundred select AeroMexico customers.
All tickets purchased via auction will be nonrefundable e-tickets. AeroMexico U.S. gateway cities included in these special auction fares are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Fort Worth, TX.
AeroMexico also plans to auction discounted golf packages, spa packages, scuba-diving and honeymoon packages in the next two months, depending on the success of the current campaign. Information regarding these campaigns will be posted on www.aeromexicotravel.com.
