Word: fairair
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...FairAir, which deals only in airline tickets and does not aspire to be a full-service travel agency, makes its money with transaction fees. It charges $9.95 to buy or sell a ticket on its easy- to-use site, and changing the name on a ticket costs a minimum of $24.95. Vice president David Glickman says test marketing has shown two strong categories of buyers: individuals who are buying tickets as sort of insurance (knowing they will probably be able to sell them if need be) and group travel (since often it is not known until the last minute exactly...
...system does work might help chip away at those silly "security" questions the gate agents ask before you board (When's the last time a terrorist admitted to not packing his own bag?) This week Levy took a step closer to his dream. He is the co-founder of FairAir, a new service that provides the country's first fully- transferable airline ticket. That's right: you can now buy a ticket on FairAir.com on one of the four participating airlines (Northwest, America West, National and Midway) and you can do what you wish with...
...FairAir's tickets are aviation's equivalent of an opera ticket or a seat at an NFL game - you have the right to occupy that space on that flight. Or not. "We're recreating a secondary market for airline tickets. That market used to exist on bulletin boards and in newspapers," says Levy. Just think: you might be able to pick up a bargain when someone has to get rid of a ticket, or you could actually buy a seat on that sold-out flight (for the 'right' price...
...There are two clouds darkening FairAir's skies. One is their modest size: even with the nation's fourth largest airline in Northwest, the scope of the website is still very limited, and therefore, so is their potential secondary market. If you are in the prominent cities (for example, Minneapolis for Northwest or Phoenix with America West), FairAir might be great - if not, you might be out of luck...
...second item is the bigger obstacle. Levy says the strategic vision of the company is to eventually provide this technology to airlines and web-based travel agencies, which would allow them to create secondary markets on their own sites (FairAir would essentially be the backroom support service). That could mean just when the little guy gets used to controlling his own ticket (and his own destiny), back into the airlines' grasp he is pulled...
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