ON-LINE company QXL claims its auction of 10,000 British Midland seats over the Internet was cheaper and more efficient than selling the product via a newspaper readership offer.
QXL put 350 seats up for sale every day for 30 days on its Web site. A minimum or reserve price was set for each seat, then Internet users bid against each other to buy them. The auction closed at 2pm each day, after which successful bidders were notified.
Speaking at the Genesys/Abtech Century 21 conference, travel product director Marc Charron said: “Where an airline would traditionally go to a newspaper to promote discounted sales, British Midland came to us.”
He said the major advantage for the airline was that it did not have to deal with a flood of enquiries from potential customers, not all of whom could be converted into buyers.
Rather than using dozens of call-centre staff during the promotion, only two of the airline’s employees had been dedicated to it. They had telephoned successful bidders to get their details and sell add-ons such as car hire.